I will be doing an analysis of the story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner. In this analysis I will be discussing the author’s use of foreshadowing, symbolism both religiously and through the use of other means, and also analyzing the characters of the misfit and the grandmother. Flannery O’Conner uses the use of foreshadowing in her story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” throughout the story. Even in the very first paragraph we can see the foreshadowing of the introduction of the Misfit character as soon as the grandmother uses his presence to try to convince Bailey to not go to Florida. Not only is it in the beginning of the story that foreshadows the Misfits upcoming but also other sections for example when the family is eating …show more content…
So we can assume that there will be some religious symbolism and influence in many of her stories. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” O’Conner uses religious symbolism through the use of the grandmother. When she is staring death in the face she tries to try to live by constantly telling the Misfit that Jesus can save him and to pray. We never really had this introduction of faith in the story but it’s towards the end and when the grandmother is in danger she is telling the Misfit that Jesus can save him and the Misfit responds with agreement but he doesn’t want to be saved. The Misfit also says that when Jesus Christ raised the dead, according to Christian theology, he threw everything off balance and disrupted the world. But when the grandmother questions his claim he admits he does not know if Jesus really did anything of the sort and even gets frustrated with not knowing. Also towards the end of the story the grandmother seems before to be a good believer in God but then she begins losing her faith and says “Maybe he didn’t raise the dead”. Which made me think that maybe the whole time she is telling the Misfit to pray and that Jesus will save him maybe shes not speaking to the Misfit but is actually trying to pray herself but for some reason can’t, even to where all she can spill out of her mouth is the words Jesus over and