Within Flannery O’Connor’s story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” she speaks on how a reader of a story should anticipate the suspense early on, bringing it from the surface and into the interior. What she may have meant when she stated this was that building suspense within a story comes from getting the reader to harbor deeper emotions over what is transpiring over simply knowing what is going to take place. The story dives deeper into the sense of morality with each character, and how they differ in what they believe to be right from wrong. An example from the story is the grandmother displaying self – absorption. What creates suspense is the internal conflict that each of the characters are presented and having doubts about their own sense of morality. The story as a whole focuses on create suspense through capturing the emotions and deep feelings from the reader themselves.
Daily Archives: November 5, 2023
In O’Connor’s story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” when she talks about suspense moving from the surface to the interior, I believe she means that the real suspense in the story comes from deeper ideas and feelings, not just the things that happen. Inside the story, it’s about how people are not always good, how they struggle with what is right and wrong, and how they can change. The story is not just about a family on a trip, but about their moral choices, like the grandmother being selfish, and their encounter with the Misfit, who challenges their beliefs. The suspense comes from their inner conflicts and the big questions about good and evil that they face. So, the story’s “interior” is all about these deep thoughts and feelings that make you wonder what will happen next and what it all means.
O’Connor believes that if you reveal the plot of the story, readers will focus on the deeper meaning of the story. The short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, O’Connor explores the complexities of human nature through each character. The grandmother, who comes off as the sweet southern Christian old lady that seems as if she could never do wrong, leads her family into the Misfit, a murderer accidentally. In her last few moments, she prays and relies on faith, however she still cannot see her wrongdoings. This is an example of irony, because she has a self righteous attitude. O’Connor explores themes of sin, morality, violence and human nature. The Misfit, who is supposed to be a violent killer has a vulnerable moment with the grandmother, however he serves as a character to symbolize the absence of remorse, and to be a “godless” individual. Although the family dies in the end, O’Connor’s use of symbolism, religion and irony allow readers to examine the characters and how they relate to each theme. The title “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is relevant to the moral of the story, which is that there is no definite line between good and evil.
