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A good man is hard to find thesis essay
What are some characteristics of the misfit in a good man is hard to find
A good man is hard to find thesis essay
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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.
Unfortunately, since Misfit didn’t have any proof he therefore lives his life by his own moral code. This contradicts the grandmother because the grandmother claimed to be very religious and tried to show that to Misfit. On page 230, line 110, of LIT by Kirszner & Mandell, the grandmother says, “Pray, pray, pray, pray…” She wanted Misfit to pray with her but he doesn’t end up doing that since he isn’t religious. In the end, the grandmother’s faith had faltered right before she was about to be murdered.
Moments before The Misfit murders her, she screams out “‘You’re one of my own children!’” (O’Connor 627). This signifies that the grandmother has finally realized that she is flawed just as The Misfit is. After The Misfit shoots and kills the grandmother, he articulates that the grandmother would have been a better person only if there was “somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (O’Connor 627). This speaks to the fact of how difficult it is to change somebody’s way of thinking.
The grandmother is trying to save herself by constantly talking and trying to convince the Misfit not to shoot her, saying, "You've got good blood! I Know you wouldn't shoot a lady! Pray!" (408). Her constant rambling and attempt to make the Misfit feel guilty eventually leads to the death of her family and herself.
The Bible says “Surely the LORD God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secrets unto his servants the prophets” (Amos 3:7). Even though the grandmother was not a prophet, God still used her as a means of revealing his intentions for the Misfit. God wanted the Misfit to be his prophet, but the Misfit decided it would be better to commit sins instead (O’Connor 296). The Misfit intentionally committed the sins because he figured God would not want him to be his prophet if he was not perfect. Even though the story does not go into detail about prophecy, the Misfit was supposed to be a prophet.
The short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is revolved around many distortions that the author O’Connor creates to build meaning within the story. The novel presents characters that are characterized through many different symbols that result in an uncanny feeling for the reader. O’Connor’s “place” is the distortion in the story that causes conflict, creating the uncanny feeling in the story. O’Connor’s “place” also represents a different variety of symbols, creating the necessary meaning of the psychological realism. O’Connor utilizes distortion to create meaning in the story within her characters who represent the conflicts within the Catholic Church and dramatizes it with a complicated sense of humor.
In the further conversation, Jesus challenges the woman in many ways by accepting her as daughter of God, at the same time challenging her own life
He cries due to this guilt when he goes home; However, his aunt thinks that he is crying due to seeing Jesus. At this point, Hughes is unsure of whether Jesus exists or not. Westley's lie and confidence causes Hughes to question the christian beliefs. Hughes was never taught how to form a mental and spiritual connection with God. His aunt expects him to know this and embrace it.
Notwithstanding her precise outside appearance, the grandma had some essential inner indiscretions with her character. Because of her references to the Bible, Jesus, God, she evidently sees herself as a Christian woman, however, she showed some very un-Christian behavior while riding in the family's car (Link, 127). She told the kids, " Oh look at the cute little pickaninny"! " Wouldn't that make a good photo, now?" (Bandy, 108).
The Radicalized Mind Joesph Strorm is a loyal brute, an extremist. He is an unwavering leader to Waknuk and the Repentances. He would sacrifice anything for his religion. Joseph is the kind of character that will do what he believes in with asking anyone one else. He is very cantankerous and hard to deal with and is a huge threat to David.
I really liked the story because is a consciousness description of Granny Weatherall's thoughts on her deathbed, focusing particularly on her being jilted at the altar when she was a young woman. It seems clear that Granny has never really gotten over the incident even though she tells herself otherwise. She has kept it hidden from her children, and the shame and sorrow of the incident loom large in her final thoughts. Granny is so focused on her abandonment that she lets it overshadow the enormous self-reliance she has developed in her life. In the end, she feels abandoned by God in death just as she felt abandoned by her fiancé in life, but the evidence in the story suggests she is not alone at all.
'She left here that day, left this room, and did not go back to her dwelling. I was notified by the Speaker that she had gone directly to the Chief Elder and asked to be released" (Pg. 143). No matter how hard anyone tries the perfect society is not reachable. There will always be cons to success; in The Giver, these downfalls result in the suicide of the young and searching of discharge by the rest. We, as humans, will always seek the correct way and order for things to be; but the truth is, there is no right way to do things because everyone has their own
Redemption is the act of being saved from acts of evil and sin. The debate of whether human nature is redeemable or not has been one to plaque religious scholars. In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, this question continues in the interactions between the characters; the most notable being the Grandmother of a rather horrible family and the Misfit, a murderer. While on a road trip, these two characters’ paths collide and lead to a rather unfortunate end where the Grandmother and her family are killed. While many readers believe the ending creates and overall negative tone of the story, some believe that there is a hope for redemption; the story’s author O’Connor who is a devoted Catholic included.
The grandmother uses Jesus as a scapegoat to show how she is a child of God while the Misfit tells of how he really perceives Jesus and that there is no justification of his actions. In the event of the car accident, the Grandmother was left with a physical crisis that quickly showed as her family was sent off into the woods to be killed one by one. This soon transitioned to a spiritual crisis both between the Grandmother and the Misfit as she uses Jesus's name to try and escape her fate. This spiritual crisis leads the characters to express their personal conception of reality and how they perceive the revelation of the situation that they are in. The Grandmother has a sense that reality should revolve around her and that she should manipulate tools such as religion to benefit her outcome.
The grandmother grew in that moment of death more than she ever did in the little parts that we read about her life, and she dies in peace. Her actions may have even changed the Misfit too. At the end, he says “she would have been a good woman if he 'd been there all her life to shoot her.” (366). This line confused me the first time reading it, but the second time around it made more sense.
