Summary of A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery OConner - Term Paper Example

A Good Man Is Hard To Find A Good Man Is Hard To Find is a short story by an American writer Flannery O’Conner. Her stories are mostly written in a Southern Gothic style that depicts the moody and unsettling life of the southerners. She creates grotesque characters that appear to be normal in initial portion of the stories, but gradually they are revealed to be insane and sometimes scary. O’Conner keeps a realistic tone in her stories by focusing more on the authenticity of the characters than their peculiar characteristics. In spite of her surreal style of writing, her stories always contain convincing actions and choices. O’Connor was brought up as a Roman Catholic and her faith is always reflected in her work, and her stories always deal with the issues of morality and ethics. Summary The story is about a family on a trip to Florida. The family consists of Bailey, his wife and three kids including an infant, and also his mother who is simply referred to as “the grandmother”. Initially, the grandmother shows reluctance to join in the trip on apparent pretext of a murderer named Mistfit on the loose. However, the next day the entire family embarks on the journey by car; the grandmother even secretly takes her cat. On the way they stop to eat at a restaurant, where the grandmother gets engaged in a conversation with the owner. They talk about how good men are hard to find as she says “people are certainly not nice like they used to be.” (O’Connor, 7) Back on the road, the grandmother talks about a plantation nearby. The kids compel the reluctant Bailey to steer the car towards it. But, after a while, the grandmother remembers the plantation is actually in Tennessee. Shocked by her own error, she jerks and her cat which was stowed in a basket jumped onto Bailey’s shoulder. This suddenness was followed by an accident, although no one was killed. As the family waits for help, a car arrives driven by Misfit and his two allies. As the grandmother attempts to engage Misfit in a conversation by telling him he is a good man and ought to lead a good life, the Misfit orders his cronies to take first Bailey and his son, and then his wife and the remaining kids into the woods where they all are killed. The grandmother, now in a state of panic continues to give her sermon on Jesus, and this prompts the Misfit to share some of his own opinions about Jesus. Detecting a moment of vulnerability, the grandmother reaches out to touch him and calls him her son; instantly the Misfit recoils and shoots her three times in the chest. The story ends with the Misfit telling his allies “She would’ve been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life”. (O’Connor, 23) About the author O’Connor’s upbringing and her religious heritage had a major impact on her writings. Her parents were devout Roman Catholics whose Irish ancestors immigrated to the US in the nineteenth century. Soon, they adopted the cultural life of Georgia. O’Connor grew up to develop strong Catholic faith, which was well reflected in her story A Good Man Is Hard To Find. Although she was a member of the Catholic patriarchal community, her own family was dominantly matriarchal. Her mother exerted a great influence on her. Nevertheless, her father who was a real estate agent and died when she was only 15, also had a major impact on her since he had always supported her literary talent (Eder, 1). Influence of O’Connor’s religious lifestyle The story is a deep reflection of O’Connor’s Catholic faith, and the subject matter leans on caricature and satire. In this fiction, the author attempts to evoke in the minds of the readers a deep thought about religion, and the influence has been quite destructive for sensitive readers. With this story, O’Connor has reached out to the atheistic readers by depicting grotesque characters those use their religious faith in a twisted manner to achieve their ends. The story is written from the perspective of the grandmother whose perceptions get a free rein in the entire course so much so that the readers make a negative judgement on the Misfit even before the character makes his appearance in the story. In the final portion of the story, Misfit becomes engaged in a religious conversation or more specifically debate with the grandmother. He shares his own opinions about Jesus, making it clear he has given much thought on this subject (Petit, 301-302). At one time, in order to save herself from getting killed, the grandmother desperately tells the Misfit “I just know you’re a good man”, to which he replied “Nome, I ain’t a good man, but I ain’t the worst in the world neither.” (O’Connor, 17) In this story, the author wanted to portray Misfit in a sympathetic light so that the readers can believe that he too can gain salvation. This only reflects more profoundly the Catholic faith of the author because according to Christian theology, by the grace of God every human being is gifted with the favor of salvation and even those humans who seem less likely to receive God’s grace are also bestowed with salvation. In other words, God on his own accord can open the gates of heaven to all the sinners of this world. In this story, the grandmother seems to be undeserving character for salvation. She lies to her family about “a house with a secret panel” (O’Connor, 9), and constantly gives sermons on flaws of the present and superiority of the past. She seems to be insensitive to the people around her, and only believes in her own moral rights. She takes it upon herself to judge others and believes in instructing others on their moral issues. In spite of this, she displays a moral weakness at the point of time she was scared of her death; although she instructs the Misfit to pray, she herself falters when trying to utter a prayer. The Misfit, on the other hand, is a serial killer and had no remorse for his evil deeds. This makes both the characters unlikely to deserve the grace of God. In all her stories, O’Connor makes a point that religious faith can be heightened by coming face to face with evil, and those who are doubtful and unprepared, tragedy is preordained for them. Her characters are more often pretenders of faith who very often face the revelation of Truth at a disastrous moment. In A Good Man Is Hard To Find, the grandmother experiences a leap of faith after being confronted by the darker side of human. Although the grandmother regards herself as a religious person, she focuses more on her appearance (Cook). This gets reflected in her choice of best clothes when traveling so that “in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” (O’Connor, 3) Thus, the grandmother lives in a no man’s land between the spiritual and the material worlds, because she has no real religious commitment. Only after her encounter with the Misfit, the grandmother realizes the difference between her conception of faith and the true essence of things. She innocently hopes that her telling the Misfit that he is a good man will somehow convert him from being a serial killer. The Misfit, on the other hand, lacks faith in the possibility of salvation, and pushes himself towards his own destruction of spirit (Cook). Conclusion O’Connor’s religious lifestyle was reflected in all her literary fiction, often becoming target of criticisms because of her harsh depiction of religion. In spite of violent themes, her stories carry a conviction of the divinity. Moreover, her characters always face disastrous situations that make them realize the moment of grace which is a Christian concept. In this story the grandmother realized that A Good Man Is Hard To Find. References Cook, David Allen. “Light and Shadow: Religious Grace in Two Stories by Flannery O'Connor”. Mediaspecialist, 2002, December 12, 2012 from: http://mediaspecialist.org/cooklight.html Eder, Katharina. Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” - an Analysis, GRIN Verlag, 2011 O’ Connor, Flannery. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, USA: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1992 Petit, Susan, “Finding Flannery O’Connor’s ‘Good Man’ in Marilynne Robinson’s ‘Gilead’ and ‘Home’, Christianity and Literature, 59.2 (2010) 301-318 Read More