A Good Man Is Hard To Find

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Flannery O’Connor has wrote many short stories in her lifetime. One being A Good Man is Hard to Find. This short story is about a family that is going on a road trip to their vacation spot, and along the way they meet a man who is currently on the most wanted list, and the main character, the grandmother realizes her and the most wanted man is not that much different. This story is about good and evil, right and wrong, good people vs bad people. However in this story it is hard to tell the difference between the good people and the bad people.
In this source or short story criticism by Thomas Votteler he discusses the violence in Flannery O'Connor's short stories. He mentions how many readers believe so much violence in a book or short story is absurd. However, in the stories O'Connor brings the characters back to reality by using violence. Once they came back to reality they have their moment of grace. For example, in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the grandmother comes face to face with The Misfit as he is pointing a gun at her. By him pointing the gun at the grandmother she has an epiphany that her and The Misfit are made of the same cloth, they are the same person. The grandmother was so stubborn and set into her own ways, violence was the only way for her to find her moment of grace. He mentions that violence can be used for good or for evil, which would explain O’Connor’s use of the word good in A Good Man is Hard to Find and Good Country People. It is our decision if violence was forced for the better or for the worse. This source “Grace Versus the Glamor of Evil in A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Stephen Sparrow he discusses the foreshadowing in the short story, and the ability of good and evil. He mentions some of the key points of foreshadowing from the story. For example the six gravestones they pass on the way to their location, and the phrase the grandmother says “the one and only time we’re going to stop”. He also mentions that O’Connor says the trees still sparkle even the worst of them. Which symbolizes the good and evil in people the family meets within the story. Although The Misfit shows goodness towards the end of the story even though readers would consider him to be evil. O’Connor uses the word good to portray of the way
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It is how she shows gestures and southern language in her stories. In A Good Man is Hard to Find O’Connor states wearing “britches” or pants is important, and if the child or a person is not wearing any then that means they are not from a good loving family. The article also mentions that the grandmother compares her and her family to the niggers. Basically separating the whites from the blacks with everything they have or do. The grandmother also calls herself a lady by wearing white and making sure she is dressing nice regardless of where she is going. Christianity in the south was very important and it shows in A Good Man is Hard to Find. The article says O’Connor mentions the line between human to human with the grandmother and the black baby, but also a line between human and God with the grandmother and her

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