In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” O’ Conner tends to portray her work through the characters within the story, the grandmother. In the beginning for instance the grandmother did want to go to Florida as the family had initially planned for their vacation. This is foreshadows upcoming possible events for the readers as they may ask why did she want to go to
rom the story, the author uses a interesting situational irony as introduction to point out the family indifferent. For example, “The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee” (O’Connor 337). This shows that the grandmother was a selfish person. She only wanted to east Tennessee so that she used a reason “The Misfit [a crazy killer] is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida” (O’Connor 337) to satisfy her individual wants.
She was married until she told her husband, her dissatisfaction with marriage and he conceded that he too found it less than he expected. So he took enough money to make it to Oklahoma and become a minister, but what he didn’t say was that he knew a minister who he could study with and an unmarried daughter. Then after he left there was Annie with two beautiful children whom she didn’t want to leave just to become a maid or a servant, so she decided that she would change directions. The next morning she got up early and started making meat pies.
To start out in the first sentence of the story the grandmother was brought up. “The grandmother did not want to go to Florida” (O’Connor 1). It says she wanted to go to east Tennessee. She tried to get her son Bailey not to go to Florida, and she also looked down on the mother for wanting to take them to somewhere they had been before, when she had been to Tennessee before.
In the interview with Rafael Ocasio he asks who influences you and Cofer states that her grandmother influenced her because she would always go to her grandmother’s house and sit around her grandmother while her grandmother is telling her stories. Then in another interview with Marilyn Kallet she asks about her father and Cofer says that he wanted her to read books not cook if she didn’t want to learn how to and he wanted her to think that education is empowering. In another interview with Lorraine M. Lopez she asks what are your sources of your inspiration and Cofer responded her grandmother and her parents. In all of these interviews she shows that she truly cares about her family and that she hasn’t forgotten about where she comes from.
The first sentence, “The grandmother didn’t want to go to florida,” (Lawrence 406) gives the reader a glimpse into who the grandmother is as a person. She is depicted as a selfish and manipulative person. In the beginning of the story she was always trying to change her son Bailey’s mind to get the family to go to Tennessee instead of Florida. “The children have been to Florida before, you all ought to take them somewhere else for a change…” (Lawrence 406).
One of the main characters of the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is the grandmother. The author uses this character in a really powerful way to convey the theme of the story. The grandmother is portrayed as a selfish old lady which wants other people to do what she wants. The grandmother always thinks of strategies to make other people change their minds. This can be seen on page 34, “She wanted to visit Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bayley’s mind.”
In O'Connors, A Good Man is Hard to Find the main protagonist is a grandmother, which she intentionally leaves nameless, that forms the focal point of a story who has, through the stories sum, been battling with her conscious and subconscious minds the second of which is consumed by a nostalgic aching for an imagined, perhaps bent reality of the past. This nostalgic desire, which drives the story, is rooted deep in a yearning to return to a representation of a reality that resonances with her, one in which she is important, one in which she easily fits, one in which she believes is perfect, one which will end the battle between her conscious and subconscious that rages within her. This mental struggle ultimately changes her perception of reality
The story has a conflict that is related to opposition. The narrator disagrees with what her mother wants her to be, since the narrator felt that her mother was controlling her for years. For instance, the mother in the story suggests that her daughter would become the perfect girl and she would become famous. The traditional daughter relates to the American icon, “Shirley Temple”. Furthermore, the narrator goes through a rough time during the story because her mother feels like she can be good at something and stick to it.
This example means that Sluggo needed companions to come out of his shell and Michael needed his aunt to peak out of his. Sluggo’s example proves that Michael does not hate Esther. Michael’s feelings for Esther changed throughout the story. Esther and Michael hated each other in the beginning.
The grandmother would like to go to Tennessee to visit some of her old connections. Religion is another theme that the author uses in the story. The grandmother joins in conversation with the “Misfit” who is a serial killer. She convinces the misfit not to kill her by speaking
Afterwards, an animal had killed the rest of the chickens from the neck so Julie cooked the chickens for food to hold them by to the springtime when they could finally grow some crops to eat. Julie had her baby on her own and she became sick so Hank looked after their baby girl who had died. They had her funeral in their backyard. The real lawyer representing the heirs of the house came by and served them papers saying how they were having to be sued if they couldn 't pay rent for the house, even though they never owed rent to Mr. Pendergast and also said that they had the right to sue every belonging of the couple to trade in for money. So in addition, Julie and Hank began to pack only what they could carry on their backs while Julie had found a $20 coin that Mr. Pendergast must have forgotten about.
Candy then goes on about how he “…could of hoed in the garden and washed dishes for them guys” (96) In this scene, Steinbeck exposes that Curley’s wife actually possessed more power in death rather than in life. In other words, her death revoked the dreams of many characters , including herself. Now candy, Lennie, and George will never have their ideal piece of farm land and Curley’s wife will pursue her dreams of becoming an actress. Unfortunately, Curley’s wife
Even Red Sam talks about the good ol’ days. “I remember the day; you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more. ”(142). The south just isn’t the same as it use to be, and the older people in it just don’t like
“I will be honest, and tell you the whole truth. For 6 months, I did not take even a bite of food, until this morning. They brought me a pomegranate, I had not seen fruit in so long, I could not resist it. I was just going to smell it, but next thing I knew my teeth were in it 's flesh! I did not swallow a morsel, but, I am afraid, six of the pomegranate seeds remained in my mouth.”