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Foreshadowing And Irony

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In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, a family takes a road trip down to Florida that ends in the characters inevitable demise. A question that seems to constantly arise in the story is what the definition of good is. The Grandma’s superficial and shallow meaning for good results in the family’s misfortune. In this story, Flannery O’Connor uses the third person point of view to tell the family’s journey from beginning to end. This omniscient voice is mainly surrounded around the grandma and gives a suspenseful tone to the story. How the grandma is portrayed at the beginning of the story makes the reader take some pity on her character. On the first page it states, “She wouldn’t stay home for a million bucks. …show more content…

Two essential literary devices that contribute to the story are foreshadowing and Irony. The major and most used device is foreshadowing because from the very beginning the grandma is worried that the family would cross paths with ‘The Misfit’ giving the reader a hint into what is expected for the family. “The grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat…in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” This is an example of foreshadowing because at the end, that is exactly what ended up happening and coincidently she was dressed in the same way one would be presented before a burial. “…I wouldn't take my children in any …show more content…

It begins in the southern United States, more specifically, an unknown town in Atlanta, Georgia. As they drive south to Florida, there are some foreshadowing techniques the reader is given to hint the family’s demise. “They passed a large cotton field with five or six graves.” What makes this quote so important is that there are also six family members in the car, thus hinting the family will also end up in graves. The graves also contribute to the mood of the setting by giving it an ominous feeling especially when the accident and the encounter with ‘The Misfit’ occur. The overall theme of this short story is there is more to each other than seen on the surface level. The author created two distinct characters that are seen at the beginning as good and evil. “Come back this instant…Bailey Boy!” when the grandmother says this, it shows the grandmas true evil side because of instead of begging The Misfit to spare the family’s life, she keeps calling out for Bailey to save her. “Some fun… Shut up, Bobby Lee. There’s no real pleasure in life.” This passage shows ‘The Misfits’ true good side because of the feelings of remorse and sympathy for the

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In the short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find by F.C she illuminates on the point of Faith vs. Dought. When Grandmother was talking to the Misfit by convincing him not to kill her,but the Misfit was Grandmother 's obstacle to upholding Grandmothers strong belief,so the grandmother doubted her faith by not believing. In the illuminating moment when the grandmother fell into the ditch, it was revealed that her faith became a questionable option. The grandmother began to recognize that maybe Jesus didn’t rise from the dead like she believed.

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While doing so, she stumbles upon a newspaper article written about an escaped convict by the name of The Misfit that was headed toward that direction and tries to warn him about it. During the trip, the family makes a pit stop in Georgia and decides to visit a restaurant called The Tower. It is owned by a man named Red Sammy Butts, who tells the grandmother that he had recently let two men get gas on credit that had never returned to pay to him. She claims that he is a good man for doing so and agrees when he further complains to her that they were becoming increasingly hard to find.

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When in all reality, her son didn’t act like he cared about his mother, he didn’t even pay attention to her even when she talked. The son was focusing on getting the grandmother to Florida an abundance more, than hesitating to stop or get distracted. When the family gets involved with The Misfit, the grandmother isn’t concerned for her daughter in-law or her grandkids lives. The grandmother was concerning for only her son’s life and her own. Once her own life was in danger, she then went on to try to persuade The Misfit to spare her life.

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The Grandmother is the only member of the family still alive at this point. The misfit holds the grandmother at gunpoint. The grandmother uses faith as a way to escape death and pleads for the character to spare her life. “Pray!” The grandmother pleads pathetically.

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Despite the grandmother’s attempts, the vacation remains set for Florida. Staying true to her Southern belle roots, the grandmother piles into the car wearing a navy blue dress with lace, a pinned sachet of violets, along with white gloves. It is stated that,“In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would at once know that she was a lady.” O’Connor once again employs irony to foreshadow the family’s death, while amplifying her macabre humor. In a twist of fate the grandmother led herself and her family to The Misfit,

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and they are all planning a trip to Florida. Although it has been decided that they are going to Florida, the grandmother is frustrated and tries to convince her son and his family that they should go to Tennessee instead since more family lives there and there are sights to see there. She also argues that going to Florida would only put the family in danger as there was a serial killer on the loose who goes by the name of “Misfit”. This, in itself, already raises a red flag for readers since they just so happen to be travelling to a place where a serial killer is running loose. Despite the grandmother’s protests against their trip to Florida, they all get in the car and begin their journey.

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The entirety of the story is based upon the irony that the grandmother did not want to go to Florida because she knew about the misfit escaping, therefore it would be making her and her family a target, but she herself ultimately leads them right to the misfit. The grandmother constant need to be morally good is what subsequently get her killed in the end. This also refers back to the theme of the story, no one is good and perfect. Everyone makes mistakes and there are no degrees to morality. The story shows that being good for your own selfish reasons can have deathly consequences.

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She remembers that the house they were going to try and visit was “not in Georgia, but in Tennessee” (232), leading them straight to The Misfit. When the family encounters The Misfit, the grandmother realizes he has a gun and might shoot her, so she asks him to pray. The

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She is only trying to convince the misfit that he is a good man because she wants to be freed, and her life is in shambles. Also, the grandmother has already gone back on her word multiple of times, calling the misfit a big, bad, and scary man. Now all of the sudden he is a good man. Therefore, the grandmother still has not changed a

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The underlying message of this story is the good vs the evil. You have an escape convict, who murders a Georgia family with no sympathy for what he has don’t. When the grandmother recognized who he was by his name, Misfit then thinks that she is crazy for calling him by his name. This situation put the family in real danger. The grandmother whom has good manners treats the convict with goodness in hoping he will spare her life.

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The story gives way of foreshadowing the unfortunate ending in several instances. The first one is when Grandmother Bailey is trying to change the destination of the trip by showing her son the newspaper article about the man that escaped from the penitentiary. "Here this that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it”

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