A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery Oconnor Essay example

In her well-known short story, â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard to Find,† Flannery O’Connor skillfully describes the difficulty of finding a morally upright human being, whether it is a man or a woman. No one is perfect, everyone has inadequacies and shortcomings, and she presents this cleverly in her story. She is able to support this view of mankind through her characters. They are self-centered, egotistical human beings who can be judged by their words and actions. This is especially true of the protagonist (the grandmother) and the antagonist (the Misfit). The grandmother tries to portray herself as a virtuous woman, but in the end O’Connor shows that her actions are always self-serving and that morally, she is not that different from the Misfit.†¦show more content†¦If she were the upstanding person she claims to be, then telling a lie would go against her strong conscience. She knows Bailey does not want to take the cat on the trip because she states, â₠¬Å"Bailey, didn’t like to arrive at a motel with a cat† (O’Connor 357). O’Connor uses this specific action of the grandmother, the conscious decision to lie and to manipulate, to show she is not the virtuous woman she claims to be. As the family travels down the road, the grandmother carries on a conversation with her grandchildren. She is quick to admonish the children when they speak poorly about Georgia and Tennessee. She tells the children, â€Å"In my time†¦children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else† (O’Connor 358). Again, the grandmother is presenting herself as an upright lady. However, in the very next sentence she says, â€Å"Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!† (O’Connor 358). She wants to be viewed as a moral lady, yet she does not have a problem using a derogatory term for a Negro child. Here again her strong conscience should have been her guide and she should not have used that word in front of her grandchildren. She has many flaws, but she is not willing to admit them. Eventually the family stops for barbecued sandwiches at a place called The Tower. The owner of the business, Red Sammy, joins the family at their table. Sammy tells the family, â€Å"These days you don’t know who toShow MoreRelatedA Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor1196 Words   |  5 PagesA prolific writer, famously known as Flannery O’Connor in 1953, wrote the short narrative titled â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† (Scott 2). However, it was published two years later in 1955, in her second collection of short stories. This particular collection presented the author as a key voice in the ancient American literature world until she met her sudden death in 1964 when she was only 39. The collection also won her tremendous fame, especially concerning her unmatchable creativity and masteryRead MoreA Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor748 Words   |  3 PagesFlannery O’Connor’s Southern Gothic short story, â€Å"A Good Man is H ard to Find,† is one of sudden violence; although, it begins rather uneventful (Kaplan 1). Bailey, his wife, and their children, John Wesley, June Star, and a baby boy, are all looking forward to a trip to Florida. Grandmother, Bailey’s mom, wants to go to east Tennessee to see her relatives, not Florida. She uses an article in the newspaper that tells of an escaped criminal, the Misfit, which is headed to Florida to try to persuadeRead MoreA Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor645 Words   |  3 PagesA Good Man â€Å"She would have been a good woman†¦if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life† (Gardner). Flannery O’Connor’s â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† tells of Bailey, his wife, their three children and Bailey’s mother all heading to Florida for vacation. In this paper I will summarize the story, and discuss the irony of the story and the morality and religion in the story. The family, Bailey, his wife, three children and his mother, are set to go on vacation to FloridaRead MoreA Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor 664 Words   |  3 PagesIn the story â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† Flannery OConnor uses the grandmother as a person who gets what she wants. At first she doesnt want to go to Florida she wants to visit her relatives in Tennessee. We also learn she is manipulative when she tries to change Baileys (her son) mind. Whenever something doesnt go her way she wants she isnt pleased. She uses the story of the Misfit to scare the family so that they would go to Tennessee. Something else the grandmother says about herself inRead More The Journey in A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor690 Words   |  3 PagesThe Journey in A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor In A Good Man Is Hard to Find, Flannery OConnors character searches for grace and redemption in a world full of sin. Grimshaw states, each one, nonetheless, is free to choose, free to accept or reject Grace (6). The Grandmother in A Good Man is Hard to Find, is on a journey for grace and forgiveness in a world where the redemption she is searching for proves to be hard to find. The Grandmother often finds herself at oddsRead More A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor Essay1204 Words   |  5 PagesA Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, the main character is the grandmother. Flannery OConnor, the author, lets the reader find out who the grandmother is by her conversations and reactions to the other characters in the story. The grandmother is the most important character in the story because she has a main role in the stories principal action. This little old lady is the protagonist in this piece. We learn more about her fromRead MoreEssay on A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor1564 Words   |  7 PagesA Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor A Good Man is Hard to Find is an extremely powerful commentary that elucidates Flannery OConnors 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 OConnor is notorious for expressing Catholic doctrines through her fiction. Once she even remarked I see fromRead MoreA Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor Essay1033 Words   |  5 Pages â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find,† written by Flannery O’Connor tells the story of a dysfunctional family headed to vacation and their inevitable death. The family, including their matriarch, the grandmother, represents the delusion perfection that many modern Christians have. The family displays an extreme sense of vanity, self-centeredness, and disobedience during the first half of the story. The first half of the story does not follow a specific pattern nor does it hold significance to the family’sRead MoreA Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor Essay1959 Words   |  8 Pages Who is the Misfit? In the short story, â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard to Find† a family comprising of a grandmother, a father, three children, and a wife is headed on vacation has the misfortune of meeting a murderous band of serial killers. The Misfit and his band of serial killers are recently escapees of a federal prison. In the following paragraphs this paper looks into the issues of, what one would do in a situation such as that and the background of the the family and murderers as well. The MisfitRead More Symbolism in A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor1038 Words   |  5 PagesUse of Symbolism in A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor is a short story that depicts a familys vacation to Florida that turned into an abysmal tragedy when they met with the Misfit, a convict who escaped from prison. This story is meant to be interpreted as a parable, whereby OConnor made skilful use of symbolism to bring about messages such as the class-consciousness and the lack of spiritual faith that exist amongst human.