A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

Superior Essays
Why Not to Criticize In the short story of Flannery O’ Conner’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the grandmother along with the two kids John Wesley and June Star show different beliefs on different people based on their social backgrounds. The protagonist, is grandmother, who is only concerned about herself and she only views everyone around her as if everyone was beneath her. The kids, which are very similar to the grandmother, are very disrespectful and stuck up and they only worry about getting what they want. In this world, there should not be people discriminating on a certain race or talking bad about another race or culture. There also should not be young children who are thought and allowed to be disrespectful to their elders and other …show more content…
The grandmother proves that she is racist and looks down on the black race and every race she feels is a minority to her. For example, when she is telling a story to June Star she says, “Mr. Teagarden brought the watermelon and there was no one at home and he left it on the front porch and returned in his buggy to Jasper, but she never got the watermelon, she said, because a nigger boy ate it when he saw the initials, E.A.T! (429).” First of all she is referring towards the black race wrong and expresses herself as if the black race does not mean anything. Another way you can prove she looks down on a minority group is when she states she would not marry a man who only brings her watermelon. An example would be “She said she wouldn’t marry a man that just brought her a watermelon on Saturday.” Proving that she is looking down on certain groups because there are men out in the world who try there hardest to give their woman everything they desire. The grandmother’s attitude shows that she feels she has the most power and her arrogance proves she does not care for the minority races and has no type of respect for them. From her attitude, it also shows that the black race is not worth much and that white people will always rule the world. Many people such as Martin Luther King have fought for equal rights all around the world and the way the …show more content…
She goes from her racist arrogance act to becoming an innocent woman who will do no harm. While she is at gunpoint, she is telling Misfit, “Jesus the old lady cried. “You’ve got good blood! I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people!” Many people who have the power to succeed and not care for anyone else, have an attitude to where their life is on the line they freeze. Before the grandmother was at gunpoint, she was speaking about another races and felt she had more power than anyone else. Since she has no power at this point, she wants Misfit to believe that he is just like her and has the same power just so that he puts the gun down. Misfit is not a normal person and just because he is not normal, the grandmother wants to take advantage of him. She tells him, “Pray! Jesus you ought not to shoot a lady. I’ll give you all the money I’ve got.” Seeing that the grandmother’s life is on the line, she is offering everything she has so she is safe of being shot by Misfit. Her powerful attitude quickly changes to trying to be an innocent old lady knowing she has no power compared to Misfit who at this point holds all the power in the grandmother 's

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