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Compare And Contrast A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

830 Words4 Pages

In order to decide which of these two characters are least sympathetic, the definition must be entirely understood. According to Dictonary.com, "characterized by, proceeding from, exhibiting, or feeling sympathy," moreover, sympathy is defined as, "harmony of or agreement in feeling, as between persons or on the part of one person with respect to another" (sympathetic). In the stories, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor and "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allen Poe; the least sympathetic character between The Misfit and Montresor is undoubtedly the Montresor. Both characters are incredibly cold and Poe and O'Connor included a lot of symbolism that develops the character. Moreover, both Poe and O'Connor use this symbolism …show more content…

So, when reading the story initially I was left with the impression that The Misfit was least sympathetic because he just killed an entire family forcing the grandmother to come to terms with their death before killing her off. As blunt and brutal as this situation is, it is also the most symbolic as the true villain of Poe's story is actually the grandmother. For instance, the grandmother constantly insists that The Misfit must be a good man, "I know you're a good man" (O' Connor 504) and "I just know you're a good man" (O'Connor 505). Moreover, instances of the grandmother claiming that if The Misfit pray, Jesus will guide him, while she herself never does it and simply goes on to say in a cursing manner, "Jesus, Jesus" (O'Connor 507) insinuating The Misfit needs the saving. O'Connor cleverly implies this as the grandmother being sympathizing with his past, all the while her tone is almost becoming forcing, as a means of psychological attack. The sudden realization for me was when I understood The Misfit for actually doing the family the favor of not becoming her, harsh, I understand, but by also sympathizing with them in the moment. For instance, when Bailey turns back and says something awful to his mother making her cry, The Misfit

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In short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor gives her views about what we generally use to identify a person as either being good or bad. In the story, O’Connor uses the grandmother’s view of what a good person is, providing a vague definition of what differentiates a good man or woman from the rest. She is suggesting in this case that the qualities of a good man or a good woman include being respectful, polite and truthful, which are qualities identifiable with the Christian way of life that much of O’Connor’s works allude to (Ochshorn, 1990; Kirszner and Mandell, 2012). Although Red Sammy fakes being friendly, the grandmother still describes him as being a good man. Red Sammy has faked this friendliness and had created nostalgia to help his business (Curley, 2013).

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