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Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

970 Words4 Pages

Flannery O'Connor (1925-1965) is one of the most influential Southern Gothic writers in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries (Verde). She draws readers time after time through her grotesque and haunting short stories. Two of her most acclaimed stories, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," and "The Lame Shall Enter First" focus on the same theme; good versus evil. As well as using theme to convey her message, she utilizes irony to shock and mystify the readers. The internal struggle between a person's will power and humanity is highlighted often through her many complicated characters. The first story analyzed is "A Good Man is Hard to Find." This story follows a family in the 1950's taking a summer vacation through the south to visit the grandmother's …show more content…

Without becoming aware of the irony in "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the story's purpose would not be available to the reader. The first and most important example of irony is when the grandmother states, "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" ("A Good Man Is Hard to Find" O'Connor). She is the one who introduces "the Misfit," and states she would never bring his wrath upon her family yet ends up "facing precisely the that criminal she so feared" (Curley). She leads them down the wrong road in more ways than one. Another impacting ironic quote is when Sammy, her grandson, says "A good man is hard to find. Everything is getting terrible. I remember that day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more" ("A Good Man Is Hard to Find" O'Connor). This ends up being the title of the short story, as well as one of the more powerful and resonating quotes to the reader. Sammy is relating a good man to someone who is trustable, yet "The Misfit" shows no signs of distrust. He honors his own word and does not mislead the family. It may not be a conventional form of trust, but what he says and does is still trustworthy. The third quote seeping with irony comes from the grandmother. Sammy let two rough looking men charge their gas without pay, and he reflects back on it pondering why he let them, as grandmother exclaims, "Because you're a good man" (("A Good Man Is Hard to Find" O'Connor)! The grandmother is quick to say he is a "good man," after barely knowing Sammy and seeing only one redeeming action from him. He even shows remorse and confusion after his good deed, yet she ignores this and reassures him he is worthy of praise. The grandmother herself is not in a position to judge what is good or not, being that she displays such inferior characteristics. She values actions by their outward appearance, not their

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