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A Good Man Is Hard To Find Identity Essay

1180 Words5 Pages

In today’s world the struggle to find your true identity can be a challenging task. With a world that’s more connected than ever many struggle to be their true self, rather than a lousy image of someone they wish to be. After reading the story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor the truth to this identity crisis could not be seen more clearly. O’Connor intended the audience of the story to be those who struggle to find their identity, forcing the reader to rethink whether they themselves struggle with their identity. By looking at the the way I interpret the story, the way the author’s intended audience is to interpret the story, and how I differ from that intended audience, the reasoning to why some struggle with finding their …show more content…

I am not saying I am perfect in any way, shape, or form. In fact, I am far from it. All I am saying is I do not struggle in the areas of personal identity or religious identity. I interpret the most common reasons to struggle in these areas are not surrounding oneself with the right people and blaming the world for your problems. Both of which are depicted in the story. Surrounding oneself with the right people is portrayed in the story quite blatantly when looking at Grandmother and her family. Not one family member can be considered as a genuine person. Throughout the story the family is always arguing, children are yelling, and everyone is negatively criticizing each other. It’s going to be quite hard to be yourself with such constant negativity. Blaming others is also prevalent when Red Sammy and Grandmother are claiming the world and everyone in it is not “nice” even though they themselves were not “nice”, at least in Grandmother’s case. I do not struggle with these two objectives simply because I choose to focus on myself and ignore criticism that is not

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Characters serve as the metaphorical foundation upon which a story is written. In fact, the personalities of characters often reveal the outcome of a story’s plot before the author explicitly states it. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the self-indulgent grandmother portrays the outcome of her attempted evangelism through her sanctimonious nature. Through her illegitimate Christian appearance based on deceit and self-elevation, her failed attempt to persuade the Misfit can be attributed to her hypocritical personality.

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Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” was published in 1955. O’Connor was also known for her novel The Violent Bear it Away (published in 1960) and her collection of short stories Everything That Rises Must Converge (published in 1964). The author often used violence and greed to show how she saw humanity that was without God. She liked to write about pettiness and vanity in the rural south, both of which play large parts in “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” This particular piece of work is about a family who goes on a road trip that takes an unexpected turn when they cross paths with a murderer and his henchmen.

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When comparing and contrasting the two short stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Revelation” written by Flannery O’Connor, many similarities are noticed between the main characters as well as many differences. The author of the short stories based them on rejection and redemption in the modern world and it is shown in both stories. The Grandmother and Mrs. Turpin are similar and opposite when comparing being selfish and hypocritical, as well the amount of grace in each character’s life’s. Both the grandmother from “A Good Man is Had to Find” and Mrs. Turpin from “Revelation” are selfish characters but show their selfishness in different ways.

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Throughout literature the constant theme of identity has been explored, with Northrop Frye even suggesting “the story of the loss and regaining of identity is, I think, the framework for all literature.” For characters, true identity isn’t always apparent, it needs to be searched for. Sometimes the inner struggle for identity stems from ones need for belonging. Whether one finds their sense of identity within friends, family, or in a physical “home”. It’s not always a place that defines identity.

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“A Good Man is Hard to find”, was one of Ms. Flannery O’Connor’s well known story that shows what she is known for in her writing : violence, well thought characters with humor, and shows her Roman Catholic faith. Throughout the story, there are certain details that make the story what it seems to be than what Ms. O’Connor had to portray. Although it would be seen as a shocking violent murder plot all in one, there can be another side to the story as well. In the story of A Good Man is Hard to Find shows that people would think O’Connor was mocking religion, in actuality she was not. The characters in the story are used to expose the idea between good and evil and hypocrisy.

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(3: 339) Flannery O’Connor also mocked stereotypes of religion in most of her writing and once said that she comes up with her characters by separating and exaggerating parts of herself(3:48-49; 59) . “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is a Southern Gothic short story written by Flannery O’Connor that starts off as a satire of a typical family vacation and becomes a twisted tale of cold-blooded murder. The setting to this short story takes place in a southern area and the story

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In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, a family takes a road trip down to Florida that ends in the characters inevitable demise. A question that seems to constantly arise in the story is what the definition of good is. The Grandma’s superficial and shallow meaning for good results in the family’s misfortune. In this story, Flannery O’Connor uses the third person point of view to tell the family’s journey from beginning to end.

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Flannery O’Connor was an author from Savannah, Georgia who was best known for her short stories. Her works were heavily influenced by her Catholic upbringing in the south, and often featured religion as a recurring theme. Because both literary works and religion are open to interpretation, O’Connor’s works have been analyzed differently by her readers. These analyses most commonly focus on the struggle of good and evil, especially in terms of God and Satan. A Good Man Is Hard to Find is no exception to this, although opinions differ on the religious themes O’Connor was trying to express.

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In the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor’s goal is to teach her readers an important lesson. By presenting an exaggerated and flawed character, and through a peek into her life, she displays the consequences of many faults, but most importantly, the danger of a lack of self-awareness. By the end of the story, the main character, Grandmother, has had an epiphany, brought on by a traumatizing event. By giving them an outside view of the folly of her character, Flannery O’Connor hopes to warn her readers of following the same path that will inevitably lead to destruction in some way or another.

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As you can see her stories are surrounded by her belief. In today’s world societal morals and values have drastically crumbled making the world an unacceptable place. Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” moves from a family comedy into a brutal revelation while on a family vacation. While on the way to find the homestead where grandmother grew up, she puts them down the wrong path right into a murderer’s escape route.

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Redemption is the act of being saved from acts of evil and sin. The debate of whether human nature is redeemable or not has been one to plaque religious scholars. In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, this question continues in the interactions between the characters; the most notable being the Grandmother of a rather horrible family and the Misfit, a murderer. While on a road trip, these two characters’ paths collide and lead to a rather unfortunate end where the Grandmother and her family are killed. While many readers believe the ending creates and overall negative tone of the story, some believe that there is a hope for redemption; the story’s author O’Connor who is a devoted Catholic included.

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“A Good Man is Hard to Find” a short story written by Flannery O’Connor, a contradiction within itself. By reviewing this short story, we can learn about justice, religion and what it means to be a good man. If we look at how O’Connor represents the conflict of interest in the characters, we will see that this short story warps the idea of humanity, which is important because internally every person has a darker side. These characters just so happen to be wearing that darker side on their sleeves as they go about their daily life.

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He is trying to teach the reader to be confident with who they already are. If they lie and trick people into thinking they are something else, they will end up causing more problems than intended. The moral of the story is to be thankful with what you already have. If the couple understood each other's emotions, they would be able to get themselves out of trouble. Since the husband and wife had such different personalities, it was hard to come to an agreement on what was truly important in

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Quashallia Potter English 1101 May 31, 2015 A Good Man Is Hard To Find In the story, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Flannery O ' Conner introduces many characters that have many different personalities. The one character that really caught my attention was the unnamed grandmother. She was one of the key individuals that manipulated, lied, and deceived many people.

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Society 's expectations have blinded people into believing that skin deep characteristics are all it take to be a good man In the year of 1953 Flannery O’Connor wrote the short story A Good Man is Hard to Find , which is about a family of 6 including the grandma who are going on a trip to Florida where a criminal was the loose and the grandma tries to warn the family and yet she leads them to their death. Through the hypocritical grandma , Flannery O’Connor argues a good man is hard to find by portraying how society identifies a good man by there appearance and reputation rather than identifying a good man as someone who is internally good.

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