O'Connor's Critique on Religion in A God Man is Hard to Find - Essay Example

?O’Connor’s Critique on Religion in A Good Man is Hard to Find A Good Man is Hard to Find, which is a short story written by Flannery O’Connor, can easily strike the reader as grossly violent and almost bordering on the macabre. At the start of the story, one can have the tendency to consider its plot as merely that of a contradiction within the family due to the differences on moral principles. These moral principles are also presented as the results of the varied degrees of religiosity within one family. However, while the O’Connor’s short story is able to capture the attention of readers because of its shock value, the subject of the story and the subtle but powerful messages expressed by the author have become issues of debate among literary analysts as well. The opposing views or the interpretation of the story and the author’s intent are based on perspectives that may well be considered also as essentially contradicting. Such contradiction is also irreconcilable, with one side asserting that A Good Man is Hard to Find is basically an attack on attitudes resulting from religious hypocrisy while another likens the victims of the crime to the martyrs of the faith. In the ensuing debate, argument and counter-arguments have been thrown and one particular noteworthy article on the matter is one written by Arthur Bethea. The article simply titled O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find is an attempt by Bethea to present his own argument against the proposition of Stephen Bandy that neither the grandmother nor the Misfit really deserved to have their salvation. This line of thinking is apparently the result of an implied thought that grandmother was instrumental in the making the Misfit receive grace, which is actually an act that is also reflective of her belief that she too is the bearer of the grace. With this concept it is clear that Bandy is analysing the story from the point of view of someone who also considers himself to have the capability of judging others from his own moral perspective. Apparently, Bethea does not agree with this and he is write in his presentation of a more objective literary analysis that could be deemed as more precise in the appraisal of O’Connor’s views, In his own analysis of the plot, Bandy expressed his own impression of grace from the viewpoint of how human beings or mortals would have treated it to be, especially on the concept of grace. Bethea, however, writes that Bandy has “a far too intricate view of grace, missing a basic point: God is God; He can do anything He wants—even save people like the grandmother and The Misfit.” (246) Bethea admitted in this very same article that he is agnostic, someone who does not belong to any Church but does not necessarily disbelieve in God. Yet, he reminds those who share the same idea with Bandy that when O’Connor wrote about A Good Man is Hard to Find, he too believed in the existence of God and that, as a Supreme Being, He can do whatever he wants and he can decide according this ways, which are most often too mysterious for man to understand. In this regard, Bethea correctly put in context his argument to the background of the author himself as well as to the circumstance of the story. This is obviously the reason why he can provide a more accurate explanation of O’Connor’s mindset in describing a scene or presenting a dialogue between the characters. All throughout the story, there are instances that O’Connor clearly attempts to explicitly present his skepticisms and confusions about the teachings of Christianity. Near the end of the story, she wrote about the Misfit who said “I found out the crime don’t matter… You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you’re going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it.” (O’Connor 49) At this point of the story, the Misfit was already contemplating on killing the grandmother as well. As a clear attempt motivate himself to kill the grandmother, the Misfit mentioned the said line which basically meant that the punishment man after all is already burdened with sin since birth because of the doctrine of the Original Sin. This only signifies that man is already bound for punishment. Therefore, crime and its legal consequences are really already moot and academic. If one does not commit crime, he can be doomed still because he is already born with original sin. This said portion of the story may be considered as a sign that O’Connor indeed has some confusion about her Christian faith and that such confusion may actually be the reason why she does not hesitate to present her views in her story. Such an impression would have been the convenient explanation of the story’s message to be grasped by the Bandy. In fact, in Bandy’s article he wrote that “there would seem to be little here to inspire hope for redemption of any of its characters” and that “its message is profoundly pessimistic and in fact subversive to the doctrines of grace and charity, despite heroic efforts to disguise that fact.” (1996) With such issues raised, Bandy is critical of the grotesque and negative impact of the story on the reader, which is again contrary to the actual meaning of this part of the story. Bethea, on the other hand, has a very positive outlook, even