Compare And Contrast A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Good Country People

When an author starts writing their characters, they often take pieces of themselves or pieces of their perception of others and bundle them into their character. Flannery O’ Connor is a good example of this. Each one of her characters have many similarities and differences between each other and the themes in her stories are fascinating. There are three characters in particular to look into: Tom T. Shiftlet, in “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”, the Grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, and Joy/Hulga in “Good Country People”. Each character takes a deep look into subjects such as hypocrisy in life, the idea of running towards or away from salvation, and how disabilities play a role in a person’s life. Flannery O’ Connor expresses

She dressed nicely so that if she and her family were to be in a car wreck, people would recognize her dead body as a good, moral woman. Her pride brings much room for ignorance in her heart. Since she wants others to believe, as well as herself, that she is a good moral woman,, she refuses to believe she had committed any sort of wrongdoing. Ironically, her pride in herself proves the opposite of what she desires (A Good Man 138). Hulga, a girl with a wooden leg, in the short story “Good Country People” also puts herself on a high podium that is above everyone else, but in a different way. Instead of having pride in her good works and her moral excellence, she puts her pride in her intellect. Hulga went to school and was very interested in studies of philosophy and deep thinking (Good Country People p4). She looks at people, such as her mother, Mrs Hopewell, and Mrs. Freeman as uneducated people who talk about nothing important (Good Country People p.2-3). She actually changed her legal name just to spite her mother, who originally named her Joy. She also continues to refuse belief in any sort of religious entity, claiming that it is all a blindfold. “The girl looked at him almost tenderly. “You poor baby,” she murmured. “It’s just as well you don’t understand,” and she pulled him by the neck, face-down, against her. “We are all damned,” she said, “but some of us have

Almost as if the characters are opposite sides to the same coin. In the short story “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” Tom T. Shiftlet starts his journey where he realizes his faults and still tries to be a good man. Throughout the story he struggles with two desires, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the