Literary_Analysis_of__A_Good_Man_Is_Hard_to_Find_.

"A Good Man Is Hard To Find" A Literary Analysis "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" A Literary Analysis Author Flannery O’Connor’s (1925-1964) life was cut short at the very young age of forty-two years old, but before she passed from Lupus she managed to produces two novels Wise Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear It Away (1960) as well as thirty-one short stories. In her brief time on this earth, she was regarded as one of America’s most celebrated fiction writers of the mid-twentieth century. Born in Savannah, Georgia, she was the only child of Catholic parents; she attended a conservative primary and high school. When she was thirteen the family moved to Milledgeville, Georgia where her mothers’ family had lived for generations because her father had fallen ill with Lupus. While attending college she started writing for a literary magazine until she graduated in 1945 going on to attend a fellowship she had accepted to the Writers’ Workshop at the University of Iowa, finally graduating with her master of fine arts degree in 1947. O’Connor got too ill to work and retired to her the family farm just outside of Milledgeville with her mother, where she raised peacocks and did minimal work until she passed in 1964. (O’Connor, 1953, p. 362) Her stories make you question your spirituality and your faith in God. “O’Connor’s Catholicism differs from the prevailing Protestant fundamentalism of the South. This provided fertile ground for the spiritual crises her characters endured.” (O’Connor, 1953, p. 365) The characters are very relatable, you have more than likely met people just like the characters in her books and short stories, and they always had a shocking ending. O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard To Find” was written in 1953 and makes use of some great literary points. The story, narrated in third person, clearly sets the plot from the first few sentences. The story portrays a family planning a vacation to Florida, centered on a paranoid over baring grandmother that wants to change the destination to Tennessee instead because there is news of an escaped convict headed to Florida. The story is set in Georgia, and the cultural context is very southern with a hint of prejudice. The grandmothers’ only son Bailey, his wife, two very sassy children John Wesley, June Star and the baby all plan to go on vacation together. The narrator make the grandmother out to be a very strong personality, always talking and nobody listening, the children sass back to her and their parents don’t pay no mind. The grandmother reads in the paper that an escaped convict that goes by the name The Misfit is on the loose in Florida and she is so paranoid about going there she is pleading her case and nobody will listen. “Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida” (O’Connor, 1953, p. 367) But to no avail they head out to Florida without a second thought, John Wesley even making the comment “If you don’t want to go to Florida, why dontcha stay at home'’(O’Connor, 1953, p. 367) O’Connor uses the characters as strong literary elements as she sets the scene in the car, as they head out on their way to Florida, John Wesley and June Star on either side of the grandmother in the backseat, Bailey and his wife in front and his wife holding the baby in her arms. Her use of character is important as she describes in detail what the grandmother is wearing, white cotton gloves and “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 where shite organdy trimmed with lace and hat her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” (O’Connor, 1953, p. 368) She even brings her cat because she is paranoid that the cat will asphyxiate himself on one of the gas burners. The strong southern undertones of the speech of the grandmother is quite apparent as well, as they are driving they pass a shack with a child on the front porch and she points out to the children, “Oh look at that cute little pickaninny!”(O’Connor, 1953, p. 368) She also told a couple stories to the children and talked about ‘niggers’ like it wasn’t a bad thing at all, this was the south in the 1950’s. O’Connor also want you to get a sense of the mother as she sits quietly in the front seat, she is a character that does not say much. The children are very disrespectful in how they speak to their grandmother and the parents do not seem to discipline them either. Bailey, her son, is a ridged man that irritates easily, especially when it comes to his mother. The grandmother is the main character throughout the story O’Connor wants you to either love or hate her with her annoying talking and constant paranoia. They pull into Red Sammies Famous Barbecue for lunch, which introduces the reader to yet two more characters, Red Sam and his wife. O’Connor then goes into the element of setting as Red Sam starts telling a story about helping these men out last week by letting them charge gas on credit, now Red Sam makes the comment “Now why did I do that'” “Because you’re a good man!” The grandmother said at once. (O’Connor, 1953, p. 370) The conversation quickly turns to The Misfit and Red Sam’s wife says “I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he didn’t attack this place right here” (O’Connor, 1953, p. 370) her husband quickly quiets her paranoia. This shows that not only is grandma worried, this Misfit has most people on edge. This has the readers on edge and they now have a better picture of this wanted man traveling through the state, maybe he will even stop for a sandwich at Red Sammies. As they drive off in the hot sun O’Connor is uses the literary element of setting once again to describe the grandmother telling a story about an old plantation that had a secret wall where all of the family silver was hidden, she had been there once as a child. Bailey reluctantly turn around and go back to find this house, that was supposedly on a road a mile back. In an unusual turn of events’ they end up in an auto accident that will change their lives forever. O’Connor then has the reader on the edge of their seats wondering what will come next. At that point, O’Connor revealed that the memory of the house was not in Georgia but in Tennessee. In conclusion, O’Connor uses the element of point of view as the story unfolds. The story is from a third person point of view so you feel the embarrassment and fear from the grandmother for what Bailey might say; the narrator keeps you on the edge of your seat wondering what will come next as he then tells of a car coming up the road. The suspense rises as the car pulls up and there are three people inside. The readers are scared for the family as they find out that it is the feared “Misfit” and his gang. As the narrator has each family member taken into the woods and just the grandmother is left, the reader actually feels as if the old woman might talk her way out of this mess and bring this man to Jesus. “A Good Man Is hard To Find” is a story that leaves the reader speechless at the end and wondering “Why'” This story is about a grandmother that is dying for someone to listen to her, even at the end of her life. If someone would have just listened to this old woman, it might have saved this families life. This story was a real page-turner; the narrator makes the reader have sympathy for the grandmother from the beginning of the story to the end. References O’Connor, F. (1953). A Good Man Is Hard To Find. In F. O’Connor, The Compact Bedford Introduction to Literature (9th ed., pp. 367-377). Boston,MA: Bedford/ St. Martin’s.