How Does Flannery O Connor Use Grandma

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

These are elements of random foreshadowing that helped the reader understand why the grandmother believed so strongly that a good man is hard to find. This would be a prelude to the horrific events that would later unfold when the grandmother encounters the misfit who by all intense purposes was not believed to be a good man.

The grandmother is the central character in the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor. She is also a very well rounded and dynamic character. She shows various characteristics and reveals various remarks as they story progresses. Some of her qualities include selfish and a pushy person. She is also kind of manipulator in a way that she insists her family to change the plan. At the beginning of the story when we first realize her desire to visit her childhood house, she is being a very selfish person. Examining her conversation with her son Bailey, the grandmother is moreover a pushy person. She is convincing Bailey to change the trip plan according to her need only and which will

O'Connor does the same thing here; the grandmother's first action was to convince her son, Bailey, into going were she wanted to go, a selfish act, not a trait that we see a grandmother having. Also she thought out a plan to get what she wanted by acting as if she cared about her family's safety. "Now looks here, Bailey........ see here, read this...Here this fellow that calls himself the Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed towards Florida and you read here what is says he did to these people(328)." The grandmother's relationship right away to the reader is one that can not be trusted. Throughout the story you now question the grandmother's intentions, are they honest or selfish.

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

In the short story, "A Good Man is Hard To Find", by Flannery O'Connor, we are taken on a whirlwind journey driven by the grandmother's personality faults. Her naiveté, selfishness, and manipulatory acts cause the demise of not only herself, but her entire family. O'Connor accentuates these faults by making most of the other characters in the story one-dimensional.

The character of the grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is written to be manipulative, hypocritical, funny, and snarky, but she’s relatable in a sense. We’ve all known someone like her, whether it be a family member, or even a friend. Her controlling nature is what best defines her character. This is shown many times in the story: “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 I did. (Kennedy, Gioia, Revoyr, 711)” For Grandma, its her way or the highway. As the story progresses, we can see her character go through some interesting changes. The grandmother brings her cat ‘Pittysing’ on the trip even though Bailey tells her not to. She even recognizes the Misfit and basically dooms her entire family. The grandmother could have just let the Misfit fix the car and her family possibly could have lived. Just this small mistake changes the

The grandmother was the main character to demonstrate cultural aspects throughout the story. Since O’Connor was raised in a Southern environment, her short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” setting takes place in a Southern area. In the story, the grandmother says, “Oh look at the cute little picknanny! Wouldn’t that make a picture, now?” She was referring to a little black boy standing in the door of a shack. This shows how the grandmother must have been raised during the time of slavery. She did not comprehend that it was not during those times, but that made no difference to her. She also makes a comment about a plantation she once visited as a child. She continues to speak of her past and how things were done in her days which were during

In the book, a good man is hard to find, O’Connor has shown the downfalls of her major characters. Firstly, Flannery uses the grandmother who the reader comes across as an

Particularly, in the short story the grandmother is viewed as a traditional and proper women. Since the grandmother lead a moral life growing up, she believes the world around her is falling apart. For example, in the article “Overview: A Good Man Is Hard to Find” author Kathleen Wilson writes, “she demonstrates racist behavior… and she reveals a superior moral attitude”. In other words, Wilson point is that the grandmother’s view of the world when she was younger has not changed considering the grandmother posses the same characteristics. With the quote stated above, Wilson urges the readers to assume the grandmother is not aware of time changing and how rude and nagging she has become around her family because the grandmother still acts

This family is portrayed by O’Connor as wannabe perfectionism by thinking they are better than they truly are, but the grandmother specifically is the worst of them. She tries to convince the family to take a trip to Tennessee rather than Florida which is their usual vacation spot. The grandma persuades them all by saying that there is a misfit of an escaped convict in Florida to make the decision on where to go a no brainer. Bailey knows that wherever they go, grandma will also go. On the trip towards Florida, they detour to an unknown road the grandma thought she visited before, unfortunate events happen while on this road; her cat gets out of its cage and manages to startles the driver Bailey who ends up crashing and getting them killed.

In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," Flannery O'Connor illustrates a southern family's vacation to Florida, but the actual adventure takes place inside the lives of the characters. O'Connor makes a direct comparison between the criminal known as The Misfit and the grandmother, explaining how good and evil are not strictly limited to one individual or social code. The grandmother and the Misfit struggle with maintaining a constant, stable state of character, which represents the shift between good and evil. These two characters are socially defined on a surface level as being either a good or a bad person; however, these characters have a deeper meaning, as they portray traits that would least be expected by the audience. O'Connor develops and shows the changes in the characters as they face challenges, and suggest that one is not a good man simply because he says, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus" (O'Connor). The grandmother comes to realize that life is not all about putting on a show, and The Misfit is luckily her surprising means of grace.

In the Flannery O’Connor’s story ‘A Good Man Is Hard To Find” it's possible that many themes could come to the reader's mind. It could be a story about a non functional family that mistreats it grandmother or a tragedy that ends in a family ultimate downfall at the hands of three criminals. But this doesn't seem to fit with what O’Conner was really trying to portray because she normally has a deeper meaning in most of her writings. Knowing this, you can decipher that main point of the story happens between two characters, The Grandmother and The Misfit. The two have two different moral beliefs and stand by them up until the end of the story, this story can be viewed as a battle of morals.

The grandmother classifies herself as having the best morals. She overdresses for the trip having on a “navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy-blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet, so that if there was an accident, people would know she was a lady” (O’Connor), she also manages to sneak the cat into the car. The narrator illustrates to us that grandmother looks down on other people. Such as in the beginning of the story, the grandmother criticizes the mother for “not taking the children different parts of the world and be broad (O’Connor). The grandmother at that time mainly wanted to visit her family members in east Tennessee and uses the

None of them got along from arguing all day to never agreeing on anything, but it was clear that the grandmother was the odd one out. When thinking of a grandmother you may expect them to be joyful and ecstatic. However, this was not the case with this grandmother, she could not even settle on a place to go for vacation, let alone just being happy for once. Later in the story, the murderer on the loose, the Misfit had the family go into the dark forest and had the grandmother stand out in the cloudless sunny day. It symbolized the grandmother’s personality as if it “came to the light”. Oddly, he seemed to be the only one that caught on to her relentless act of being “pure”, “She would have been a good woman … if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (O’Connor, 242). In other words, this is ironic coming from a murderer talking about an old lady. Nonetheless, it does make someone think twice about her authenticity and who she may really compare