An Ounce Of Cure By Alice Munro and A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery OConnor - Essay Example

“An Ounce Of Cure” By Alice Munro and “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Connor Two short stories by two different are so very different. They differ in language choice, composition, setting, and structure – almost everything. However, there is a similarity. The end of both stories gives hope. Hope for the life being changes, albeit, sometime, at what price. Flannery O’Connor’s “A good man is hard to find” is short story where the writer, using only simple short sentences is able to build the plot in such a way, that the reader knows about emotions of the main character without the author telling about it.

The narration is from the third person, but the story is centered on grandmother. She is the one, who is described the most, who’s thought and actions are given more attention. Other characters seems not as important to the story, and others are downplayed so much so that the reader hardly notices they are there, like children’s mother, who seems to wear the same clothes all through the story, she hardly talks, her name is unknown. As to contrast, the grandmother is very particular in her choice of clothing; she is a real “lady”.

However it seems children do not like her so much. The story takes place in Georgia, even though no specific place mentioned. During the second half of the story the characters are mainly in the “ditch”, only sometime people are taken to the forest. The story keeps the reader in suspense. It starts with an argument in the beginning as to what place they will go for vacation – Florida or Tennessee. The old lady really wants to go to Tennessee, so she uses all the arguments possible to convince her son to head that direction.

Then she attempts to talk to her daughter-in-law, but the mother seems to be utterly uninterested in what grandmother has to say. Author does not describe her much, just says that her face is “as innocent as cabbage.” It is very possible grandmother doesn’t like mother so much. So the next morning when the family is ready to go, grandmother is the first one to be in the car, having her nice clothes on, so maybe she did succeed after all in persuading her son to change the destination, that’s why she is so happy.

However, later the family meets the Misfit, who is suppose to be somewhere closer to Florida, as the newspapers were announcing. What will happen to the family once they met with Misfit? Will any of them live? Will grandmother be able to talk him into being good? What exactly was happening in the woods? All those questions and many more are coming to mind when reading the novel. The answers are only suggested, so a lot is left up to the reader’s imagination and belief. Even the ending leads to more thinking: what impact this incident had on Misfit?

Will he change? He just killed innocent people, and grandmother just brought up the memories from his past, some are good, some are not pleasant. Grandmother showed him that he can be lovable and she even told him she loved him. Did this whole scene change the criminal? There is a hope, however the author, again, leaves it up to readers to decide what is the outcome. The second story is very different. It is told from the first person, and she talks a lot about her feelings and emotions. The author uses some elaborate words and more complicated sentence structure, probably to show how confused the girl is.

The heroine is obviously naive and innocent, even though she is also very independent. Girl’s introspection does not provide for the feeling of suspense. However, in both stories’ introductions the clue is given as to what will be happening later: grandmother is reading about the Misfit, and the girl relates her memories of her parents not drinking much alcohol. After that the reader is given a good account of what was happening with the girl, what led her to the decision to get drunk. It was not because she was rebellious; it was because she did not know how to cope with her in-live emotions.

It seems she could not find a comfort anywhere, even the mother did not understand her sorrows. Her emotional sufferings were so unbearable that she even thought to commit suicide, but stopped herself after taking six pills. Yet, it was very difficult to cope with the emotions. So at the place she was baby-sitting she decided to get drunk. She never had a drink, she did not know anything about consuming alcohol, and thus she had two full glasses of a very strong drink and ended up being sick.

She managed to call her best friend and to ask for help. Again, she was not seeking a help from mother, maybe because the mother did not have faith in her daughter anyway, and she could not relate to what the girl needed. The saying goes “an ounce of prevention is better than the pound of cure”, so the author suggests this incident, as unpleasant as it was, did bring some relief and the narrator could continue with her life; however the shame was the consequence of her act. And, thankfully, it took only an “ounce” of troubles, not the whole “pound”, to sooth girl’s emotional struggle.

The life has changed; she has hope for the better. So the hope is always there, even in the worst of circumstances, whether they are consequence of the action, or it is something out of natural control. Modern short story writers skillfully, and very differently, bringing their readers to the understanding of it. References: Comforts of Home: The Flannery O’Connor Repository. Brian Collier and Comforts of Home.mediaspecialist.org. 2011. Web.12 May 2011 Alice Munro. guardian.co.uk Guardian News and Media Limited 2011 Web.

12 May 2011