ipl-logo

A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

1150 Words5 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Literary research paper for flannery o'connor

The Grandmother “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is a short story of Flannery O’Connor, and it is about a family which is going to Florida for a vacation, but instead ends up killed by prison runners whose names are the Misfit, Bobby Lee, and Hiram. The story mainly focused on the grandmother whose selfish behavior leads to a sudden tragic end for her family and herself at the end of the story. Even though Flannery O’Connor did not give the grandmother a name, she gave her a very interesting character, which has its own values. Throughout the story the grandmother is appears to value her status of a lady, her own desires and life, and religion. One of the values that is very important for the grandmother is being a lady. For the first …show more content…

Being ready before others in the morning of the trip, she is wearing “a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small dots in the print” (O’Connor 414). With her white “collars” and “cuffs”, the grandmother makes sure that if she is going to die, she will look like a “lady” (414). Another situation when the grandmother wants to be seen as a “lady” appears at the end of the story, when she is trying to convince the Misfit not to kill her by saying: “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?” (421). However, her status does not help her to save her life, and she ends like her son Bailey and his family, shot to death. It seems that being a lady for the grandmother mostly means the external appearance, which means that a lady should look nice and be treated with respect. In addition to that, having manners and respecting others is also the qualities of a

Show More
Related
1165 Words | 5 Pages

The grandmother is selfish throughout Flannery O’Connor’s short story and the author displays it many times during the story. Grandmother is an older lady who only cares about herself and her appearance. She insists that she always dressed her best in case a tragedy were to

Read More
688 Words | 3 Pages

In the story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor, there is no doubt the reader should consider the grandmother a villain. Throughout the story, it is easy to assume the grandmother would eventually lead the family to some sort of downfall. The grandmother has many traits that make her a villain, and through her judgemental nature, selfish acts, and inability to stop talking, she leads her family and herself to their death. Throughout the story it is obvious that the grandmother is very judgemental of people and seems to consider herself as better than everyone.

Read More
1371 Words | 6 Pages

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-

Read More
897 Words | 4 Pages

“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.

Read More
786 Words | 4 Pages

The Grandmother is a well-dressed and a proper southern lady. She is also the center of action in the short story, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find". The grandmother seems very suspicious at first, and thinks her son Bailey will be forever small and has to abide by her rules. In her eyes she is never been wrong but knows it all. When we become up-close and personal with the grandmother we see that she's this bad person, which she appears to be old-fashioned, manipulative, and self-serving as a whole.

Read More
915 Words | 4 Pages

The short story “A Good Man Is Hard To find” by Flannery O’Conner, was published in 1955. It was written in third person limited point of view. The story takes place in the 1940s after world two, family takes a road trip traveling to Florida, but their journey takes an unsuspecting turn. O’Conner uses foreshadowing, verbal and situational irony and symbolism that illustrates the theme of the effect of the selfishness of the grandmother upon the family. The first character introduced in the story is the protagonist, the unnamed grandmother.

Read More
1208 Words | 5 Pages

In the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the author, Flannery O'Connor, demonstrates how a family vacation can quickly face a violent end, caused by a criminal known as “The Misfit.” Looking at the short story through a feminist point of view, one can quickly gather that O’Connor uses the traditional gender roles right from the beginning of the story. As reading the title, it automatically suggests the men in this short story are untrustworthy, not prevalent, and dangerous. With that being said, the female characters in this story are viewed in the eyes of how a woman should act.

Read More
1321 Words | 6 Pages

One of O’Conner acclaimed work is “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” A family plans a vacation to Florida, but the Grandmother suggests to go to Tennessee, the place she grew up, instead because a serial killer, The Misfit, is in the loose headed to Florida. The family dismisses the Grandmother attempt and embark on a trip to Florida. The Grandmother, using her cunning ability, convinces the family to take a detour to visit an old house "with treasure". The family listens and heads toward the old house.

Read More
133 Words | 1 Pages

British culture spread all over the world due to their constant invasion. England has a gory and bloody history. Scotland has a compicated history. It used to be an indepedent state, now it 's part of Great Britain. Most of the monarchy is Europe have been abolished unlike England who has preserved their own royal family.

Read More
953 Words | 4 Pages

This portrays Aunt Clara having power over Lennie, as she makes him feel guilty and Lennie is able to differentiate between the right and wrong. Aunt Clara is a mother because she can be seen caring for Lennie and correcting his wrongdoings. This signifies Steinback showing that the primary role of respectable women was to be a mother otherwise they had no job. Society during this time did not expect more as

Read More
1559 Words | 7 Pages

In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, the author portrays the grandmother as self-centered, dishonest and prideful woman. The grandmother is an old, southern, Caucasian woman who describes herself as a good woman. Throughout the story, O’Connor shows how the grandmother’s pride, and selfishness leads her to unappreciated her family. She does not care about them, she only cares about herself and what will benefit her. The grandmother’s selfishness, judgmental actions, dishonesty put the family in danger.

Read More
1274 Words | 6 Pages

In the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the author, Flannery O 'Connor, demonstrates how a short story can contain many aspects of feminism without one even noticing. Looking at the short story through a feminist point of view, one can quickly gather that O’Connor uses the old school gender roles from the very beginning of the short story. As reading the title, it automatically suggests the male characters in this short story are untrustworthy, not prevalent, and dangerous. With that being said, the female characters in this story are viewed in the eyes of how a woman should act.

Read More
1016 Words | 5 Pages

Throughout the piece, the unnamed grandmother is shown to be an annoying and deceitful person. The Grandmother 's "selfish focus" has made the people around her miserable particularly her son (Brown 2). Bailey 's relationship with his mom is rocky but it is never shown just how long it had been deteriorating. In later paragraphs, the grandmother is revealed to be

Read More
1601 Words | 7 Pages

The balance of what is good and what is bad is a rather controversial topic in the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find". Most notably, the characteristics of both the Grandmother and the Misfit. The Misfit portrays an immoral personality and seems to be the evil in the story while the grandmother is the innocent lady seeking to be the good in this story. However, the religious virtues effect both personas and in itself draws the line around them mutually as sinners. Both characters have a particular relationship with Jesus, a physical crisis crossed with a spiritual crisis and different conceptions of reality; thus, revealing how the portrayal of these characters are not what may seem.

Read More
1743 Words | 7 Pages

The Role of Family in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, written by Flannery O’Connor is a short story that brings out mystery and cruelty. Manipulation plays a big role in this story by the grandmother. She tends to manipulate her family and tends to get her way by playing with them. Although the author wanted to give many perspectives of the grandmother, we as reader got our own views of her.

Read More

More about A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

Related Topics

Open Document