A Literary Analysis For A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Research Analysis for "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

Flannery O 'Connor 's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is certainly a surprising work of literature. With this story having a not so happy ending, it goes against all of the conventional ideas on what a typical storybook ending should be. Another unusual thing about "A Good Man is Hard to Find is the use of the term "good." It is thrown around excessively through the entire tale by the grandmother and even the Misfit seems to use this word as well. The interesting concept through the characters using this word is that they seem to be misusing it in a sense. The Grandmother and The misfit seem to classify the word "good" with things that are actually bad. With the terms "good" and "evil"

An illustration of this occurs in the story when the grandmother refers to her generation as the generation in which everyone was always polite and essentially good. She explains in the car when she sees that June Star and John Wesley are being disrespectful to their native state. The grandmother does this to basically put herself on a pedestal to show that she is a respectable lady. Bailey 's mother, the grandmother also uses term 'good ' as a benefit to herself when the Misfit is getting ready to end her life. She uses this term to appeal to the Misfit 's emotions in order to live. The grandmother insincerely calls the misfit a good man because she simply would do anything to survive, even if that means lying. She does it because she doesn’t care about anyone but herself. She completely disregards her own son 's life in favor of her own. The Grandmother in "A good Man is Hard to Find seems to only care about herself. She constantly portrays herself as a saint and points out that nobody can measure to her standards. Then, when threatened she would stoop down to the level of calling her family 's murderer a good person in able to survive. This shows how shallow the grandmother 's character is Flannery O 'Connor 's work of

Another example of the grandmother only valuing materialistic objects is the attire she chose to wear on the road with Bailey 's family. After stating that Bailey was wearing a tacky vacation shirt, and his wife was wearing ordinary slacks, while the grandmother attire was quite different. O 'Connor went in close detail of the grandmother 's outfit for the car ride, she states, " the grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet." This seems like the grandmother is a bit overdressed for a grueling car trip when she is stuck between two children. The Grandmother dresses so formally because she wants paramedics and other individuals to know that she was a lady if they had a terrible car accident with her family. This is especially awful because she doesn’t even seem to worry about her own family in a car crash, just herself. Mitchell Owens, the author of "The Function of signature in 'A Good Man is Hard to Find ' ', explains "Evidence: "The terms of the grandmother 's value system are being rapidly undercut by a mercantile order in which blood is displaced by money." This means that the Grandmother values money over her own son and her grandchildren. The Grandmother values money to a tremendous value in this story. Her