especially at that part when the story’s lead character, the grandmother, was herself to be subjected to death. For Bethea, Christians usually believe in the inherent goodness of man despite this concept’s clear contradiction with the theory on original sin. At that point when the grandmother already knew that she would be the next to die, she said “Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady.” (146) This may simply be considered as an expression where the grandmother simply took the Lord’s name in vain. However, this may is definitely not the case in the story since, “subtly intimating that The Misfit can be touched by the divine as well as by evil and thus could serve as God’s prophet, O’Connor’s dialogue juxtaposes reference to him with the word Jesus.” Bethea (247) The Bible’s New Testament is also filled with so many verses that refer to the point that God does not discriminate between sinners and non-sinners when it comes to listening and heeding to prayers. In fact, as Bethea’s explanation clearly imply, everyone, including the most hardened sinners or criminals such as the Misfit should be seen as people who have some ‘Jesus’s in them and therefore deserves respect and kindness. Considering O’Connor’s upbringing as a Catholic it is very likely that this may exactly be what she wished to imply. While acknowledging the efforts of the grandmother to pass grace to the Misfit, Bethea does not go to the extent making her a saint or free of negative tendencies. In fact, it is clear that Bethea recognizes the effort of O’Connor in presenting the grandmother as someone who is very hypocritical when it comes to her religious and moral convictions. She is someone who can easily label someone as good or bad depending on her own perspectives on morality. What is clear though is that she would also not hesitate to change her views on human behavior according to her interests. If she finds a person’s actions advantageous to her, she could quickly dismiss it as moral and that the person is good. The reason for this particular treatment of the grandmother though is that her character is not really the most important factor in the analysis that Bethea made on O’Connor’s story. In the last part of the story, the Misfit ultimately killed the grandmother, which is a subtle attempt by O’Connor to expound on the message that God does not always grant wishes all the time and that his decisions again are too mysterious to second-guess or to anticipate by man. After killing the old lady, the Misfit said that “it is no real pleasure in life.” (87) ‘It’ here refers to the murder or the violence committed by the Misfit and his accomplices. When the Misfit said this, the reader is once again brought to confusion or to a point when notices the sudden inconsistency of this character. In most part of the story, this individual is thought of as heartless, sadistic, and very anti-Christian. It was not expected of him to be suddenly apologetic or sensitive. However, Bethea clarifies this by pointing out that “with it interpreted as an expletive, the last sentence means ‘there is no real pleasure in life,’ and thus rejects the earlier location of pleasure in the temporal” and therefore “those who find no pleasure in the earthly are, of course, vastly more likely to seek it in the Divine, as do prophets.” (248) At the very last part of what is seemingly a very grotesque story, O’Connor is able to provide a message of hope that even the most hardened criminal can still change in the end. It is true that the Misfit does have the tendency to ‘seek the Divine’ as Bethea suggests. Man’s instinct is always to search for things that would really satisfy him. If he does not find contentment in one aspect, he would always do his best to search for it elsewhere. The Misfit was apparently expressing his discontentment with what he said about not having pleasure. This is clearly a sign that he would be on his way to seeking the Divine. Without actually going through the deeper meaning of O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find and without grasping the symbolisms that it may have. One may tend to think of it as a story that is essentially violent and grotesque, the sordid result of the author’s intention just to shock readers. However, this is clearly not the case. O’Connor as explained by Bethea did not even put religion to a very bad light although she did express her disgust for some of the concepts related to by developing a character like the grandmother. Instead, the story is about the contradictions that people have internally when confronted with matters pertaining to faith and religion. In fact, the story basically teaches catechism, through subtler manners. It would take another lengthy discussion though if there is a need to discover why O’Connor decided to produce a story that is this grotesque just to present her ideas on her faith. Nevertheless, she still managed to deliver her message. Works Cited Bandy, Stephen. “One of My Babies: The Misfit and the Grandmother.” Studies in Short Fiction, Winter 1996. FindArticles.com. 09 Oct, 2011. Bethea, Arthur. “O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find.” The Explicator, Vol. 64, Issue 4. Philadelphia, PA: Heldref Publication, 2006 O’Connor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1993. Read More