I think, “A good man is hard to find” by Flannery O’Connor is about how there is both good and bad in everyone. The grandmother is someone who was described as caring about her appearance and wanted to look good on the outside but she was also racist because of her upbringing and she just didn’t realize it. Meanwhile the misfit is described by the grandmother as looking like he’s a good person but in reality he’s a murderer. Throughout the whole story the grandma was trying to find the good in the Misfit by saying things like maybe they locked up the wrong person and telling him that he looked like a good person. The grandma is someone who wants to see the good in people which is why she kept calling people good like when Red Sammy was telling her that he got ripped off of gas.
Daily Archives: October 14, 2022
On a surface level “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is a story about how a family meets their untimely demise to a serial killer. However, I think the interior of the story is about how people may act like they know what their moral compass is like but most don’t. In the story the grandma thinks of herself very highly. She talks about how she once was sought after by a rich man who brought her watermelons every Saturday, and dresses nicely so that if she may die during the trip people will know that she was a lady. Throughout the story however, she shows that she is racist and manipulative and selfish. On the other hand we have the misfit who is a serial killer and facing death the grandma tries to plea to him to not kill her. She tries to show him that he is a good person because of how he looks and that he can still be saved. However, the misfit knows that he isn’t a good person and is evil. He knows exactly what he is and doesn’t try to pretend that he is someone that is good or neutral but just evil.
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor explores the conflict between appearance and reality. The grandmother appears to be a lady-like Christian woman, yet her encounter with The Misfit reveals that she does not believe in the central tenet of Christianity that Christ can raise the dead. In the story, there are two kinds of people. Those who know they are bad people and those who are bad people yet persist in believing they are good. The story depicts the impact of Christ on the lives of two seemingly disparate characters. One is a grandmother joining her son’s family on a trip to Florida. The grandmother makes the mistake of thinking that her own moral qualities are self-evident. At the end of the story, it is the grandmother who is seen as attaining grace. She attains it at her moment of death. She reaches out and recognizes the Misfit as her child. It is noted that throughout the story, it is the grandmother who advocates for the Christian faith. Both the grandmother and the Misfit are portrayed as stereotypes throughout the story, but their final encounter changes them. The grandmother’s journey from spiritual blindness to the realization of her own sins allows her to affect hopeful change in even the most despicable, unrepentant character, the Misfit. The author of this short story purposefully uses the two character types represented by the grandmother and the Misfit to show that anyone can change, as both characters, to varying degrees, represent humanity in all of its sinfulness. Looking carefully at the final encounter in the story, grace, an incredibly important concept for Flannery O’Connor, is shown to operate in both of these characters, presenting them with the possibility of change. Change through the delivery of grace is possible in anyone, as […]
The story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” was such an interesting read. It had a twist. I found myself pretty much on the edge of my seat. I think this story’s interior is how someone is portraying someone they aren’t. They are deceiving others to get what they want. People can be selfish. For example, the grandma didn’t want to travel to Florida but wanted to go to Tennessee. She took every opportunity to convince her son not to travel to Florida. She even mentioned that the Misfit escaped jail and wouldn’t risk her family with him being out there. Ironically, they bumped into him. She also bought her cat without mentioning it to her son. She lied about a secret panel and then realized that the house was in. The grandmother portrayed being a nice person. She said, “…oh look at the cute little Pickaninny!”. She had a double meaning by calling the child cute but used an offensive term in the same sentence. By deceiving her family to get what she wanted, tragically got them killed by the Misfit and he killed her at the end in the dress she wore in case she was found dead. It was very ironic story, but this is chef’s kiss.
“ A good man is hard to find” by Flannery O’Connor is a fascinating read and a very complex one. To start off as we get familiarized with the family it’s not very likable all around: the kids are spoiled and entitled, the dad seems aloof and burnt out, the mother is listless. When it comes to the grandmother she is the opposite of a caring, warm granny we subconsciously expecting to see. She is extremely self-centered, selfish and manipulative. Her goal was to change their trip destination to Tenesseee and she was trying to scare her son with the news about the murderer on the loose first. Since that didn’t prove to be effective she moved on to pretending like it would be good for the kids to see something new. The picture we had painted of the grandmother character was that of a superficial lady who cares to look her best even after she is dead. But something happens to her right before she gets shot by the notorious murderer “misfit”, she has an epiphany. This tragedy that had happened to her and the whole family, revealed her true essence right before she dies. And I think it’s one of the connotations of this story. “it is the extreme situation that best reveals what we are essentially” as the author says in the essay about her work.
