Flannery O’Connor’s Short Story A Good Man is Hard to...

Flannery O’Connor’s Short Story â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† Flannery O’Connor’s personal views on the justification of religion and the resulting world or corruption and depravity are apparent in her short story â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find†. She analyzes the basic plight of human existence and its conflict with religious conviction. The first two-thirds of the narrative set the stage for the grandmother, representing traditional Christian beliefs, to collide with The Misfit, representing modern scientific beliefs. The core of symbolism and the magnet for interpretation is at the end, the conversation between the grandmother and The Misfit. The conversation represents the examination of the clash between animal and metaphysical human†¦show more content†¦This is the central dilemma of human consciousness. We are mindful of ourselves but we are also basically animals with violent tendencies and primitive drives. Everyday, these two selves collide. The understanding or awareness of each person demands that we r ise above our primeval instincts, and with this demand comes a need for meaning, a purpose beyond the material restrictions of our bodies and the world we see around us. Otherwise all that is left, as The Misfit comments, ...its nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can--by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness, he said and his voice had become almost a snarl. Yet, any belief beyond what we see and what we can touch or hear or smell or feel is just that, a belief. Consequently, any religious or spiritual or anti-religious and anti-spiritual ideology one wishes to take is a leap of blind faith. Eventually, as The Misfit perceives and in due course the grandmother perceives, the world of religious dogma and sacred creed are no match for the systematic observation based and amoral context of the modern world. Thus, we are left with no answer as to the existence of a Supreme Being and with no means to answer that question. Accordingly his frustration is not with Jesus and whether or not HeShow MoreRelatedFlannery O’Connor’s short stories â€Å"A good man is hard to find† and â€Å"Revelation† share many700 Words   |  3 PagesFlannery O’Connor’s short stories â€Å"A good man is hard to find† and â€Å"Revelation† share many similarities. While â€Å"A good man is hard to find† i s about a family that goes on a vacation that ultimately results in all of their deaths. â€Å"Revelation† is about a woman who is very judgmental and looks down on people. In the end both characters have revelations that contrast with who they are and how they portray themselves to the world. The protagonist in ‘Revelation† is Mrs. Turpin, and she depictsRead MoreA Family Vacation to Florida in Flannery OConnors Short Story, A Good Man Is Hard to Find631 Words   |  2 PagesIn Flannery O’Connor’s short story, â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard to Find,† a family, including the grandmother, Bailey the father, the mother and their two kids named John Wesley and June Star, are about to take a family vacation. The grandmother wants to vacation in Tennessee instead of Florida like the rest of the family. She tells Bailey about an article on an escaped inmate named â€Å"Misfit† that is suppose to be heading towards Florida. The family does not pay her any attention and the next morning theyRead More Flannery OConnors A Good Man is Hard To Find Essay1144 Words   |  5 PagesFlannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find is one of the most well-known short stories in American history. A Good Man Is Hard to Find is a disturbi ng short story that exemplifies grace in extremity as well as the threat of an intruder. The story tells of an elderly grandmother and her family who embark on a road trip to Florida. The grandmother is a stubborn old woman with a low sense of morality. While on the trip, the grandmother convinces her son to take a detour which results in a brokenRead More Flannery OConnor: A Twentieth Century Fiction Writer Essay829 Words   |  4 Pageswritten about Flannery OConnors short stories and novels. There is a significant amount critical analysis about Flannery OConnor because she used so many styles that have not been used before. Flannery OConnor ranks among he most important American fiction writers of the twentieth century. Flannery OConnor was born in 1925 in Savannah, Georgia, and lived there until her family moved in 1938. OConnor and her family moved to a small Georgia farming town named Milledgeville. When Flannery was 15 yearsRead MoreThe Moral Structure Of Flannery OConnors A Good Man Is Hard To Find1148 Words   |  5 PagesWorks Cited Bonney, William. The Moral Structure of Flannery OConnors a Good Man Is . Studies in Short Fiction, vol. 27, no. 3, Summer90, p. 347. EBSCOhost, pulaskitech.idm.oclc.org/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=truedb=afhAN=9705041482site=ehost-livescope=site. The ten stories in Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find circumscribe a moral and thematic center (Bonney). William Booney’s article was written as if the grandmother is actually grasping the savingRead MoreA Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor1196 Words   |  5 Pagesfamously 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 mastery of short narratives (SeelRead MoreThe Life Of Flannery OConnor Essay1099 Words   |  5 Pagesan author’s life on their writing is vast. Many people do not see the large influen ce of an author’s childhood on their writings, but it plays a major role. The life of Flannery O’Connor is no exception to this. The great Catholic lifestyle of her parents helped persuade her writing of, â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find.† Flannery O’Connor is regarded as one of the greatest supporters of Roman Catholic writings in the twentieth century. O’Connor was born in Savannah on March 25th, 1925 and her parentsRead MoreO Connor s Life1323 Words   |  6 PagesKnown for her short stories and well known novels, author Flannery O’Connor has been a vision of American literature for the last eighty years. Born and raised in Savannah, Georgia during the Great Depression, O’Connor grew up during an era of hardship and trouble trying to focus on her studies while her family was battling financial difficulties. During this time of O’Connor’s life is where her short stories begin to form and her desire to share her experiences of love, friendship, and life blossomedRead More Violence Leading To Redemption In Flannery OConnors Literature1482 Words   |  6 PagesRedemption in Flannery OConnors Literature Flannery OConnor uses many of the same elements in almost all of her short stories. I will analyze her use of violence leading to the main character experiencing moral redemption. The use of redemption comes from the religious background of Flannery OConnor. Violence in her stories is used as a means of revelation to the main characters inner self. The literature of Flannery OConnor appears to be unbelievably harsh and violent. Her short stories characteristicallyRead MoreA Good Man Is Hard And Find By Flannery O Connor1190 Words   |  5 PagesIn Flannery O’Connor’s short story â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard to Find†, O’Connor tells the story mainly on the emphasis of the grandmothers prospective. The grandmother was never named in the short story, only leaving the reader to guess if this story was how O’Connor portrayed a feeling toward society and religion. In order for the reader to understand the point of view of the story, the reader must look at the back ground of the author. Born in Georgia, where the story takes place, O’Connor was raised