Everyone likes to gossip once in a while right? Well then Cold Sassy Tree is the perfect book for you; it incorporates family drama with town gossip. Staged in a small southern town, now Commerce, Georgia, Cold Sassy Tree is presented from Will Tweedy’s, a young teenager, perspective. The book focuses on the Blakeslee family deaths and an unexpected marriage, which create conflict and tension between the town and the family. Overall, Cold Sassy Tree is a journey about the deaths of family members, the effects of those deaths, and the way the affected people deal with them.…
Taking a look at the grandmother, it is important to note her namelessness, because this characteristic signifies a deeper symbolic meaning. The story begins, “The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida” (1). There are three unnamed characters in the story: the grandmother, the children’s mothers, and The Misfit. Throughout, the grandmother is referred to by her title in place of her name, which allows the reader to see the grandmother as an illustration of the typical person. Because of her namelessness, she comes to represent everyone, and her external and internal conflicts with vanity, control, and egotism represent the collective of humanity’s struggles.…
Explication of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is a very interesting short story. The story starts with a grandmother trying to talk his son into going to Tennessee instead of Florida for a family trip. She tells the son about The Misfit who escaped prison who is going toward Florida. The family disagrees with the grandmother and they end up going to Florida.…
Point of View in “To Build a Fire” and “Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird” In “To Build a Fire” by Jack London and “Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird” by Toni Cade Bambara, the authors explore the idea of human flaws through their storytelling. In each story, the author conveys the flaws of various characters and how they affect themselves and others. Although the narrators in “To Build a Fire” and “Blues Ain’t No Mockin Bird” are portrayed very differently, both stories achieve their objectives by allowing the reader to see the human flaws and errors in man’s way in each story.…
The novella Turn of the Screw was written by Henry James and originally published in 1898. The story is a ghost tale, involving a Governess and two children. There is much debate to whether the Governess in this story is sane or insane. According to Oxford Dictionaries, insanity is a “state of mind that prevents normal perception, behavior, and social interaction” (Oxford Dictionaries). The Governess can be considered insane since she has disturbed perceptions, exhibits abnormal behavior, and has unnatural social interactions.…
The author of the book grows up with a mother named Joy that is dedicated to taking care of him, providing for him, and teaching him right and wrong. She makes many sacrifices for her children so they can…
Plot Flannery O' Conner is someone who depicts the title of the short story "Good Country People" by presenting these characters, and showing their true intensions as the story leads on. The main and essential characters are people who seem good on the outside at first glance but after while their true colors show you who they really are. Characters such as Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman are just the opposite of their name and what "Good Country People" are supposed to be. Mrs. Freeman loves a person downfall and that’s what she see in Hulga, she has also been working for Mrs. Hopewell on the farm. Mrs. Hopewell is the mother Hulga and her other daughter, she doesn’t uplift her daughter like the others instead she belittlers her with reasoning.…
Negative Capability is a person’s ability to live in a state of ambiguity without attempting to change their situation. The Hairdresser of Harare by Tendai Huchu, Red Scarf Girl by Ji-li Jiang, and Dawn by Elie Wiesel are all examples of novels in which characters are able to exist in states of uncertainty. The Hairdresser of Harare follows Dumisani, a gay man in a country that heavily discriminates against homosexuality. Red Scarf Girl is about the Chinese Cultural Revolution, told through the eyes of a young girl named Ji-Li Jiang who faces challenges due to her family’s social class. Dawn focuses on John Dawson, a British soldier imprisoned due to his role in the British occupation of Palestine and sentenced to death.…
Flannery O'Connor's “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is a short story told in the third person. In the short story, a group of escaped convicts, led by a notorious leader called the Misfit murder a family because of a series of mishaps on the part of the Grandmother. The story centers singularly on the Grandmother; she is the character we were told most about.…
Flannery O’Connor’s short stories, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People”, both elude a comparable tone and mood consistent with her usual writing style. Both of these stories fit in with the Southern Gothic genre which has a very unique feeling. This type of literature often utilizes supernatural elements and irregularity of the grotesque focusing on people from Southern United States and their innate Christianity. Southern Gothic writing holds a focus on eccentric characters as well as moody and unsettling events. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” has become one of the most famous examples of this genre, holding true to its eerie feelings and dark tones.…
She is an extremely educated woman, but she understands herself so little. One example is that she realizes that she has a “weak heart” in the physical sense, but she also has a weak spiritual heart as well in terms of caring for others. Hulga is a very arrogant woman who always thinks she is one step ahead on everyone else. Mrs. Hopewell, Joy’s mother, is the only one who’s name appropriately fits her attitude and identity. The very idea of Mrs. Hopewell’s beliefs disgusts Hulga who has professed to believe in nothing.…
To many a mother’s love is an unconditional and an irreplaceable act of kindness. This love is seen to be a guide to growth and a love that helps to shape young children into well rounded adults. Throughout Jamaica Kincaid’s memoir, My Brother, her mom tends to show affection only in times of need when someone is down and does not really provide the leadership most mothers give. Most of the memoir is about intimacy, but a lot it deals with the relationships between mother and her children. Kincaid claims that the love her mother would give would not always be the best for them…
In a good man is hard to find, the book questions if a good man is really hard to find and shows that good men are often masked by unexpected people. The idea that there are very few good men and that good men can be found in the least expected people in the world is shown through the characters such as the misfit, Bailey, and the grandma. Many good men are not the people that one would expect them to be. This is strongly shown through The Misfit. In the end of the story, the Misfit has a conversion and changes from good to bad.…
A major theme of Flannery O 'Connor 's “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is what makes a person good. There is no clear answer, neither in the text nor in life. It is safe to say that a good person can be defined as one that is honest, kind, and always tries to do what is right. It is ironic then, maybe even a bit hypocritical, that the Grandmother is one of the most immoral characters in the story and yet she spends much of her time talking about what makes people good, judging others based on little to no information about them, and trying to convince the Misfit, a serial killer that just murdered her family, of his own goodness.…
A Life in Sight but Out of Reach The 19th century was a strange and highly structured time for women and Kate Chopin highlights many of these social controversies in her novel, “The Awakening.” The book revolves around a character named Edna, who felt constantly tied down by her husband and children. Despite her commitment to them, Edna still manages to discover a sense of freedom that she has been searching for her entire life. Although Edna’s freedom was in sight throughout the novel, it remained out of reach which led to the ambiguous ending where Edna goes into the ocean to drown herself and commit suicide.…