Flannery O’Connor once said “I have found, in short, from reading my own writing, that my subject in fiction is the action of grace in territory largely held by the devil” (“Flannery O’Connor Quotes”). She was the author of several different short stories; among them one can find “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Revelation.” These two short stories share similar content, ideas, and structure; however, they are certainly different in other ways. O’Connor’s life allows the reader to make conclusions about why her short stories were written the way they were. She was a Southern gothic writer, who lived in the state of Georgia from 1925 until her death in 1964. She grew up with a Catholic family and never got married; O’Connor lived at her farm,
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The subject of religion in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is brought up by the grandmother because she knows the Misfit is going to kill her; therefore, she uses religion to try to save herself. In “Revelation,” Mrs.Turpin believes to be a very devout Christian and often thanks God because of her place in society. Both of the short stories teach the reader that everyone appears the same in the eyes of God when the main characters go through epiphanies. When Mrs.Turpin realizes that the hierarchy she believes in does not matter to God in “Revelation,” she sees poor whites, African Americans, and rich whites going to heaven. In the end of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the Misfit and his friends shoot the entire family: husband, wife, children, and elderly; this represents how God treats everyone the …show more content…
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the grandmother dresses formally the day the family leaves for vacation because “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O’Connor 309); this foreshadows her death later during the trip. The grandmother also mentions the escaped convict, the Misfit, before and during the family trip to Florida; she eventually meets him at the end of the story. While the family was driving, they passed five of six graves in the middle of a cotton field; this foreshadows the death of the six people in the car. When the grandmother startled the cat by “upsetting the valise in the corner,” (O’Connor 313) the black cat sprang out of it, which can be considered bad luck. The car that approached the family after the accident is described as “a big black battered hearse-like automobile” (O’Connor 314); the hearse-like car foreshadows the family’s death. In “Revelation,” the way that Mary Grace makes impolite gestures to Mrs. Turpin foreshadows a confrontation between
The subject of religion in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is brought up by the grandmother because she knows the Misfit is going to kill her; therefore, she uses religion to try to save herself. In “Revelation,” Mrs.Turpin believes to be a very devout Christian and often thanks God because of her place in society. Both of the short stories teach the reader that everyone appears the same in the eyes of God when the main characters go through epiphanies. When Mrs.Turpin realizes that the hierarchy she believes in does not matter to God in “Revelation,” she sees poor whites, African Americans, and rich whites going to heaven. In the end of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the Misfit and his friends shoot the entire family: husband, wife, children, and elderly; this represents how God treats everyone the …show more content…
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the grandmother dresses formally the day the family leaves for vacation because “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O’Connor 309); this foreshadows her death later during the trip. The grandmother also mentions the escaped convict, the Misfit, before and during the family trip to Florida; she eventually meets him at the end of the story. While the family was driving, they passed five of six graves in the middle of a cotton field; this foreshadows the death of the six people in the car. When the grandmother startled the cat by “upsetting the valise in the corner,” (O’Connor 313) the black cat sprang out of it, which can be considered bad luck. The car that approached the family after the accident is described as “a big black battered hearse-like automobile” (O’Connor 314); the hearse-like car foreshadows the family’s death. In “Revelation,” the way that Mary Grace makes impolite gestures to Mrs. Turpin foreshadows a confrontation between