Midterm Exam A Good Man is Hard to Find #2: What is the role of chance or fate in the story? •In Flannery O ' Conner 's “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the roles of chance and fate help to drive the plot to its high point. Chance is present when the grandmother, at the preamble of the story, refuses to be persuaded to travel to Florida in fear of a loose criminal nicknamed The Misfit. Instead, she decides on a whim to visit a friend in Tennessee. She shows this determination when she says she "wouldn 't stay home to be queen for a day" and she "wouldn 't stay home for a million bucks". Fate plays it 's cards when the grandmother finishes telling her story to her grandchildren. She suddenly realizes that there was a route that they …show more content…
•Montresor does fulfill this definition of revenge. He boasts about how it has been fifty years since his crime and nobody has “disturbed” the catacomb that he has enclosed Fortunato. Regarding the second part, it is questionable. The fact that he is still telling this story a half century later may suggest that he is obsessed (“overtaken”) with his crime. And the third part, he did make himself known to Fortunato because Fortunato cries “For the love of God, Montresor” as he is being enclosed in the catacomb wall. Hills Like White Elephants #1 Describe the setting and discuss its importance to the story. •Ernest Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants” is set in a train station to highlight the fact that the relationship between the American and the girl is at a crossroads. Planted in the middle of a valley, the station isn’t the final destination, but merely a stopping point between Barcelona and Madrid. Night #2 At the end of Night, Wiesel writes: “”From the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me. The look in his eyes as he gazed at me has never left me.” What parts of Eliezer died during his captivity? What was born in their
With her death, the real focus of this story can be seen. Who is the “Good Man” who is supposedly hard to find? The answer to this question can be found by retracing the path of the grandmother on her ascension to heaven. Examination of the effects of her self-centered, devious, and vacuous life reveals that the good man is not the grandmother, or anyone like her. By the end of the story, the grandmother realizes that the only “Good Man” is Christ, himself.
“The thousands injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could; but when he ventured upon insult, I vowed revenge.” (“Cask” 372). Montresor means that he has dealt with all of Fortunato’s wrong doings, but when he insulted him he had enough. After he has had enough, he is going to chain Fortunato and leave him to die . Likewise in “Hop-Frog” Hop-Frog also has a revengeful trait.
He was so filled with spite, that he felt like murder was the only way to avenge his family’s name. It is unfortunate that he thought that the best way to do it. Montresor builds up his betrayal of Fortunato from early on. The way the he fakes their friendship, and the way he continually gives Fortunato wine is just a part of his plan of betrayal. He even showes Fortunato the very trowel that would incase him in brick.
We will have many a rich laugh about it at the palazzo over our wine!" (Poe 5). Montresor got his revenge on Fortunato, for making fun of his families name. Revenge is another way humans can illuminate the dark side of human nature. Although humans can be kind and selfless people, sacrificing loved ones, hurting innocent bystanders, and plotting revenge can show the less innocent and malicious behavior of humans.
He wants to seek justice for how Fortunato has wronged him. He maintains this goal as he wants to “not only punish but punish with impunity” (Poe, 1). From Montresor’s point of view, he must enforce revenge on Fortunato, as it is what he believes is right. Ensuring that he wants to “punish with impunity” indicates his relentless pursuit of vengeance and how he must ensure that he faces no consequences for his actions. This way, Montresor reveals his underlying arrogance and belief in his superiority.
The story revolves around a man named the Misfit, Bobby Lee, a grandmother and her family. In the book, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor,” the theme of the story is about how our past is always a part of us and accepting it. The misfit is a criminal in the story, it is assumed by the text that the crime he commits is most likely murder.
The Only Good Man is Jesus Flannery O’Connor was born in 1925 in Savannah, GA, and wrote many short stories with her main theme being about religion. Her most popular being “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” O’Connor’s belief in religion is reflected in this story through the grandmother and her values, and it also includes a theme about what a “good man” is. The grandmother applies the label “good” randomly which blurs the definition of a “good man” until such time comes that the word becomes meaningless.
4. On the last page of the novel, Eliezer says, “from the depths of the mirror, a corpse was contemplating me.” Do you predict that life will ever return to Eliezer’s life again? Why?
In a "Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O 'Connor, the contrast of good and evil is not as evident as it appears on the surface. The road that the family in the story travels symbolizes good up until the point the grandmother all but forces the family to make a detour onto a dirt road that leads to their demise. She is the unlikely antagonist in the story. A serial killer named, The Misfit, is the protagonist despite his homicidal actions. Both characters in the story help to illustrate how a relationship with God is perceived good and sacrilegious behavior is perceived evil.
Where Atwood’s “Happy Endings” as a whole, and scenario F in particular, reads more like a “how do” instructional pamphlet and the conflict is the author’s cynicism, O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is a story that reads like a story with sequenced conflicts that lead up to a climactic moment and then answers the “Good versus Evil” question: which one will win? Unlike Atwood’s cynical instructional tone, O’Connor’s story begins like a thoroughbred bolting out of the starting gates of a horse
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find”: Characters Qualities and their Changes Flannery O’Connor’s short story A Good Man Is Hard To Find tells about the end of Bailey’s family; it is called by father’s first name as the author did not mention characters’ last name. The man’s mother, hereafter referred to as the Grandmother, did not want to go to Florida and preferred to visit places of her youth. Woman’s contumacy led to the car accident; she took her cat to the trip and the pet disturbed the driver. After that the family met with escaped convicts led by the criminal called Misfit and were killed by them.
The bizarre twists of fate of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’ Conner leaves the reader perplexed and reveled to a preconceived ending of good prevailing against evil this gives the story its unique and arousing end which most stories do. O’ Conner uses literary proficiency such as foreshadowing, symbolism, eccentric characters, In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” The Grandmother character is brought to light as self-centered and manipulative. She tries to do everything in her favor and sway situations to fit her own interest regardless of other characters. She tries to manipulate Bailey not to go to Florida but Tennessee, seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind, “seize” isn’t just a casual attempt.
Is Montresor just a selfish evil genius fueled with revenge, or a good samaritan who wants to give the people the vengeance they deserve? It’s very clear to see why Montresor is the ultimate character of revenge; Montresor indicates that he is going to kill Fortunato, just for the sake of revenge, as seen in this quote, “… He [Fortunato] ventured upon insult, I [Montresor] vowed revenge” (Poe 61). The whole story is based upon the concept of revenge.
The great Sigmund Frewd once said "Unexpected emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will co,e forth in unglued ways. " This quote signifies the idea of revenge in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Cask of Amontillado. " In the beginning of the story after many injuries from the arrogant Fortunato, Montressor sets out for revenge. Montressor finds Fortunato at a part they both attended and tricks him into going on a mission for wine.