Flannery O’Connor’s and Southern Gothic Literature As a writer Flannery O’Connor blends aspects from both the south and their inherent Christianity. In her stories she does a wonderful job in the recreating of life in the south but at the same time she high lighted many of the parts of the southern society that many want to forget. Flannery O’Connor’s writings were anything but light hearted and carefree, she used many aspects of the Grotesque Southern Gothic genre and refers to the south as Christ haunted. Her short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is one of the most memorable examples of Southern Gothic. O’Connor’s message of morality, or lack there of, is very clearly presented to the reader. One example of her use of Southern Gothic
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In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, both the Grandmother and The Misfit fulfill this role. The grandmother is an unlikely character to receive this grace. Some of the actions she takes through out the story is to tell lies to her grandchildren, attempt to undermine and manipulate her son, as well as continually comparing the inadequacies of the present to the sufficiencies of the past. The Grandmother tries to manipulate her son, Bailey from the very beginning of the story. While trying to convince him to go to Tennessee instead of Florida, she attempts to change his mind using the newspaper article about the threat The Misfit poses to his children, saying “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that in it. I couldn't answer to my conscience if I did” (O’Connor 1). In the end the Grandmother ultimately is the one who leads her family directly to the dangers of The Misfit. She also does not display any self-awareness and seems oblivious to the changing world around her. One can understand when O’Connor describes the Grandmothers pulchritudinous clothing as her wearing “a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. 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” (11) while showing
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, both the Grandmother and The Misfit fulfill this role. The grandmother is an unlikely character to receive this grace. Some of the actions she takes through out the story is to tell lies to her grandchildren, attempt to undermine and manipulate her son, as well as continually comparing the inadequacies of the present to the sufficiencies of the past. The Grandmother tries to manipulate her son, Bailey from the very beginning of the story. While trying to convince him to go to Tennessee instead of Florida, she attempts to change his mind using the newspaper article about the threat The Misfit poses to his children, saying “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that in it. I couldn't answer to my conscience if I did” (O’Connor 1). In the end the Grandmother ultimately is the one who leads her family directly to the dangers of The Misfit. She also does not display any self-awareness and seems oblivious to the changing world around her. One can understand when O’Connor describes the Grandmothers pulchritudinous clothing as her wearing “a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. 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” (11) while showing