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A Place I Ve Never Been Analysis

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In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and David Leavitt’s “A Place I’ve Never Been,” the reader is able to see a glimpse into the lives of two different women who are unable to let go of the past. These two women, Grandmother and Celia, are trapped in a state of imagination where they cannot move on in their life. Through the tones of Grandmother from “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and Celia from “A Place I’ve Never Been,” their hasty comments, and the imagery used in their imaginations, is is clear to the reader both Grandmother and Celia are unable to leave the past where it belongs—the past. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” Grandmother’s tone is seen as stern, repetitive, and old-fashioned when she is talking to her family and The Misfit. This is done through comments such as, “In my time, children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else (O’Connor pg. 712).” Not only is this statement one of the many times Grandmother refers to “her time,” but it also shows the stern, hasty tone she uses to speak to her grandchildren. Before The Misfit shot Grandmother, she persisted, “I know you wouldn 't shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people! Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady (O’Connor pg. 720)”. When glancing back before this …show more content…

Grandmother suffers from moving on from the past to modern day society, while Celia suffers from the inability to move on from a toxic childhood friendship. While Grandmother does not realize she is in this situation, Celia has come to this realization. However, she does not know how to fix it. Throughout both of these stories, the reader is able to recognize particular tones, hasty comments, and thoughts from both characters to conclude each character struggles to leave the past where it belongs—the

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“No ma’am, but I can sew on the buttons in the evenings after supper, I won’t mind the extra time, please let me―(Bristow 3).” Celia is like this because of her religious beliefs for example in the bible it says “And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these (Mark 12:31 NIV). Love your neighbors as you love yourself, Celia is doing that, this is why her religious beliefs are really showing throughout the story. Towards the middle of the book she is still acting and proving her religious beliefs.

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She talks about all the things she wishes she could tell her grandmother. “One often ignores one's feelings

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The speaker’s grandmother is originally presented in a way that causes the ending to be a surprise, saying, “Her apron flapping in a breeze, her hair mussed, and said, ‘Let me help you’” (21-22). The imagery of the apron blowing in the wind characterizes her as calm, and when she offers to help her grandson, she seems to be caring and helpful. Once she punches the speaker, this description of her changes entirely from one of serenity and care to a sarcastic description with much more meaning than before. The fact that the grandmother handles her grandson’s behavior in this witty, decisive way raises the possibility that this behavior is very common and she has grown accustomed to handling it in a way that she deems to be effective; however, it is clearly an ineffective method, evidenced by the continued behavior that causes her to punish the speaker in this manner in the first place.

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Tears began to seep sideways out of her eyes and run along the dirty creases in her face.” (O’Connor, 12) The old woman is so upset because even though she desperately wanted a son-in-law, she will miss her daughter. Even though the author has never come

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It is apparent that the grandmother practices older traditions when compared to the other members of her family,

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688 Words | 3 Pages

When the family is on the trip, they pass a little black boy with no pants on, and the grandmother says, "little niggers in the country don't have things like we do" (398). This is just one instance where the grandmother shows how judgemental she is. She did not know anything about the boy or his family, but continued to talk bad about people who live in the country. After the wreck and being discovered by the Misfit, the grandmother knows she is in trouble and begins telling the Misfit

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As a matter of fact most frequently critics have looked at how prejudicial her mother’s philosophies have been for our character, and attributed to Editha Mowbray the “fallness” of her daughter. In her essay “The return of the prodigal daughter” Joanne Tong contemplates how “Mrs. Mowbray pays too little rather than too much attention to her daughter” (2004: 475) the outcome of which is a misunderstanding of her position in society with regards to the strict laws of etiquette and feminine ideology in eighteenth century England. Cecily E. Hill also blames Editha for Adeline and Glenmurray’s extramarital affair and their inevitable moral condemnation, and instead of accusing the lovers she sees Editha as the soul villain of the novel. Contrary to the typical concept of a mother who provides a safe education to Adeline, she experiments with dubious theories that ultimately foreground her daughter’s tragic

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This story is about a grandmother who does all the wrong things and ends up getting herself and her family killed. In A Good Man is Hard to Find, we go through this adventure with a family that never truly makes their destination. The lies begin to build and the loose term of a good man gets thrown around one too many times. Does dressing like a lady and acting proper like a lady truly save your life? The grandmother’s moral code and values are skewed and largely self-concerning.

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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.

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In her short story "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?", Joyce Carol Oates utilizes a variety of literary devices to strengthen the story in its entirety. This short story is essentially about a 16-year-old girl named Connie and the conflict between her desire to be mature and her desire to remain an adolescent. Throughout the story, the audience sees this conflict through her words in addition to through her behavior. The audience is also introduced to Arnold Friend, a rather peculiar man, who essentially kidnaps her. This short story by Joyce Carol Oates functions and is additionally meaningful because of her usage of literary devices.

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Because the Grandmother's intentions still remain unclear of what she really wanted and meant. As well of her point of views of her religion and approach towards it. (The Moment of Grace).The religion of the grandmother is not very clear. She tends to be unpredictable, she doesn’t explains what she reallys means by certain things she says or the way she expresses herself. The grandmother is the center of the family, for she is the grace.

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In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” she uses writing skills such as symbolism and imagery to get across her different themes to the reader’s with plenty of room for self-interpretation. Though O’Connor’s work could be defined as cynical, she does an excellent job of writing in the third person with her uncomplicated structure of sentences leaving plenty of room for her character 's thoughts, feelings, and actions to get across the realism of our world. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a battle between a grandmother with a rather artificial sense of goodness, and a criminal who symbolizes evil. The grandmother treats goodness as having good manners, and coming from a family of higher class, but at the end of the story comes to

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