A Comparison of Protagonists in Flannery O'Conner's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and "Greenleaf"
A comparison of protagonists in Flannery O'Conner's "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" and "Greenleaf"
In both his works of fiction, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Greenleaf”, Flannery O'Conner paints a rather grim picture. The protagonists in both the short stories share several common traits. In the story, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, the Grandmother, who remains unnamed throughout, is a vile woman, who is also selfish and a complete hypocrite. Yet, she continues to judge other people for what she perceives to be their shortcomings. She is a woman who has seen hardships, and just the fact that she got through them, makes her feel morally superior to others. She feels she is a 'lady' which makes her better than the rest. She lacks the will and the ability to introspect and spends her time passing judgement on others. Her hypocrisy is highlighted in the fact that she spends most of her time passing judgement on others even though she claims her conscious to be her guiding force. A glaring example of her selfishness is when she is afraid for her own life, but claims that her conscience would not allow her to take her family in the same direction as that taken by the criminal referred to as 'the Misfit'. She passes judgement on her daughter-in-law for not taking her children to a place that she personally thinks would be beneficial for them. To further add insult to injury, she compares her daughter-in-law's face to a cabbage. The Grandmother has an opinion on everything and feels that her way of doing things is the only way to do them. She chastises another character from the story, John Wesley, for what she thinks is inappropriate amount of respect for his home state. At any opportunity, she makes it her business to judge other people and remark at the lack of their goodness, without evidently having any of her own. She gives little attention to her own behavior, convinced that being a lady is the only virtue, and she, by dressing as one is the only lady and
In both his works of fiction, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Greenleaf”, Flannery O'Conner paints a rather grim picture. The protagonists in both the short stories share several common traits. In the story, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, the Grandmother, who remains unnamed throughout, is a vile woman, who is also selfish and a complete hypocrite. Yet, she continues to judge other people for what she perceives to be their shortcomings. She is a woman who has seen hardships, and just the fact that she got through them, makes her feel morally superior to others. She feels she is a 'lady' which makes her better than the rest. She lacks the will and the ability to introspect and spends her time passing judgement on others. Her hypocrisy is highlighted in the fact that she spends most of her time passing judgement on others even though she claims her conscious to be her guiding force. A glaring example of her selfishness is when she is afraid for her own life, but claims that her conscience would not allow her to take her family in the same direction as that taken by the criminal referred to as 'the Misfit'. She passes judgement on her daughter-in-law for not taking her children to a place that she personally thinks would be beneficial for them. To further add insult to injury, she compares her daughter-in-law's face to a cabbage. The Grandmother has an opinion on everything and feels that her way of doing things is the only way to do them. She chastises another character from the story, John Wesley, for what she thinks is inappropriate amount of respect for his home state. At any opportunity, she makes it her business to judge other people and remark at the lack of their goodness, without evidently having any of her own. She gives little attention to her own behavior, convinced that being a lady is the only virtue, and she, by dressing as one is the only lady and