A good man is hard to find
The Use of Religion in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”
Flannery O 'Connor is a Christian writer, and her work shows Christian themes of good and evil, grace, and salvation. O’Connor has challenged the theme of religion into all of her works largely because of her Roman Catholic upbringing. O’Connor wrote in such a way that the characters and settings of her stories are unforgettable, revealing deep insights into the human existence. In O’Connor’s Introduction to a “Memoir of Mary Ann,” she claims that Christians live to prepare for their death. This statement is reflected in her other works, including her short story “A Good Man is Hard To Find.” After reading “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” many questions remain unanswered in my mind. Is the Grandmother an evil person? Do readers feel a sentimental attachment to the Misfit? Why did the Grandmother call the Misfit her child? And the list goes on. After multiple readings of “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” while it is not clearly stated in the story, God’s grace is the central theme in this short story.
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” begins with the Grandmother trying to convince her son Bailey that they should drive to Tennessee rather than Florida for vacation. She tries to convince him for her own selfish benefits by telling him "Now look here, Bailey…see here, read this…Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn 't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn 't answer to my conscience if I did." (O’Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” 137) Her son ignores her and the next morning they start their journey to Florida. The grandmother brings along her cat and hides him so her son, Bailey, doesn’t notice. In the car the grandmother talks almost the entire ride. She tells the children about a house with secret passages she
Flannery O 'Connor is a Christian writer, and her work shows Christian themes of good and evil, grace, and salvation. O’Connor has challenged the theme of religion into all of her works largely because of her Roman Catholic upbringing. O’Connor wrote in such a way that the characters and settings of her stories are unforgettable, revealing deep insights into the human existence. In O’Connor’s Introduction to a “Memoir of Mary Ann,” she claims that Christians live to prepare for their death. This statement is reflected in her other works, including her short story “A Good Man is Hard To Find.” After reading “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” many questions remain unanswered in my mind. Is the Grandmother an evil person? Do readers feel a sentimental attachment to the Misfit? Why did the Grandmother call the Misfit her child? And the list goes on. After multiple readings of “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” while it is not clearly stated in the story, God’s grace is the central theme in this short story.
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” begins with the Grandmother trying to convince her son Bailey that they should drive to Tennessee rather than Florida for vacation. She tries to convince him for her own selfish benefits by telling him "Now look here, Bailey…see here, read this…Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn 't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn 't answer to my conscience if I did." (O’Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” 137) Her son ignores her and the next morning they start their journey to Florida. The grandmother brings along her cat and hides him so her son, Bailey, doesn’t notice. In the car the grandmother talks almost the entire ride. She tells the children about a house with secret passages she
Cited: Stories and occasional prose; Letters. New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 1988. 137-153. Print. Connor, Flannery, and Sally Fitzgerald. The habit of being: letters of Flannery O 'Connor. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1979 Flannery O 'Connor, "On Her Own Work," in her Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose, edited by Sally Fitzgerald and Robert Fitzgerald, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1969, pp Weli, Simone. Gravity and Grace. London: Routledge & Kegan paul. 1963