A Good Man Is Hard To Find Literary Analysis

Improved Essays
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” was written by Flannery O’Connor. This story narrates the story a family of five and the grandmother. The story begins with news of a runaway convict whose location coincides with the one they are going as a family trip. The grandma tries to convince them to go somewhere else but she did not make her point through, during their trip, a series of unfortunate events occur that lead to everyone’s death. Flannery O’Connor’s message is that sometimes, in order to make a point clear, without misunderstanding or judgment, one must undergo stages of communication instead of getting to the point right away with an argument. To do this, O’Connor uses the literary device of Tragedy in her short story.

O’Connor’s message is

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Web. 5 Apr. 2016. The critic, Stanley Renner, claims that O’Connor’s intentions in the short story “A Good Man is Hard To Find” did not match how the story ended. Renner believes that the story “ has proved particularly troublesome because O’Connor’s statements about her intention in its violent climax enjoins an interpretation that does not appear to be supported by the logic of its own content” (n.p.).…

    • 737 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a story of hypocrisy and irony. O’Connor’s tale of twisted morals and fleeting grasps at old standards takes a family from an innocent trip to Florida to an impending doom laid out before them by the narrator in the first paragraph. The fill of the story is one based on a grandmother’s traditional ways and the conflicting norms of their modern day society. A dying woman’s last attempt at life initially seems valiant, but the 1955 tale brings to light the error in her entire belief system and the proper foundation The Misfit has built his steadfastly on (SparkNotes). The tale brings to light a remorseless view of the world from two different eyes, a hypocritical grandmother and a…

    • 1439 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Throughout the short story A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor, there are slight inklings that hint towards the horrific demise of the family. These hints include various uses of foreshadowing and symbolism. However, there are three key aspects that leads readers to suspect not all is normal on this family road trip. The specific events that indicate the ending result of the story are the beginning conversation revolving around The Misfit, the siting of the old family burying ground, and the conversation with Red Sammy.…

    • 589 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Flannery O’Connor’s, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, shows the struggles that a family endures by a small accident leading to a big problem. A specific, southern grandmother and family encounter danger through macabre situations when they meet The Misfit.…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    An Apocalyptic Ending Preparation for the day of death remains an important concern in Christianity. Apostle Matthew instructed believers to “keep watch, because [they] do not know the day or the hour” of their departure from life. Furthermore, at any time, Jesus could return to Earth to welcome the faithful to Heaven, condemn the unfaithful, and hold all people responsible for their actions. In her short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor demonstrates this unpredictability of Judgment Day and its consequences through the actions of a runaway criminal, who represents the angel of death, in response to the sinful behaviors of a grandmother.…

    • 1025 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Grandmother's Redemption

    • 252 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In my essay, I plan on discussing the Grandmother’s need for redemption in “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”. The Grandmother, at the beginning at the story, wishes to visit east Tennessee rather than go to Florida due to a convict named The Misfit was on the run. The Grandmother loses and the family starts on their journey to Florida. During the journey, the Grandmother inadvertently causes an accident which attracts the attention of three males who happened to have been driving by. The Grandmother recognizes one of the males as being The Misfit.…

    • 252 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is about a family going on a vacation when it takes a turn for the worst. Bailey, his wife, two kids and the grandmother go on a road trip to Florida while an escaped convict, the Misfit, is on the loose. The family’s car crashes and coincidently the Misfit approaches the scene to “help” the family. After sending off the family members one by one to be shot by his accomplices, he kills the grandmother himself. The author, O’Connor, writes the story so that you end up hating the grandmother through her arrogant personality and racist remarks.…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    n is hard to do. O"Connor writes the story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," trying to portray the difficulty in finding a "good" man. No one is perfect, but knowing the difference between good and bad is usually not a hard decision. In this story, readers jumble over the title and ask themselves who's "good" and who's "bad". At first glance, or after reading the story the first time, the Misfit supposedly portrays himself as the evil character by killing the grandmother.…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    A story needs characters because they are what make the piece of literature like in A Good Man is Hard to Find. In the story A Good Man is Hard to Find the characters play an important part of the story especially the Misfit, June Star, and the Grandmother. These characters played and important role in this story and without them the story would be incomplete. The word misfit means a person who is poorly adapted to a situation or environment. Which mean the misfit really had no place in life he fit badly, but in the story he was the suspense in the story.…

    • 611 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” argues that negative aspects of human behaviour can influence an individual’s perception and cloud the true meaning of a “good man” (O’Connor 94). Initially, the grandmother appears to be “lady” (O’Connor 92) with moral principles. However, a closer analysis of the story’s characterization and diction suggests the grandmother is not actually as she may appear. Displays of selfishness, moral superiority and racism contradict the behaviour of a “lady” (O’Connor 92) and prevent the grandmother from being recognized with this title. O’Connor’s literary techniques such as irony, imagery and foreshadowing lead to the development of the grandmother’s character and suggest there is “no pleasure…

    • 1042 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Misfit Sermon Analysis

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages

    O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. 6th ed. Eds.…

    • 1264 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Always Trust Grandma’s Gut Feeling “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Mary Flannery O’Connor illustrates humor with suspense throughout the short story. Mary Flannery O’Connor is known for incorporating some religious meaning or feeling in her stories. (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012).…

    • 1097 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In her short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor introduces the reader to a world of family issues, danger, and murder. The story was written in 1955 during a period of social and racial unrest in the southern United States. Mostly, the story follows O 'Connor 's basic Southern Gothic writing style, a work that is "cold and dispassionate, as well as almost absurdly stark and violent" (Galloway). While the quote gives major insight into the tone of the story, it does not offer a glimpse into O 'Connor 's real message of the story. Her take on the characters is a complex mixture of agreement and disapproval.…

    • 1097 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O ‘Conner, is a tale about a family traveling to Florida for vacation. The family is made up of six members, being: the grandmother, a young girl named June Star, a young boy called John Wesley, a baby, the mother of the children, and Bailey, the father of the children. Throughout the narrative, the family faces arguments and trials and ends up crossing paths with an escaped convict, the misfit, and his two sidekicks. As the story progresses, the grandmother uses many forms of manipulation aiming to reach her own selfish outcomes. However, in the end, her tactics turn out to be fatal when she is unable to sway the misfit from killing her.…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    As a reader, when reading a story about violence a reader expects to read in detail about the violence. However, in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the violence is suttle and is described in little detail. When O’Connor describes the violence the reader receives little information on what is going on. The reader is informed “there was a pistol shot in the woods,” which gives the reader no clear image on the violence. This suggests that O’Connor wants her readers to be aware that violence is a joke in the south.…

    • 1448 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays