A Good Man is Hard to Find - Essay Example

A Good Man is Hard to Find “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’ Connor is a story which has many literary devices which make it a masterpiece.In the story, we can find allegory, symbolism and imagery. Some people think this story is a tale which is cynical as it brings our pettiness and manipulation. For others it is a black comedy, a twisted cartoon or a horror story. Still others think the story is the mysterious ways in which God works through human beings. It is one of the best stories of Flannery O’Connor and she sees this one as a realistic fiction. In this story we can find that author has used many literary devices to make it eccentric and certainly unique literary voice. ( Thesis) “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a story which tells about the dramatic transformation of a person. Losing everything in her life and threatened by death, the Grandmother appears to undergo a transformation miraculous change of her heart. Such a transformation used by the author may be unbelievable but perhaps do find such moment in life at least once. This story has many themes like good vs. evil, religion, manipulation, family society and class. The author has confirmed that she was inspired by Christianity when she wrote this story. We can see many Christian ideologies in this story for the very same reason. In the story we can see that there is mention of good vs. evil. The grandmother treats goodness as a function of having good manners, decency and she confronts someone who is evil and misfit in the society. Here we can see a confrontation of good with the evil. The grandmother is a person with religious values and misfit doubts his punishment and thinks there is no right or wrong in life. At the climax of the story, Grandmother receives moment of divine grace and transforms the misfit along with her. In this story, the Grandmother manipulates people including her family members and the criminal. It is also talks about a dysfunctional family and they way the family members annoy each other. The Grandmother also depicts the social class of a lady from a respectable family. The stories has various characters like the Grandmother , the misfit, Bailey, John Wesley, The Mother, Bobby Lee, Hiram, Red Sammy and his wife,Pitty Sing, The baby and June Star. The Grandmother is the central character in the story and she is shown as a character who is selfish and a person who manipulates other people. She considers herself a lady. She always looks nice and dress respectably and has good manners. She is tied to things in past and is not deeply religious and the end transformation of the lady can be seen as a moment of grace and we can see the author’s religious outlook with this scenario. The Misfit in the story is a person who does not understand why he is punished for a crime he has not committed. He seems himself in the position of Jesus and the only difference is that they could prove he is guilty because they had papers on him. Bailey is grandmother’s only son and the Father of June Star and John Wesley. He gets killed shortly in the story which breaks the heart of the Grand Mother. Bailey is one character which earns the sympathy of the readers. June Star is Bailey’s daughter and is pretty nasty to people. John Wesley is also nasty and tortures his Grandmother. The mother in the story has nothing much to do in the story as she barely speak or dies anything and is a bland character. Bobby Lee is an accomplice of the Misfit and thinks killing is fun. He thinks shooting the Grandmother would be fun. However he does not transform like Misfit at the end of the story. Hiram is another accomplice of Misfit and is expert in car and has a better personality than Bobby Lee. Another character is Red Sammy and is a person alike Grandmother and is a good man. He says people are not trust worthy like in past and says “A Good Man is hard to find”. According to ( O’Connor 43) “ A good man is hard to find," Red Sammy said. "Everything is getting terrible. I remember that day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more”. However, his wife does not trust anyone including her husband. Pitty Sing is the cat of the Grand Mother. The Baby is another character who has little to do in the story and is a character whom we feels sorry for as its get’s shot while sleeping. The symbolism, allegory and imagery in the story can be seen with the author mentioning “Toomsboro”, “Big black battered hearse- like automobile”, “The dark forest”, “and The cloudless sunless sky”. The Toomsboro is mentioned when the family passes right when grandmother wakes up and when the family gets trapped with Misfit and it is a symbol of tomb and a sign of doom of the family. This phrase is used when Misfit’s car approaches the family and it symbolizes a coffin which carries a funeral and images an imminent death and fate of the family. The forest is where the family is trapped and is the image of death of the family. The cloudless and sunless sky is mentioned several times in the story and it is an ambiguous image and suggests both peace and tragedy. In this story, the Grandmother has another implication for the Goodness and she finds a man is good not because he is moral or kind but if he aligns with her values. Red Sammy is good for Grandmother because he is nostalgic and innocent. Misfit is good because he won’t shoot a lady which she finds as a moral code. As per (O’Connor109) “ I was a gospel singer for a while," The Misfit said. "I been most everything. Been in the arm service both land and sea, at home and abroad, been twice married, been an undertaker, been with the railroads, plowed Mother Earth, been in a tornado, seen a man burnt alive”. However, her assumption of good seems to be false. In the story, the author makes both Grandmother and Misfit as recipient of grace who both are unlikely of it. Despite of their flaws, sins and weaknesses and author shows us that God’s grace falls upon people to allow them to get salvation and to give them a chance to reach heaven. The story starts in comic episodes and finally ends in tragedy. The story contains elements of southern Gothic, a fictional genre and romanticism of nineteenth century. The story begins in Atlanta, Georgia in the home of a family and they are planning for a trip to Florida. While travelling, the family meets with an accident and the time is mid – twentieth century and happens at summer time all these is the setting of the story. The author narrates the story from a third person point of view. In few instances she also reveals the thought of the character which is an omniscient approach. The author uses foreshadowing which indicates the tragic developments in the story. The imagery is shown with color and light and the attire of Grandmother, blue granite, red clay banks, silver – white sunlight all has purpose in the story. As per ( O’Connor 12) “Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady”. The metaphors in the story can be seen as follows. The family’s discussion of trip can be seen as birth and childhood. The travelling of the family to Florida is the adulthood. And the family’s car accident can be seen as old age and death. The irony in the story is that characters think themselves to be something while the readers think of them different due to their actions. The author has religious message in the story which says that God’s grace fall upon all people when they repent. So the story is a good fiction with many literary devices which makes it unique. Work Cited OConnor, Flannery. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories. San Diego, Calif: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1983. Print. Read More