“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” Literary Analysis

Another virtue the grandmother lacks is courage. Courage is “The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger with self-possession, confidence and resolution” (Courage). When The Misfit arrives, the grandmother is nothing but a coward. She exhibits no self-possession, “Alone with The Misfit, the grandmother found that she had lost her voice” (O’ Connor 1116), displayed here when she can’t even speak. She also has no resolution to the situation but to give The Misfit her money, “‘I’ll give you all the money I’ve got!’” (O’ Connor

In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor starts out by giving a look at a dysfunctional family on a vacation, but ultimately, gives insight into ourselves as well as the nature of good and evil, how they can clash, and how they can co-exist, even in the same person. The setting, which plays a critical role in this short story because the grandmother shows her selfish wants and views on people and society and believes that things were much better in her early years. As the story unfolds the setting provides insights to the where the dysfunctional family will eventually meet their doom, which is

Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” focuses on the contrast between “good” and “evil.” Through the characterization of the Grandmother and The Misfit, O’Connor reveals that in reality there are no drastic differences between the two, only that one has already come to accept his fate and the other is still blinded by her own selfish ways. From the beginning, the true nature of the Grandmother begins to unfold. It is evident that she will say just about anything to get her way, only she’ll do it in a manner that illustrates her as one whose sole purpose is to look out for her family, “See here...this fellow that calls himself the misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida… I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal aloose like that… I couldn’t answer to my own conscience if I did.”(117) O’Connor’s use of the word “conscience” leads the reader to believe that the Grandmother has good morals and values, but upon further investigation it’s evident that this “good” only runs so deep. At first glance, this moment can be perceived as one filled with sincere fear on the grandmothers part, however, the chances of the family actually running into a loose criminal on a family road trip is one in a million. Which leads to the conclusion that the Grandmothers sole intention is to scare her son into submission, so that she may go to Tennessee to visit her old friends. Nearing the end of the family’s life, the Grandmother’s

This paper will present a rhetorical context for the use of violence in the short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” as she presented in her essay “The Element of Suspense.” The form of classical tragedy in this story will also be analyzed from the critical theories of Aristotle and Longinus. Tolstoy will be used to examine the use Christian symbolism. Nietzsche will provide a more well-rounded universal conclusion to the uses of tragedy and spiritual elements in this classic story.

The story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is famous for its use of unexpected violence. An unnamed grandmother

Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a perfect example of how one wrong turn can change a person’s life for better or worse. O’Connor’s story is about a family taking a trip from Tennessee to Florida, and while on their trip they have the unfortunate encounter with a man named “the Misfit”. This man had recently escaped from prison and was very dangerous. During the trip the Grandmother expressed her memories of a home she used to visit as a child, which peaked the interest of the two young children in the car. However, memories can be deceiving and the Grandmother’s memory failed her in this instance.

“A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor begins with a family planning a trip to Florida, but the grandmother of the family complains. While the family is getting ready she tries to manipulate her son, Bailey, into going to Tennessee, but she fails. The grandmother comes across an article about a man that is called the Misfit, a man who has escaped prison and is now heading to Florida. Once the family leaves the grandmother still goes although she would much rather the family do what she wants and she has her cat hidden in the car. The family stops at a bar-b-que place owned by a black man named, Red Sammy Butts. Red complains to the grandmother for letting two men buy gas on credit and how he does not trust all that well anymore. The grandmother uses her loose definition of a good man to tell Red that he was one. Red tells the grandmother,”A good man is hard to find… Everything is getting terrible. I remember the day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more.” After the food the grandmother woke up from one of her many cat naps and recalled a plantation she had visited nearby and begged her son to stop, which he angrily agreed to do. Once they begin down the dirt road towards the alleged house the grandmother jumps, kicking the cat’s cage when she realizes the plantation she remembered was not even in

