Identifying Evil in Flannery OConnors A Good Man is Hard...

Flannery O’Connor’s short story â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find†, is tale about a grandmother who unknowingly steers her family to a fatal meeting with a fugitive. The chance encounter with the murderous fugitive ultimately costs the grandmother and her family their lives. Sticking with the Southern Gothic genre, O’Connor takes odd characters and mixes in dark encounters to produce a story packed full of hidden meanings and foreshadowing (Language and Literature, 2). At first glance, it seems easy to identify the character that represents evil in the story, the murderous outlaw. However, things are not always, what they seem; a closer look will reveal that the murder might not be the evilest character in the story. The story opens with a†¦show more content†¦Comments such as the following reflect the contempt the family feels towards the grandmother. John Wesley the eldest boy responds to his grandmother’s request by saying If you dont want to go to Florida, why dontcha stay at home? (O’Connor, 3). His sister June responds a few lines later by insinuating that her grandmother would not stay home because in her opinion her grandmother would be â€Å"Afraid shed miss something. She has to go everywhere we go (O’Connor, 7). The family members discount and disrespect the grandmother either through sarcasm or by ignoring her (Hendricks, 204). While not â€Å"evil†, it demonstrates a lack of respect and consideration between the family and the grandmother. The sentiment of contempt is not lopsided but mutually occurring. The children and their parent disrespect the grandmother, but the grandmother also seems to be attempting to manipulate the family to suit her own desires. The story moves on and the road trip to Florida, not Tennessee as suggested by the grandmother, is underway. While the grandmother rejected the idea of going to Florida, she is the first person in the car to start the trip and makes a point to dress well in order to represent herself as a â€Å"lady† in case she happens to die in a traffic accident. While it might seem like the grandmother has finally agreed to the trip she is actively deceiving her family, she has smuggled her cat into the car for the trip, because she was fearfulShow MoreRelated A good man is hard to find paper1379 Words   |  6 Pages â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard To Find† nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;nbsp;Flannery O’Connor’s â€Å" A Good Man Is Hard To Find† depicts a family’s encounter with a criminal escaped from a federal penitentiary and their essential relinquishment of life. The family that the story surrounds has planned a trip to Florida for a family vacation. Knowing but unconcerned about the criminal at large, also known as the Misfit, the family voyages onward towards their destination until the trip is abruptly stopped by a totallyRead MoreMary Flannery O Connor1775 Words   |  8 PagesMary Flannery O’Connor is one of the most well-known short story authors of the twentieth-century. She centers many of her works around the mysteries of religion and the modernization of society. Drawing from her southern heritage and Catholic beliefs, O’Connor creates stories that are â€Å"peopled with strange and grotesque characters and shocking acts of both banality and horror† where â€Å"most of her stories include a moment in which grace is offered, a moment of profound mystery† (Mitchell 211). HerRead MoreA Good Man Is Hard For Find By Flannery O Connor1230 Words   |  5 PagesHour:1 A Good Man is Hard to Find â€Å"Do you ever pray,† (9) In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find,† two unlikely characters find themselves on an unexpected journey to find God. Christianity, the grace of God, and redemption are all used throughout the story. Religion is the underlying theme of the story through the title, the characters, and the details. The main purpose of â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† is to convert others to Christianity. The title, â€Å"A Good Man is HardRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagesresolved is one within the protagonist’s psyche or personality. External conflict may reflect a basic opposition between man and nature (such as in Jack London’s famous short story â€Å"To Build a Fire† or Ernest Hemingway’s â€Å"The Old Man and the Sea†) or between man and society (as in Richard Wright’s â€Å"The Man Who Was Almost a Man†). It may also take the form of an opposition between man and man (between the protagonist and a human adversary, the antagonist), as, for example, in most detective fiction. Internal