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A Good Man Is Hard To Find Style Analysis

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Southern gothic is a unique style of writing that takes a certain finesse to utilize. Flannery O’ Connor does it splendidly in her short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”. She takes dark humor, a southern twang and combines them to bring that unique to her southern gothic style. O’Connor graduated from Georgia State College in 1945 and went on to earn her Masters in Fine Art at Iowa State University in 1947. She even went on to go on to win a National Book Award. Primarily, the author focuses on writing short stories and, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is no different. This story is about a family vacation that goes terribly wrong. From an ill-tempered grandmother with a bad memory to a car accident with a few problematic witnesses the author employees foreshadowing throughout the entire story. O’Connor uses a unique blend of setting, tone, irony, and character development to make this short story a quick yet fascinating read. One of the fundamental elements of the southern gothic style of writing is roots in the American south. …show more content…

The ironic twists in the story are dark and grotesque. The sub-plot of the story is about an escaped convict on the loose heading toward Florida. Ironically, this is the same destination that the family is headed toward. Early on in the short story the grandmother says, “The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what is says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did.” Due to a couple of wrong turns, the family has the misfortune of being in a car accident witnessed by no other than The Misfit himself. He orders the family out of the car, and the family does not survive the encounter. The Misfit proving the grandmother quite right, that he was not a good

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