A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is a short story about good and evil. Critics have argued that one should interpret the story as a parable of grace and redemption but others disagree, and argue that one needs to find other meanings of the text. When reading this story, some readers believe this story is actually a moment of grace and redemption just as the author wants us to, but other readers believe this is not a story of grace and redemption, but a story that shows a self-centered grandmother, that would say and do anything to save herself. I believe that the grandmother in this story did not have a “moment of grace” but a moment in which she tried to save herself from being killed by the Misfit. While some believe the …show more content…
“Flannery O’Connor’s Misfit and the Mystery of Evil” by John Desmond argues that the Grandmother considers herself to be a good Christian woman, a lady who believes in Jesus, and has manners, but some of her characteristics are portrayed as evil (Desmond 150). Desmond’s perspective of the story is that he believes the misfit is the evil character, but as the story goes on he changes his opinion to the grandmother being the evil character. In this article Simone Weil explains how “evil exposes the true good” (150). But no one is totally “good;” Desmond says good and evil are intertwined in all human beings “(Desmond 144). Different encounters reveals the good and evil. As in the story when the Grandmother begs to go to Tennessee so she lies about a “secret panel” just so she wouldn’t have to go (150). This shows her selfishness which bought about the family’s accident. This takes away her self-image as a “good” woman. The Grandmother tried to label “good” on the Misfit, but O’ Connors theology is that “evil has no being, and that evil always appears as a good to the one who commits it” (Desmond 144). The grandmother’s encounter with the misfit tests her religious beliefs when he rejects her appeal to him to pray for Jesus’s help (Desmond 150). This is important because she tried to force her religion on the Misfit but her religious beliefs could be …show more content…
In Flannery O’Connor’s Spoiled Prophet,” T.W. Hendricks says “compared to the other characters, the grandmother is a figure of grace and dignity (Hendricks 130). Hendricks describes how the Grandmother dresses carefully for the trip because she is a lady, and how she is polite to strangers and sympathetic to the poor (130). He also shows some of the good things the grandmother does such as when the children giggle when they see a half-dressed black child, she reminds them that black children in the country “don’t have the things we do.” She is proud of the history and geography of the region and tries to interest the children in their heritage. Also she keeps the children from throwing their sandwich wrappers out the car windows, plays games with them, breaks up their squabbles, and tries to improve their manners (130). Hendricks also mentions how the Grandmother shows grace at the end of the story. He states that Flannery O’ Connor “makes it clear in the letter to Betty Hester, Andrew Lytle, and John Hawkes that she intended the grandmother, in her final moments, to have been led by grace to be personally concerned about the Misfit” (Hendricks 136). Hendricks also talks about the bible aspect of the story. The misfit speaks about how Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead. The Misfit explains what if he would have seen Jesus raised from the dead, he would not be the person he is today. Hendricks believes the
As I read Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, I find myself being completely consumed by the rich tale that the author weaves; a tragic and ironic tale that concisely and precisely utilizes irony and foreshadowing with expert skill. As the story progresses, it is readily apparent that the story will end in a tragic and predictable state due to the devices which O’Connor expertly employs and thusly, I find that I cannot stop reading it; the plot grows thicker with every sentence and by doing so, the characters within the story are infinitely real in my mind’s eye. As I consider these factors, the story focuses on two main characters; that of the grandmother, who comes across as self-centered and self-serving and
Grace, an important theme to O'Connor, is specified to both The Grandmother and The Misfit, suggesting that even people like the grandmother and The Misfit have the likelihood to be saved by God. The grandmother, motivated by the Misfit’s wish to know for sure what Jesus did and did not do, experiences a instant of grace when her head momentarily clears and she calls out, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” (1,053). The Misfit is not factually the grandmother’s child; but this quote expresses her bewilderment she is experiencing. She sees her son Bailey as The Misfit because he is wearing Bailey’s shirt. Her comment about The Misfit seems unsuitable, but this is truly the grandmother’s most well-spoken moment in the story. She has clearness and, more importantly, sympathy. God has granted her grace just before she dies. The Misfit, too, is open to grace at this moment. He demanded earlier, “It’s no real
In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” O’Conner, tries to make us understand the meaning of grace. The Misfit and the Grandma are the two main characters that show us what grace is and how it can be applied to a person’s everyday life. In Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the Grandma tries to save her family by convincing them to visit a place she recommends to keep them away from the Misfit, whom with they later come in contact. Neither the Grandma nor the Misfit deserves grace but it is given to them anyway.
In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," Flannery O'Connor represents her style of writing very accurately. She includes her "themes and methods - comedy, violence, theological concern - and thus makes them quickly and unmistakably available" (Asals 177). In the beginning of the story O'Connor represents the theme of comedy by describing the typical grandmother. Then O'Connor moves on to include the violent aspect by bringing the Misfit into the story. At the end of the story the theme changes to theological concern as the attention is directed towards the grandmother's witnessing. As the themes change throughout the story, the reader's perception of the grandmother also changes.
Thesis Statement: In Flannery O'Connor's short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the grandmother's journey from being controlling and selfish to graceful symbolizes a Christian's journey toward salvation.
