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The Only Good Man Flannery O Connor Analysis

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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. She first applies it to Red Sammy who says “Two fellers come in here last week, driving a Chrysler. It was an old beat-up car but it was a good one and these boys looked alright to me. Said they worked at the mill and you know I let them fellers …show more content…

"I would hate to have to," he said” (O’Connor 147). His answer of not really answering proves that he doesn’t have the same morals as she does since she thinks being a lady is important. The grandmother desperately calls him a good man in hope that he won't kill her, but her definition of “good,” is distorted. The grandmother’s application of the phrase “good man” tells that “good” doesn’t mean noble or gracious. A man is a “good man” in the event that his values are line up with hers. Red Sammy is “good” due to the fact that he trusts people aimlessly which is something the grandmother can relate to. The Misfit is “good” because he won’t shoot a lady. The only thing “good” in regards to the Misfit is his cohesion of enduring his moral code “no pleasure but meanness.” O’Connor’s connection with Catholicism reflects heavily on her works. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the Misfit refers back to Jesus many times like when he says “Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead,” when he talks about resurrection and Jesus’s power over death, and when he says “Jesus thrown everything off balance” he’s referring to the death of his father and how he was blamed for it (O’Connor 152,151). In order to get the Misfit to spare her, the grandmother also refers to Jesus and

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