When reading the excerpt “On Her Own Work”, O’Connor brought up the idea of the Grandmother being viewed as a witch. I would’ve never thought about that, while this story has a lot to do with the concepts of good/evil and religion; I began to think about the idea of the supernatural. We have the Grandmother almost prophesizing her and her family’s destiny before the trip even begins. The Grandmother talks about how The Misfit escaped jail and how they would be better off going to Tennessee and then you have the kids making jokes about how they would react if they were faced with the bandit. While I am not a religious person I am spiritual, so having this comparison of the witch and destiny makes me more interested in the story; leaving it to only the view of religion makes me question God or Jesus. This makes me think about the Misfit’s mindset of a person who feels undeserving of his punishment, a man wronged by God and now being faced by a woman who still calls him a good man after killing her family. Had I not read the excerpt I would’ve never thought about the idea of destiny but rather coincidence.
Daily Archives: October 30, 2024
If I did not read the article “Excerpt from ‘On Her Own Work’: The Element of Suspense in ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’” I would likely have overlooked several critical aspects of the narrative. The author’s insights reveal the intricate layers of the grandmother’s self-deception, particularly how her superficial understanding of morality leads her to justify her flawed decisions. For instance, she often presents herself as a genteel lady while manipulating her family to get her way, highlighting the contradictions in her character. Moreover, the portrayal of the Misfit challenges the conventional notion of a villain. Instead of being merely evil, he is depicted as a character grappling with existential questions about morality and existence. His dialogue with the grandmother reveals his deep internal conflicts regarding good and evil, prompting me to consider the complexities of human nature. This nuanced characterization pushed me to reflect on my own moral ambiguity and the challenges of distinguishing right from wrong in a complicated world.
There are a lot of things I would have missed if I had not read the excerpt from activity one. The theme and plot of the story isn’t linear. So, without the excerpt I believe I would find many of the scenes disjointed or confusing pertaining to where the author is trying to take the readers in this story. The specific idea would be the grandmother being recognized as the “Heroine” and the misfit later on in life, going back to Jesus and becoming a prophet due to the grandmother’s words. She played a part in saving the misfit and what she said to the misfit before getting shot aided him in choosing a better life. Additionally, I would have thought that whatever the grandmother was saying was ineffective because he still shot her. But maybe he shot her because her words were having an effect on him and shooting her was his only defense against those words. I believe I would not have been able to pick up on these ideas by simply reading the story on its own without the excerpt.
