ipl-logo

The Use Of Glasses In A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Good Country People

1014 Words5 Pages

Flannery O’Connor uses multiple symbolisms throughout her works, and one of them is the glasses that the characters wear. Although glasses do not serve the main importance for the progression of the story in itself in both “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, and “Good Country People”, it has its purpose of symbolism. In the two works, Flannery O’Connor associates glasses with the perspective and judgment that one possesses about the world surrounding them. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the misfit’s glasses symbolize his viewing of the firm perspective and understanding of the world. The misfit in this short story is described as a traditional “good man” by the grandmother. For example, the misfit’s statement after Bailey shouts at the grandmother, …show more content…

Moreover, by his eyes without glasses described as “red-rimmed and pale and defenseless-looking”, the author hints at the vulnerability of the Misfit without his clear view and judgment. By ending the story with “It's no real pleasure in life.”, the author indicates irony and the gaining of new insight by the misfit after killing the grandmother and taking off his glasses. This sentiment demonstrates that the misfit’s perspective and judgment, although a firm conviction, can still be influenced. Thence, the glasses, a tool that serves to help the misfit view the world clearer, symbolize his stance and judgment about the …show more content…

in philosophy, is an odd, grotesque character. This could be seen when she changed her name from Joy to Hulga, as she chose to want an ugly name over Joy as she believed Joy to be a naïve name. She also holds a pessimistic stance and judgment about the world that there is nothing beautiful, as “she didn’t like dogs or cats or birds or flowers or nature or nice young men. She looked at nice young men as if she could smell their stupidity.” Such description of her depicts that she views nothing good about the world, and has pride in believing that. Similar to the misfit, Hulga’s glasses serve as a tool to distinctively view the world, symbolizing her grotesque perspective and judgment about the world. However, the significant difference is that Hulga meets Manley Pointer, who can influence and alter her perspective. Pointer is described as a bible salesman when he was first introduced to the story. As the story progressed, he was able to gain interest from Hulga, which was apparent when “she had thought about it half the night” to meet the pointer the next day. Later that day, during their date, they go to an isolated place to have

Show More
Related
686 Words | 3 Pages

" Hulga intrigues the reader's attention by her flaws and imperfections as a character in this short story. Hulga's behavior and attitude have put her and others in situations because of her range of traits, such as being judgmental, disrespectful, and highly educated.     Throughout the story, Hulga is extremely judgmental. She has become bitter and betrayed by the world, and at the sight of her surrounding, she becomes irritated. The story states “Sometimes she went for walks, but she didn't like dogs or cats or birds or flowers or nature or nice young men.

Read More
1359 Words | 6 Pages

(12). This illustrates how Hulga has had no romantic interactions in her life and is now having her first kiss at the age of 32 with Manley Pointer. Because Pointer was the first person to show interest in Hulga, she allowed herself to be vulnerable to him, and he used that to exploit her. During her childhood and adulthood, she was always looked at with pity and faced judgment and rejection, whether that be her appearance, strength, or attitude by doctors, peers, or her family. In the article, Mrs. Hopewell expresses her pity for Hulga stating “She thought of her [Hulga] still as a child because it tore her heart to think instead of the poor stout girl in her thirties who had never danced a step or had any normal good times.”

Read More
832 Words | 4 Pages

Due to their similar attributes, the grandmother and Misfit are not drastically different. Neither the grandmother nor the Misfit are purely good or evil; however, they do represent a general reputation of good and evil, respectively. Upon closer inspection, however, there is one fundamental difference between the two characters’ personalities: admission of wrongdoing. This is such a significant distinction that some critics argue that the Misfit’s character is not as corrupted as the grandmother’s because “the Misfit openly acknowledges his evil,” compared to the grandmother’s façade (Desmond). Due to this, the grandmother is not able to connect with the Misfit because she is hiding behind of a false appearance.

Read More
515 Words | 3 Pages

Throughout the short story, we see how Hulga's arrogance affects her relationships with others. She often brushes off Mrs. Hopewell's attempts to connect with her, believing she's too good for such gestures. Hulga also manipulates the Bible salesman, seeing him only as a means to her own satisfaction and viewing herself as intellectually superior. Her overestimation of her own intelligence limits her desire to learn from others and stifles her personal growth. Unfortunately, her dismissive behavior has also made it difficult for her to build meaningful connections with those

Read More
1083 Words | 5 Pages

Hulga wants to leave home and really does not want to come back. She does not have a good relationship with her mother because Hulga is “too smart” for her family which breaks the bond between them. Since Hulga dislikes her mom she changed her name to make her mother even more mad at her. 2. There is something suspicious about Manley Pointer throughout the story.

