A Good Man Is Hard To Find Religion

Since the origins of society religion has had a major impact on people. Religion impacts daily life; it has shaped the way people live through morals. Many believe religion always is a positive influence however; religion is not always the way one may imagine. In some cases religion can be perverse and have a negative effect. Historical events have proven this statement accurate; religion can be interpreted in different ways and is capable of grotesque actions. Flannery O’Connor uses perverse religion to prove that even with religion present it can have a perverse effect on people. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is about a Misfit killer that escaped from jail. As the story progresses, the family that the story focuses on

The story focuses on a family that is going on a vacation to Florida. The family, accompanied by the Grandmother and her cat, are planning on driving to Florida when they hear about someone who broke out of jail. Bailey, one of the family members and father of the family, says, “The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida” (53). This statement is a use of foreshadowing for events that will follow; the family will encounter the killer when traveling to Florida (“Flannery O’Connor and the Symbol”). The beginning of the short story seems to have religion playing a positive role in the family. The Grandmother in the car wears white cotton gloves with white collars and cuffs. White is a common symbol used in literature, it is used to describe many things usually in a positive way. Some common meanings of the color white include: an association with light, goodness, innocence, and purity, it is considered the color of perfection. White also means safety, purity, and cleanliness. White meaning safety is ironic after the events unfold in the story. Angels, one of the holiest symbols are usually imagined wearing white clothes (“The Meaning of Colors”). The Grandmother not a religious person and the color

The Bible salesman proceeds to remove the prosthetic leg; Hulga’s response at first is that she does not want her leg removed because she feels insecure without her leg. Eventually the salesman convinces her that he loves her and would never judge her, this allows the Bible salesman to gain her trust and remove her leg even against her wishes. This is the first sign of the perversity within the Bible salesman. The Bible salesman removes the most important thing to Hulga (“Good Country People” Unmasked: Hulga’s Journey to Salvation). The Bible salesman then goes into his bag where he carries his Bibles, O’Connor describes it having “a pocket flask of whiskey, a pack of cards, and a small blue box with printing on it… It was not an ordinary deck but one with an obscene picture on the back of each card” (17). When the Bible salesman goes into his bag, it is revealed that there are pornographic cards as well as liquor in it. These are two things that are not believed to be the work of the devil (“Good Country People” Unmasked: Hulga’s Journey to Salvation). This is the next perverse thing that the man that sells Bibles is now not righteous at all. When Hulga tries to get her leg back after being furious at the man he, “jumped up so quickly that she barely saw him sweep the cards and the blue box back into the Bible and throw the Bible into the valise. She saw him grab the leg and then she