This article from the SCC database explains that O’Connor sought to present a message of God’s grace and presence in everyday life. It then provides a basic summary of “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. The article continues, going into an in-depth characterization of the grandmother and how she ultimately dies having transcended into grace. The article’s author and editor, Kathleen Wilson, is a professor of history and cultural studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She was educated at Yale University and has been awarded fellowships from a number of foundations. Even though the article was published in 1997, it still holds up, as it is analyzing a story that has already been written and will not change. There is no evidence of bias, as it is a simple analysis and summary. This source came from Short Stories for Students, which was published by Gale Publishing. Gale Publishing is reliable and unbiased, as they are an educational publishing company that has been publishing works since 1954. There are a few cited sources for this secondary source, one of which is biased. The biased source is a New York Times Book Review, which is biased in favor of the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. This source will be useful in describing the grandmother’s character and analyzing her connection to spirituality in the first body paragraph. It also helps to connect
Exploring the idea that all men are born sinners, O’Connor demonstrates immoral indulgences entertained by various characters. Readers are introduced to grandmother, an elderly woman whose consistent unscrupulous behavior exhibits her inner motives. Grandmother uses subtle, indirect confrontation to get her way until she is faced with The Misfit, a runaway criminal who believes that crime is a justifiable. In “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” Flannery O’Connor uses characterization to display a loss of morals, imagery to portray evil in society, and symbolism to emphasize the struggle of obtaining grace to prove how life is nihilistic without religion.
Flannery O’Connor believed in the power of religion to give new purpose to life. She saw the fall of the old world, felt the force and presence of God, and her allegorical fictions often portray characters who discover themselves transforming to the Catholic mind. Though her literature does not preach, she uses subtle, thematic undertones and it is apparent that as her characters struggle through violence and pain, divine grace is thrown at them. In her story “Revelation,” the protagonist, Mrs. Turpin, acts sanctimoniously, but ironically the virtue that gives her eminence is what brings about her downfall. Mrs. Turpin’s veneer of so called good behavior fails to fill the void that would bring her to heaven. Grace hits her with force and
Unlike the Grandmother, the Misfit truly questions the importance of his life and his part within it. When the Grandmother begins to plead for her life in a religious sense, the Misfit shares his thoughts on Jesus and religion. He states that “Jesus thrown everything off balance,” (O’Connor, 195) then goes on to actually compare himself to Jesus. “He hadn’t committed any crime and they could prove I had committed on because they had the papers on me.” (O’Connor, 195) Here, the Misfit victimizes himself. He believes he has been obligated to suffer for a crime he has committed, yet does not fully understand the reason why. Although he does not necessarily admit that he committed the crime, it comes off as though he knows he did something
The concept of being a “good” person has painted the picture of how people have handled their lives throughout history. On the same note, this concept has also been the subject of much debate; such is the case in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. The protagonist, the unnamed grandmother struggles to find the “good” in others and herself. O’Conner uses foreshadowing, characterization, and a distinct point of view to make her point. In my interpretation, her point is that only through conflict and turmoil can good truly be found.
Additionally, the grandmother shows superiority in her actions and poor judgment towards others. In the story, the grandmother answer Red Sammy Butts question about why he let those guys fuel their tank without paying by saying he does it because he is a “good man”. Also, when she when she realizes that the Misfit is a threat to her life, she repeatedly tells him that he is a “good man”. This way O’Connor highlights the moral codes that the grandmother built on the characteristics she believes that make people “good”. Although, it seems that the grandmother sees the goodness in people and has an open-hearted
James E. Faust once said, “In this life, we have to make many choices. Some are very important choices. Some are not. Many of our choices are between good and evil. The choices we make, however, determine to a large extent our happiness or our unhappiness, because we have to live with the consequences of our choices.” In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor discussed the difference between good and evil within the characters of the short story. The Misfit has his henchmen kill the family, and the grandmother ultimately only thinks of herself and not the rest of her family. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, Flannery O'Connor shows the readers multiple meaning of symbolism throughout the characters relations to faith, places, and outlook on their surroundings.
In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the grandmother and the Misfit become the main focus even though the other characters are involved in the story. Throughout the entire story, The Misfit is portrayed as the symbol of evil because he was in jail; he escaped from jail, and he committed murders. The grandmother believes to be greater than the people that she are around because of the “good” that she portrays. The conventional meaning of good, or possessing or displaying moral virtue, is not the particular good that the grandmother is trying to portray throughout the story. The grandmother believes that good
"A Good Man is Hard to Find" is an extremely powerful commentary that elucidates Flannery O'Connor's opinions about religion and society. Like the majority of her other works, " A Good Man is Hard to Find" has attracted many "interpretations based on Christian dogma" (Bandy 1). These Christian explications are justified because Miss O'Connor is notorious for expressing Catholic doctrines through her fiction. Once she even remarked "I see from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy" (Kropf 1). This longstanding reputation compels every critic of O'Connor to expose the religious convictions encrypted within her stories. The grandmother's final gesture towards the Misfit is not a
Flannery O’Connor also begins her story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” with the introduction of Grandma, the main character. The grandmother appears to represent godliness and Christianity. She is said in the story to have “lacked comprehension, but… had a good heart”.