A Good Man Is Hard To Find Theme

Freeman
Bailey Freeman
Hensley
English 11/ Fourth Period
05 March 2018
Part 14: Rough Draft #2 In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” she writes, “If you would pray,’ the old lady said, ‘Jesus would help you.’ This particular quote shows how Flannery O’Connor combined two themes into one concept, by taking the theme of God and Religion and Good vs. Evil and adding that into one character’s personality. O’Connor also shows, in this quote, the theme Good vs. Evil for how the grandmother attempted to convert the misfit to her religion instead of going through with his evil scheme. O’Connor’s writing style was very unique and one of a kind. She carefully drew out every character and theme to match perfection. Flannery O’Connor

The readers do not expect the ending to come. When reading “A Good Man is Hard to Find” for the first time, the previous quote does not exactly give the ending away. Once re-read, the reader could piece together the hints O’Connor hid in her writing. O’Connor added very clear hints in her story, implying the true ending of the story. In the previous quote, it gives a hint of the grandmother lying dead on the side of the highway. O’Connor also mentions in the story a passing of a graveyard, also hinting toward death. In Short Stories for Students, Kathleen Wilson states, “In the first paragraph of the story, O’Connor introduces the Misfit, the murderer who eventually kills the family. Similarly, as the family prepares to embark on their vacation, the Grandmother plans her outfit with an eye toward tragedy. Dressed in a polka-dot dress trimmed with organdy and decorated by a spray of violets, ‘anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once she was a lady’” (Wilson 103). In this quote, the reader could tell that O’Connor carefully planned the family's deaths. The events that happened in the story leading towards the ending, all hinted toward a tragedy to come. The foreshadowing in the story gave the ending away but she made it very hard to find. For example, O’Connor introduced the Misfit very early in the story making him

The setting In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” is in the south, near or around Florida. The Grandmother shows to be a religious woman who uses her religion as hope to get out of the situation she placed herself in. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor writes, “ ‘If you would pray,’ the old lady said, ‘Jesus will help you.’ ‘That’s right,’ The Misfit said ‘Well them, why don’t you pray?’ she asked trembling with delight suddenly. ‘I don’t want no hep,’ he said ‘I’m doing all right by myself’”(O’Connor 150). This quote is a perfect example of how The Grandmother believed in her God to save her from her situation. O’Connor’s catholic faith shows in quotes like the previous one. O’Connor puts her faith in words and writes stories about it. She interprets the idea as if the reader does not believe on a God. O’Connor also carefully draws out her characters. O’Connor made the Grandmother a women so that any reader felt lower than and feel below in authority. The grandmother is shown as a pushy woman with characteristics of selfishness. These characteristics show when she insisted on going to the old house. When she realized that Bailey was not too keen on the idea, she made up a story about treasure to get the kid’s to help beg their dad. In Short Stories for Students, Kathleen G. Ochshorn, she states, “O’Connor focuses her story on what is sinister in The Misfit and satirical in