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A Good Man Is Hard To Find Analysis

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In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, a family trip has been arranged to travel to Florida, however the real experience is found in the lives of the family. The story’s title brings about the idea that finding a good man in today’s society may be quite difficult. Most of our characters in this story believe that they are good people based on their own personal beliefs. However these beliefs aren’t exactly facts, therefore, leaving the characters lost in their own self-righteousness. The story begins with the grandmother attempting to change her son’s mind about the destination of their vacation. The tentative plan is to head to Florida, however, the grandmother would like to go to Tennessee to visit family members. This is the …show more content…

Her son, Bailey, does not want her to bring along her cat, Pitty Sing, so instead of turning into a big ruckus, she chooses to hide the cat in a basket and secretly bring it along. The grandmother also wants to visit the old plantation where there is some hidden treasure but knows that Bailey will not agree with a trip detour. So she decides to use the kids to get her way. “There was a secret panel in this house,” she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that she were, “and the story went that all the family silver was hidden in it when Sherman came through but it was never found ...” (O’Connor, pg. 117) The children become excited and begin to beg to see the house with the secret panel. From this view the grandmother seems a bit selfish and will do whatever she can to get her way even if it means pleasing herself by undermining those she loves. Bailey, the only son of the grandmother, is also the father to June Star and John Wesley. He is also the person doing all the driving for the family trip. So in his head he is the one in charge and he does not allow anyone to forget that. But, we later learn that he is extremely high-strung and does not have much control of himself, much less his family. Even though it was his idea to make this trip to Florida, he is not sure why he even wants to take a vacation. After all, he was not a fan of taking trips because they made him

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In the 1953 short story titled “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, readers are given a glimpse of what the end of the story may look like through use of foreshadowing, symbolism, and other literary techniques. Although the story looks to be an innocent story of a family who travels to Florida for vacation at the start of it, readers soon find out that the story has a darker twist to it. This family trip turns violent and this gruesome ending can easily represent the violence taking place in America during the time this story was written by O’Connor and even today. The short story starts off with a family of six- parents, a grandmother, and three children-

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She says that the house has a secret panel. While the children beg, Bailey finally says yes. The grandmother tells him where to go and then suddenly remembers that the house was in Tennessee, not in Georgia. The cat escapes from the basket and startles Bailey, who wrecks the car. The grandmother decides not to tell Bailey about her mistake.

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