“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” : A confusing moral puzzle
Published in 1955 in a short story collection by the same name, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” has become one of O 'Connor 's most notable works of short fiction because it is the most accurate exhibition of the author’s writing style as “Catholic Realism” as well as a representative for the famous old-fashioned Southern Gothic literature in the last century. With an ideal theme of goodness – evilness and humorous but gothic genre, the story is an intense but valuable experience for both readers and the writer on their journey seeking for meaning of morality and humanity in our society from a darker angle. Questioning and challenging the basic standards of morality, O’Connor has successfully created a confusing moral puzzle of goodness and evilness, of justice and injustice …show more content…
Apparently, every character is sinful and morally flaw in his or her way. The grandmother is hypocritical, prejudice and self-righteous. She always praises herself of being “a lady” and believes that she is morally superior to others. As a matter of fact, she often sprays judgement on others and freely criticizes whether what they do is good or bad, based on her neglect and biased conscience. Nevertheless, “the old lady” is also dishonest and selfish since she lies to her family many times for her own interest and never begs those killers for sparing her family life except herself. In the other hand, her family is not much better, as well. They usually disagree on everything and sometimes even disrespect each other. That is why although they are on vacation, there are still a lot of arguments along the journey. Apart from the family, we find Sammy and his wife with an underlying family issue, the Misfit - a group of criminals who kill for their own sakes. Strangely, there is no one in the story that we can fully respect and
Published in 1955 in a short story collection by the same name, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” has become one of O 'Connor 's most notable works of short fiction because it is the most accurate exhibition of the author’s writing style as “Catholic Realism” as well as a representative for the famous old-fashioned Southern Gothic literature in the last century. With an ideal theme of goodness – evilness and humorous but gothic genre, the story is an intense but valuable experience for both readers and the writer on their journey seeking for meaning of morality and humanity in our society from a darker angle. Questioning and challenging the basic standards of morality, O’Connor has successfully created a confusing moral puzzle of goodness and evilness, of justice and injustice …show more content…
Apparently, every character is sinful and morally flaw in his or her way. The grandmother is hypocritical, prejudice and self-righteous. She always praises herself of being “a lady” and believes that she is morally superior to others. As a matter of fact, she often sprays judgement on others and freely criticizes whether what they do is good or bad, based on her neglect and biased conscience. Nevertheless, “the old lady” is also dishonest and selfish since she lies to her family many times for her own interest and never begs those killers for sparing her family life except herself. In the other hand, her family is not much better, as well. They usually disagree on everything and sometimes even disrespect each other. That is why although they are on vacation, there are still a lot of arguments along the journey. Apart from the family, we find Sammy and his wife with an underlying family issue, the Misfit - a group of criminals who kill for their own sakes. Strangely, there is no one in the story that we can fully respect and