Thought to be one of Flannery O'Connor's best short stories "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" regales us with the narrative of an inconsiderate maladroit family and their subsequent chilling massacre as committed by fugitives led by a notorious butcher christened the Misfit. This tale is renowned for its spiritual qualities, specifically the author’s portrayal of redemption through the appalling and vicious deaths of her surreal characters. O'Connor can be applauded for her vivid use of colorful details from everyday life in addition to utilizing the comical elements of her southern upbringing. O’Connor also shows a proclivity with the talent to make the reader visualize the eccentricities of characters like the grandmother

A Good Man Is Hard To Find  In Flannery O' Connor's short story, "A Good Man Is Hard To Find", the grandmother didn't want go to Florida. She insisted on going to the east Tennes-see, she tried to do everything in her power to convince her son, Bailey to change his mind about going to Florida. After manipulating everyone to go to Tennessee, on the day of the trip, the grandmother wore a navy blue straw sailor hat with a navy blue dress. When wearing this wordrobe, she wants people to recongize that she is  "a lady", if there's and an accident. In other words, she will be looked upon as nice looking and respectable.

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is about a family that goes on a trip to Florida. One character that stands out in the story is the grandmother. She is an older lady who is set in her ways and is very judgmental. Throughout the story she manipulates, lies, and becomes selfish to get what she wants because she does not accept things how they are. She does things that cause the family not only pain, but also her life.

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” tells a twisted story of a typical family going about a road trip embedded with ethical pit stops along the way. The story revolves around a cynical grandmother and how her unconventional attitude and habits set the stage for an interesting turn of events. Through manipulative antics, a prejudice character and an ironic story line, author Flannery O’Conner creates a captivating tale that shines a lights on readers’ own moral codes. The author does this by making an example of a woman completely unaware of her own immoral acts.

Equally important, the grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” has the outstanding transformative moment shown at the end of the story. After the grandmother and Bailey’s family have an accident, the Misfit comes and it seems like he and his friends will rescue them. Unfortunately, they come to kill them and all members in the family died except the grandmother. The grandmother’s transformative moment occurs when she meets the Misfit and he wants to kill her which this situation changes the perspective of grandmother to be a really kind woman. At first, the grandmother staunchly beliefs in God as her moral code like the grandmother says to the Misfit that “If you would prey, Jesus would help you.”

There is this trend of revengeful of killing that appeared through these texts. In “The Tell-Tall of the Heart” by Poe, Edgar Allan, it is about a man being obsessed with an old man's eye and he claims the eye scares him. In the story titled “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, a family embarks on journey to Georgia, but the grandmother leads them into a wrong road at a wrong time. They meet a Misfit who kills them all. Whereas, in “Usher II” by Bradbury, one of the main characters, Stendhal, kills Garrett because he came to destroy the house he had built.

“ A Good man is hard to find” by Flannery O’Connor shows a short story about a family vacation that hastily faces a brutal end by a known criminal named “the misfit”. As we look at title and going through the story, we strongly sense the traditional gender roles. Even though a good man is really hard to find in this story, we ultimately see “the misfit” to be a heartbreaking character that becomes the salvation of the grandmother. The grandmother is point out as a person that thinks of herself as a higher class than the others despite of her dreadful facts.

As the Misfit questions the grandmother about what Jesus did and didn’t do, she is rewarded with grace when momentarily her head clears and she says, “Why you’re one of my own children! (O’Connor 433)”. She does not mean this in a literal sense, but as in they are both humans and equal. The grandmother was experiencing compassion and clarity. Although the grandmother had died, the grandmother granted her grace right before her death. The Misfit had said that there was “no pleasure but meanness (O’Connor 432)” in life earlier in the story, he then opposed that there were any pleasure in life at all. With this encounter with the grandmother, the killing didn’t seem to give him the happiness as intended, leading the reader to believe that he too may change. Both the Misfit and the grandmother had spoken of previous experiences that they’ve had. These characters presented themselves as unhappy with the present but things seemed different in the past, as if they stopped looking for the goodness in themselves because the world around them was not promising to it