In the story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by O’Connor the interior is about the personalities under the different characters personas what they show on the surface for instance how the grandmother potray that she’s a good person who cares about her children well being and is a good influence while under that she is a narrow minded manipulating racist. The interior also shows how the most evil character (the criminal) is the only one who’s most true to himself and doesn’t need to put on a persona to potray something he’s not.
When reading “A good Man Is Hard to Find” on a surface level it is a story about a family that faced a very unfortunate event. The exterior of this story is that the family is dysfunctional and they encounter an “unlucky” situation with a criminal, Misfit. At the root and internal point of this story is so much deeper and somewhat philosophical. The Grandmother has the upmost character and moral compass flaw that leads her character to be hypocritical, manipulative and egocentric. One could say she is stuck in her own arrogance, she believes she is a Christian like woman while her actions prove otherwise. With her character flaws contradicting with how she sees herself, I don’t know if she truly believed that she was a perfect person. The Grandmothers’ encounter with Red Sam made her feel understood and heard, that is something she did not feel very often. She disregarded how Red Sam acted toward his wife, but awarded him with such respect and gratitude that he were polite to two strangers that needed gas. I think that was something she needed to feel good about herself. When the Grandmother and The Misfit meet, The misfit explains how he views no one is truly good or that it is extremely rare to come across genuine people. The Grandmother pleads for her life, possibly not truly understanding what he is saying, she tried to lead him to god and even tried to console him. Even though he felt some emotion towards her words to him, he knew this was a manipulative tactic to get him to have mercy on her life and not out of genuine concern or sympathy for The Misfit.
In the story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Connor, the interior is more about the Grandmothers characteristics, and how she plays an important role in the story. The story’s interior is more based on her traits and actions in the passage. I think that a story’s “interior” is what it is mostly more than what it seems. I would compare it to an iceberg as how we only see so little, but if we were to look at the bottom of the ocean we would see so much for what it is. The Grandmother has a lot of negative characteristics as she is very racist and disrespectful. She shows her family that she is good and that nothing will happen, but then they end up being murdered. This is not a coincidence, it is on purpose, as she wanted all of it to happen. She tricked the family and is very selfish.
I just want to say this is probably my favorite story. A southern gothic classic in my opinion I love it. It has been a while since I felt so passionate and mesmerized by a story. “We know what the story is about on the surface. What do you feel the story is about in its “interior?” is a very ironic question since the story is about how appearances can be decieving. The grandma acts like she is a top class lady and thinks she is more superior than others by the way she is very racist and classist, calling the little black child who has done nothing but be a bystander living his own life a slur and showing her racist and very snobby side. She doesn’t even feel the need to learn her daughter in law’s name or get to her and just simply refers to her own daughter in law and mother of her grandchildren “The children’s mother” The family’s demise is all based on cause and effect of the grandmother manipulating the family to see a plantation that is not even in Georgia but in Tennessese. The Grandma thinks herself as so smart and cunning and can get her own way no matter what just like how racist and classist and every bit of a snob she is. The Grandma warning the family of the dangers of traveling is also a self fullfilling prophecy at the end since she is also the cause of getting her own family killed. The Grandma tries to see the good in the Misfit because of the way he is dressed and his demeanor which also plays into her being snobby and classist and only judges people based on their outer appearance and their outer appearance only which in the end […]
What timeless human experiences or behaviors do you find in your reading of Oedipus the King? The story “Oedipus the King”, is relevant to this world crisis and in the past time as its been happening through the centuries where the kings are getting executed by their own family members to get into power. Just like that what happens in this plot when he would murder his father and sleep with his mother. Oedipus is ignorant of the deep dishonor he has done. Had Oedipus taken a moment to consider that there was any possibility that the man he was arguing with was his father, maybe he wouldn’t have killed him. Immediately following the murder, Oedipus could have felt shame for killing someone, but he could not have felt shame for killing his own father, however, was viewed as an act of significant dishonor and, therefore, if Oedipus had known immediately after the fact that he had killed Laius, he would have taken on the burden of shame. Speaking to the Chorus, Oedipus asserts, “I account myself a child of Fortune, beneficent Fortune, and I shall not be dishonored.” Oedipus, believing that he has gone his whole life thus far outsmarting the gods, regards himself as being a man of great fortune and honor. Because Oedipus thinks he has not dishonored his family by killing his father and wedding his mother.
