ipl-logo

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

679 Words3 Pages

Flannery O’Connor was an American novelist from Savannah, Georgia, who wrote two novels and thirty short stories. O’Connor wrote the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” which is about a family from Georgia going on a trip to Florida. The Grandmothertries to convince her son to go to Tennessee instead of Florida because of an escaped criminal. On the way to Florida, the family encounters an escaped criminal named “The Misfit” and faces tragedy. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” O’Connor uses the Grandmotherto show how she cares about her gender and wants everyone to know that she is a lady. The Grandmotherdresses nicely in preparation for death. The author states, “The children’s mother still had on slacks and still had her head tied up …show more content…

O’Connor states, “ In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (3). The Grandmotherdresses nicely for the car trip incase of a wreck, everyone that saw her would know that she died a lady. She only cares about herself and not anyone else. She does not even think that if they were in a wreck; her grandchildren, son, and daughter-in-law would probably be killed as well. The author later says, “Bailey removed the cat from his neck with both hands and flung it out the window against the side of a pine tree… We’ve had an ACCIDENT! The children screamed in a frenzy of delight” (O’Connor 7). Bailey did not want his mother to bring the cat on the trip because it could cause danger or harm to the family. Bailey’s mother did not listen to her son and did what she wanted to do instead. Bailey was right; the cat did cause danger to the family. If Bailey’s mother had listened to him, the wreck probably would not have happened, and they would not have encountered the Misfit. When the Grandmotherfaces the Misfit, she loses the feeling of being a lady. The author exclaims, “ The Grandmotherreached up to adjust her hat brim as if she were going to the woods with him but it came off in her hand. She stood staring at it and after a second she let it fall on the ground” (O’Connor 10). When the Grandmother’s hat fell,

Show More
Related
248 Words | 1 Pages

A Good Man is Hard to Find: Response “Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days. ”-Flannery O’Connor Flannery O’Connor’s (A Good Man is Hard to Find) is a great American Southern Gothic published in The Avon Book of Modern Writing, 1953. This type of Gothic writing was not popular at the time, however O’Connor thrived as a writer during this time, with her grotesques satire on poor and middle-class southern whites.

Read More
872 Words | 4 Pages

O’Connor makes sure that the reader knows the cat is hidden from Bailey since he does not like to arrive with animals at a motel (para 10). Anyone that picks up on this foreshadowing can tell that the cat will cause a problem later on in the story. O’Connor also mentions what Grandma was wearing. Grandma’s thought process in her attire was that if they had an accident she wanted everyone to know that she was a lady (para 12). From this line, the reader can assume that O’Connor is further foreshadowing the fate of the

Read More
746 Words | 3 Pages

As already mentioned at the beginning of the story, she was “seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind” (O’Connor 112) regardless of his opposition, which is a clear act of manipulation. Another evidence of her influenceable behavior shows up during her conversation with the chief criminal “I know you are a good man” (O’Connor 121). By this statement, Bailey’s mother tries to influence the Misfit so that he will change his mind. Also, she repeatedly evokes religious belief, as a way to convince the Misfit to “pray” (O’Connor 123), and ask for forgiveness to Jesus Christ. Moreover, failing to achieve her goal, she calls the Misfit “one of my babbies” (O’Connor 125), which upsets him and causes her death.

Read More
1764 Words | 8 Pages

Flannery O’Connor has written many short stories. This one in particular “ A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is a short story that deals with selfishness, evil, death, and realization. Bailey’s mother was a selfish southern lady that used racial language. Throughout the story, you will realize the grandmother is the fault for all their deaths even her own. Her abrupt and selfish ways will get her faced to face with her killer.

Read More
1420 Words | 6 Pages

Upon seeing this image, she comprehends that to be truly Christ like, she is going to have to forgive the Misfit and accept him as God’s child. As Susan Petit stated, “Close consideration shows many important parallels between the grandmother… on the one hand and the Misfit…” (3). At this stage, the Misfit also has a revelation. His message, however, is that by murdering the grandmother, he helped out her find God and therefore comprehends that he does have an objective in the world that he will have to answer to an upper power. Author, Flannery O'Connor was deeply worried about the values and the direction of the youth of her time.

Read More
1142 Words | 5 Pages

Flannery O’Connor is a renowned Southern author, noted for her gothic works and heavily Catholic themes. She focuses predominantly on racial tensions, morality, and divine grace. The religious and moral themes of her short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, converge on the character of the grandmother. Despite the self-proclamations of fulfilling what it means to be a Southern lady, Grandmother holds a superficial grasp of her religion. Throughout the story, the Grandmother never truly changed, only her ostensible actions did.

Read More
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
1147 Words | 5 Pages

Finally, the grandma recognizes him as “The Misfit” she had read about in newspapers. She had been highly concerned about running into him the entire trip. Throughout the story, there is a foreshadowing of their inevitable run-in with the man. He talks with the grandma. The grandma’s and the misfit’s moral compasses are revealed during their conversation.

Read More
1583 Words | 7 Pages

She interprets the idea as if the reader does not believe on a God. O’Connor also carefully draws out her characters. O’Connor made the Grandmother a women so that any reader felt lower than and feel below in authority. The grandmother is shown as a pushy woman with characteristics of selfishness. These characteristics show when she insisted on going to the old house.

Read More
669 Words | 3 Pages

She grows more and more worried with the passing of time and the certainty of death as she draws closer to the conclusion of her life. Granny's mood of melancholy and grief as she considers her passing is well captured by Porter. Granny explains “The pillow rose about her shoulders and pressed against her heart and the memory was being squeezed out of it: oh, push down the pillow, somebody: it would smother her if she tried to hold it. Such a fresh breeze blowing and such a green day with no threats in it. But he had not come, just the same” (Porter 86)

Read More
1321 Words | 6 Pages

The grandmother realizes the house is not where they are headed and startles Bailey which leads to a car accident. The car ends up in a ditch. A car approaches the family, and the Grandmother recognizes The Misfit as one of the occupants. She tries to kiss up to him and reason with the Misfit but only enrages him. The Misfit ends up killing the entire

Read More
1284 Words | 6 Pages

As Bailey and his son goes in the woods with Hiram, the grandmother and the Misfit began talking about praying as two shots went off. She did nothing but yell “Bailey Boy” and then the mother and two daughters had gone into the woods in expectancy to be with Bailey and John Wesley but according to the narrator, “there was a piercing scream from the woods, followed closely by a pistol report” (Kelly367). As the grandmother grew scared that she would be next, she repeated that he shouldn’t shoot a

Read More
1076 Words | 5 Pages

Grandmother is obviously grouping herself in as a nice person, despite how she has treated her family in the little bit of time that the readers have observed her. This shows her ridiculous lack of

Read More
984 Words | 4 Pages

Before going on the family trip, grandmother makes sure she is dressed very properly “ In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once she was a proper lady” (421). Grandmother wears white cotton gloves, a navy straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the white brim” which she adjusted often to ensure she had a good outward appearance. Grandmother’s moment of redemption comes to her while she is in a ditch with a serial killer.

Read More
1254 Words | 6 Pages

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.

Read More

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

Related Topics

Open Document