ipl-logo

Summary Of A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

696 Words3 Pages

In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, the grandmother and Misfit live by two very different moral codes. Moral codes are the behaviors and beliefs that determine the way an individual chooses to live his or her life. No one set of morals has been determined right or wrong. This means that morals are subjective and will vary from person to person. This is shown in the story as the grandmother sees herself as a beautiful, God-following woman while the Misfit makes a point to live up to his name. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor illustrates that subjective morals will ultimately result in chaos. Although the grandmother speaks of a good man often, her morals that determine what she believes a good man is are questionable. When the family decided to vacation to Florida, the grandmother was quite upset. She was so upset that she almost predetermined that one thing or another would go terribly wrong while they were traveling. In case of an accident, the grandmother decided to dress to the nines so that “anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once she was a lady” (O’Connor pg 2). In this action, the grandma values her outward appearance more so …show more content…

The grandmother spends all of her last moments attempting to convince a man who is already decided in his actions. She tells him he is a good man multiple times (pg 7, 8, 10) and believes that God is on her side which will bring the Misfit to her senses. Although the Misfit has thought about God before, the conversation about Jesus has no impact on him. He claims he has always been alright on his own and the grandmother remains powerless but continues to plead with the Misfit. As one can assume by the chaotic ending, the grandmother’s undying attempts were unsuccessful as the Misfit did not agree nor sympathize with her or her

Show More
Related

Compare And Contrast Good Man Is Hard To Find

255 Words | 2 Pages

In a "Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O 'Connor, the contrast of good and evil is not as evident as it appears on the surface. The road that the family in the story travels symbolizes good up until the point the grandmother all but forces the family to make a detour onto a dirt road that leads to their demise. She is the unlikely antagonist in the story. A serial killer named, The Misfit, is the protagonist despite his homicidal actions. Both characters in the story help to illustrate how a relationship with God is perceived good and sacrilegious behavior is perceived evil.

Read More

Redemption In Flannery O Connor's A Good Man Is Hard To Find

946 Words | 4 Pages

Even though human nature is flawed within Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, there is a chance for redemption near the story’s ending. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the Grandmother has an epiphany with the Misfit that increases her chance for redemption. Throughout the entire story, the Grandmother is known for her selfish thinking and her one-track mind that, like many humans, is only focused on what she would like to do. Redemption for

Read More

A Good Man Is Hard To Find Grandmother Character Analysis

1743 Words | 7 Pages

The Role of Family in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, written by Flannery O’Connor is a short story that brings out mystery and cruelty. Manipulation plays a big role in this story by the grandmother. She tends to manipulate her family and tends to get her way by playing with them. Although the author wanted to give many perspectives of the grandmother, we as reader got our own views of her.

Read More

Analysis Of A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

1371 Words | 6 Pages

In the 1953 short story titled “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, readers are given a glimpse of what the end of the story may look like through use of foreshadowing, symbolism, and other literary techniques. Although the story looks to be an innocent story of a family who travels to Florida for vacation at the start of it, readers soon find out that the story has a darker twist to it. This family trip turns violent and this gruesome ending can easily represent the violence taking place in America during the time this story was written by O’Connor and even today. The short story starts off with a family of six- parents, a grandmother, and three children-

Read More

The Grandmother And The Misfit's A Good Man Is Hard To Find

1601 Words | 7 Pages

The balance of what is good and what is bad is a rather controversial topic in the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find". Most notably, the characteristics of both the Grandmother and the Misfit. The Misfit portrays an immoral personality and seems to be the evil in the story while the grandmother is the innocent lady seeking to be the good in this story. However, the religious virtues effect both personas and in itself draws the line around them mutually as sinners. Both characters have a particular relationship with Jesus, a physical crisis crossed with a spiritual crisis and different conceptions of reality; thus, revealing how the portrayal of these characters are not what may seem.