Read More
680 Words | 3 Pages

Since being a lady is a big part of what the grandmother considers moral, the Misfit obviously doesn’t abide by the same moral code of ethics as she does. She desperately calls him a good man, as though appealing to some value deep within that he couldn’t deny. Her definition of “good” is skewed though, resting on her belief that the Misfit isn’t like most people. The grandmother’s application of the label “good” shows that it does not mean “kind” or “moral”. “Good” simply means whatever ideals align with hers.

Read More
949 Words | 4 Pages

The scene in the barn displays the reality of Hulga's beliefs as they explode in front of her. When Hulga discovers Manley's façade, she realizes the evil of nihilism and the damage nihilism incurs. Manley says "What’s the matter with you all of a sudden?” he asked, frowning as he screwed the top on the flask and put it quickly back inside the Bible. “You just a while ago said you didn’t believe in nothing.

Read More
1465 Words | 6 Pages

Hulga shares this characteristic when it comes to her attempt to seduce Manley, “[s]he imagined that she took his remorse in hand and changed it into a deeper understanding of life” (O’Connor 293). Despite their shared qualities, Hulga’s believed superiority hinders her ability to look deeper. While she is resentful of her mother’s simple expressions, she does not know what she actually believes about others. This emphasizes Hulga’s lack of awareness of her mother’s true beliefs, which in turn highlights her inability to think critically about others. Furthermore, Mrs.Hopewell’s misleading comments regarding her religion also reveal faults in Hulga’s thinking.

Read More
743 Words | 3 Pages

Hulga is presented as a child by the way she is dressed, and this helps to demonstrate her lack of reality of the evil in others that are supposed to be "good country people." Hulga is vunerable and is allured into the sweet talk of Pointer, her pride leads her to lose the most precious thing she owns, her wooden leg. Her pride disables her from seeing the reality and is left on the floor unable to move. At the end Pointer tells her the truth, but she still remains ignorant and does not accept the fact that she was manipulated when it was her plan to seduce

Read More
670 Words | 3 Pages

The Misfit knows who he is and does not pretend to be otherwise, unlike the old lady. With a show of unpretentiousness, he clearly states, “Nome, I ain’t a good man” (O’Connor 427). In the end, the antagonist enlightens the Grandmother with his brutal honesty, and her “head cleared for an instance” (O’Connor 430). In the final moments of her life, she is able to drop all pretenses and view evil in the form of the Misfit as something she can accept within herself by exclaiming, “Why you’re one of my babies” (O’Connor 430). Ironically, at the moment she reaches out to him, he kills her.

Read More
814 Words | 4 Pages

A convict and a grandmother are more alike than the common one may think. In Flannery O’Conner’s story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, demonstrates a similarity between the Misfit and the grandmother showing that good and evil are not the same in all individuals. O’Conner uses these certain characters to show the difference between good and bad, but in the end both the grandmother and the Misfit show a change in character. Flannery O’Conner’s catholic background has influenced all her stories. O’Conner’s family was one of the first to live in her hometown of Milledgeville, Georgia she also attended parochial school.

Read More
1016 Words | 5 Pages

The Misfit 's mind is one of the most complicated of any villain in O 'Connor’s stories and in all literature. His mental state is most evident in "the scene between the Grandmother and the Misfit at the climax of the story" (Walls 3) This recent escapee 's psyche can be described as "tails short of the athlete’s morality, for he plays by no one 's rules except his own" (Fike). This mental state is typical of most criminals but the Misfit’s perception on religion is not so conventional. Usually, when a person commits a heinous act and if the person is spiritual they will say God told them to do it.

Read More
868 Words | 4 Pages

“She had a vision of the name working like the ugly sweating Vulcan…” (O’Connor 484), Vulcan is the Roman god of fire and also a blacksmith, furthermore, someone similar to Vulcan is Hephaestus, the Greek god of fire and blacksmith as well. This is related to Hulga’s name change because Joy did not represent her, therefore, she decided to change it to Hulga. That is why she mentions Vulcan when she is having a conversation with her mother. Hulga can relate to him because, Hephaestus had a limp, he is ugly, and physically undesirable. Hulga fits all of those categories in a way, she had a limp because she did not have a leg, she was not physically ugly, but the way she thought of herself was, and she was undesirable because she did not take care of herself properly.

Read More
1393 Words | 6 Pages

Moreover, when the Misfit and the two men shoot the whole family in the woods, it illustrates the sinister and cruel world that needs saving. The violent car crash that causes the family to encounter the Misfit in the first place adds to the violent display that O’Connor creates of the world. O’Connor uses the violence in the story to shock the readers into self-awareness (Larson 1). She uses this self-awareness to bring to light the religious theme of redemption and grace for the corrupted. O’Connor’s

Read More
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

More about The Use Of Glasses In A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Good Country People

Related Topics

Open Document