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The story of an hour situational irony
The story of an hour situational irony
Situational irony story
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More handpicked essays just for you.
The story of an hour situational irony
The story of an hour situational irony
Situational irony story
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: The story of an hour situational irony
In the first part, Flannery O'Connor builds a structure using archetypes so she can use them to deliver a powerful message in the second part. In this story, the author's intent was to write a tragedy where an innocent character is tormented and then killed. The treatment of the grandmother in the early section of the story sets her up to this pattern. This comes about in many ways.
To begin, Irony in the form of dark humor is used to convey a postmodern concept in the movie “Stranger than Fiction”, and the short story “The Happy Man”. Ironically, in “Stranger than Fiction” the perspective of a narrator and character are reversed. Characters in a novel are commonly oblivious of their narrative. However, Harold Crick is conscious that someone is narrating his life; therefore, he takes certain steps to avert his unfolding fate. On the contrary, narrators are generally omniscient, but Kay Eiffel, the novelist, is entirely unaware of her creation’s realism.
“The “violence” that must take place in Southern literature is often a final resort of the character when all other alternatives have failed”
Noteworthy experiences can set off the track of your life. In the novel The Misfits by James Howe, the protagonist undergoes a moving emotional change. Bobby faces bullying and self-doubt which causes a journey of self-exploration. Although Bobby Goodspeed was solicitous towards others, he could never inspire himself.
O’Connor uses more symbolism throughout the short story, some are easier to find then others but they all represent something very important. The author created The Misfit as a character who was out and about killing people just because he wanted to. With that being said, The Misfit drives a car to the scene where the family is stranded, and the car is symbolic. The car he drives is symbolic because “A few minutes after the accident with all of the shaken adults huddled in the ditch, the family notices a hearse-like automobile approaching slowly from the top of the hill” (Bloom). This is symbolic in the fact that the color black symbolizes death, evil, and power in which all of those make sense.
Her final act towards the Misfit was not out of charity, but in attempt to save herself. Set in the South in the 1950s, the grandmother dutily satisfied the stereotypes that blossomed within her generation. She speaks of the older days, when children were more respectful, and good men were easier to find. However, she never expresses what defines a good man, which suggests her unsteady moral foundation. The grandmother also explicitly articulates the racism that was unfortunately common in the South, ironically prevalent in the religious and upper middle class circles like the ones she belonged to.
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.
The Purpose of Psychopaths in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” In the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” a family of six meets their demise on the side of the road in Georgia after a gang of convicts lead by The Misfit brutally murders each member of the family. The story starts off in an upbeat tone and sets up a seemingly happy plot about a family going on vacation to Florida. However, the grandmother does not listen to her son about taking her cat on the trip and her disobedience ultimately leads to all of their deaths. The author changes the tone of the story at the end when the family gets into a wreck and faces a gruesome death by a crazed armed killer on the loose (O’Connor#).
The first sentence, “The grandmother didn’t want to go to florida,” (Lawrence 406) gives the reader a glimpse into who the grandmother is as a person. She is depicted as a selfish and manipulative person. In the beginning of the story she was always trying to change her son Bailey’s mind to get the family to go to Tennessee instead of Florida. “The children have been to Florida before, you all ought to take them somewhere else for a change…” (Lawrence 406).
“‘I just know you’re a good man,’ she said desperately. ‘You’re not a bit common!’” An invisible rope had intricately wound itself around his knees and yanked him sharply downward, a faint thud could be heard as the gun hit the ground leaving an indent in the dusty gravel. He opened and closed his eyes rapidly attempting to expel the darkness covering the memories swirling just ahead of him. The guard’s eyes stared directly into the Misfit’s
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”
The Misfit was a purely evil character while the Grandmother had good intentions. Color symbolism was used throughout the story to give an insight of what is going to happen eventually. The animals also played a large portion of the symbolism attached to… The Misfit along with Hiram and Bobby Lee were all purely evil characters that killed everyone in his way.
The story opens with a man named Bailey who is going on a trip with his family to Florida. However, his mother had other plans and becomes the "manipulative grandmother lecturing her apathetic son" (Sparrow). At first she tries to convince her son to change the trip destination saying ""(O 'Connor). It might be inferred that she meant well by warning Bailey about the prison escapee traveling in the same direction. Unfortunately, later in the story the reader finds out that .
Whereas, the Grandmother had believed that because she was a good southern “Lady”, she was blinded from the truth of her own sins. “Twice when I killed them,”
These events are easily found in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" because the violence takes place casually at the end of the story, the murderer doesn 't try to be sneaky about it. At the beginning of the story the grandmother talks the family into visiting east Tennessee and not Florida by telling them that a dangerous inmate named "The Misfit" had escaped and is headed to Florida; "The Misfit is aloose from the federal Pen headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn 't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn 't answer to my conscience if it did."