Read More

A Good Man Is Hard To Find Psychopath Analysis

1097 Words | 5 Pages

The grotesque psychopathic nature of the characters in Flannery O’Connor’s, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” ironically shows how a good man does not truly exist through the revelation and proclamation of what characteristics a good man possess. In the story The Misfit shows characteristics of a psychopath by escaping prison and killing an innocent family. However, The Misfit isn’t the only character in the short story to show psychopathic tendencies. The grandma also shows some characteristics of a psychopath because she does not care or show remorse for her family who was brutally murdered

Read More

Character Change In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

1287 Words | 6 Pages

Another way that the two readings are related is that "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" incorporates the idea of leaving things up for interpretation. The big questions that come to mind, is why did the Misfit not kill the grandma right away? Why did the grandma plead with the Misfit about how prayer would solve everything? Why did the Misfit not know why he went to jail?

Read More

Good Man Is Hard To Find Grandmother

565 Words | 3 Pages

In O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” O’Connor allegorizes the difficulty of finding a “good man” in modern society through the journey of a two-faced grandmother. The grandmother, who has a superficial definition of goodness, is first depicted as a sympathetic character, receiving criticism and cold responses from her family: “the children’s mother didn’t seem to hear her” (137). Unfazed by her family’s attitude, however, she convinces them to drive to Tennessee the next day. The next day, the grandmother sits in the car first, waiting for the family.

Read More

Gender Roles In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

1208 Words | 5 Pages

In the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the author, Flannery O'Connor, demonstrates how a family vacation can quickly face a violent end, caused by a criminal known as “The Misfit.” Looking at the short story through a feminist point of view, one can quickly gather that O’Connor uses the traditional gender roles right from the beginning of the story. As reading the title, it automatically suggests the men in this short story are untrustworthy, not prevalent, and dangerous. With that being said, the female characters in this story are viewed in the eyes of how a woman should act.

Read More

A Good Man Is Hard To Find Selfishness Essay

1559 Words | 7 Pages

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.

Read More

Symbolism In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

1254 Words | 6 Pages

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

Read More

Violence In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

1393 Words | 6 Pages

In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor creates a story where the roles of good and evil blend together. In the short story, a family in the rural South gets caught up with a criminal named the Misfit after their wreck and they end up getting murdered. The clash between the grandmother and the Misfit highlights the religious aspects of the story and also O’Connor’s beliefs. Her stylistic traits of violence, distortion, and religion are used to convey a corrupt world that needs salvation. O’Connor’s trait of violence is used throughout to reveal the corrupt and criminal world that emanates the need for salvation.

Read More

Good Man Is Hard To Find Response

1016 Words | 5 Pages

In her short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor introduces the reader to a world of family issues, danger, and murder. The story was written in 1955 during a period of social and racial unrest in the southern United States. Mostly, the story follows O 'Connor 's basic Southern Gothic writing style. A work that is "cold and dispassionate, as well as almost absurdly stark and violent" (Galloway). While the quote gives major insight into the theme of the story, it does not offer a glimpse into O 'Connor 's real message of the story.

Read More

A Good Man Is Hard To Find Research Paper

118 Words | 1 Pages

Society 's expectations have blinded people into believing that skin deep characteristics are all it take to be a good man In the year of 1953 Flannery O’Connor wrote the short story A Good Man is Hard to Find , which is about a family of 6 including the grandma who are going on a trip to Florida where a criminal was the loose and the grandma tries to warn the family and yet she leads them to their death. Through the hypocritical grandma , Flannery O’Connor argues a good man is hard to find by portraying how society identifies a good man by there appearance and reputation rather than identifying a good man as someone who is internally good.

Read More

The Grandmother Symbolism

1335 Words | 6 Pages

Introduction In “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, Flannery O’Connor tells a short story about a southern family going on a trip to Florida. O’Connor, known for her Southern Gothic style of writing, focuses on themes of Catholicism and transcendence in this short story. This is most apparent in her character of the Grandmother, who also exhibits negative personality traits such as racism and selfishness. In contrast, the Misfit is a serial killer who has lost all that is good, yet is the more likeable character.

Read More

More about Summary Of A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

Related Topics

Open Document