The Man Who Knew Belle Starr And A Good Man Is Hard To Find

1410 Words6 Pages

Bausch and O’Connor are the two authors behind “The Man Who Knew Belle Starr” and “A Good Man Is Hard To Find.” Bausch short story, “The Man Who Knew Belle Starr”, follows two main characters that get into so sticky trouble. This happens when Mcrae is done working at the air force and decides to head west. He holds a bad past crime record along with a different home life. On his way west, Mcrae picks up a hitchhiker who goes by the name Belle Starr. At the beginning of their journey, she is quiet and secretive about the bag she holds on her lap. The bag turns out to be a gun which Belle Starr uses to kill a restaurant owner. This shocks and scares Mcrae into doing whatever Belle Starr says. This leads them driving farrier west until Belle Starr decides to try and end Mcrae’s life. On the other hand, O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” looks at a family that took a wrong turn. The story is told by following the grandmother’s …show more content…

The story first grows from the characters actions by Mcrae choosing to “pick up a hitcher on his way west” (Bausch 156). Mcrae did not have to stop and pick up Belle Starr yet, by him doing this, he has started the plot of the story through his actions. Another way Mcrae does this is by his reason to head west in the first place. He does so since “he hated the air force” which made him think to “hid out the rest of his life” in the west (Bausch 160). This reason to head west by him started the ball rolling for the plot. Mcrae however once again makes a decision that grows the plot out of him. He reached a point in the story where he, “pulled off the interstate” because he was “looking for someplace other than a chain restaurant to eat” (Bausch 161). He had not pulled off the road, Belle Starr would not have killed the restaurant owner. This all showing that some of the actions by the characters grow the