Her style is always a bit more indirect. How does she try to get Bailey not to go to Florida? Not by saying, "Well I want to go to Tennessee," but by trying to scare him with reports of a criminal on the loose, called The Misfit, and guilt trip him about taking his children there. Through the rest of the story we see the grandmother using the same tactics again to get her way. Such as when her son Bailey does not want her to bring her cat Pitty Sing on the trip.
Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, a story about a southern family and their conflict they are faced with while driving down south to Florida. Morals are challenged face to face at its finest in this short story when two very different groups of people happen to cross paths resulting in a tragedy. The grandmother in the story consistently uses the word “good” many times throughout the story, specifically when she tells Red Sammy he is a good man and of course the Misfits also. The word good was used for the wrong meaning by the grandmother; Her judgment was poor and unwise which ended up costing her family and herself their lives. People are all different in their own ways, not everyone has the same perspectives on life and moral
The grandmother refers to the boy as a pickaninny and a nigger, two terms that are used to racially degrade African Americans, coloreds, or blacks. As the family passes a what seems to be familiar road the grandmother lies to her grandchildren, June Star and John Wesley, about a hidden passage in her old plantation home in Georgia. She lies to the children so they can convince their father to defer from the road and visit here old plantation home on a abandoned road. While traveling on the vacant road the grandmother remembers that the plantation home is in Tennessee, but is too ashamed to tell her family. After a car accident occurs the family crosses paths with The Misfit, who eventually kills the entire family.
I would not be able answer my conscience if I did.” She is too paranoid. She tries to control her son by trying to convince him to go on a vacation to Tennessee instead of Florida. On their way she brings her cat along she makes all kinds of excuse why the cat can’t stay at home. Also the grandmother goes to great lengths to dress in her best clothes. Another example of Southern Gothic.
The real misfit !! In Flannery O’Connor “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” she identifies hat the fugitative is the misfit although the grandmother is more likely to be the misfit. It seems as like the family doesn't like her, and she is the oldest on the road trip. For instance it says in the story when she tries to tell bailey and the children's mother that is a bad Idea to go to Florida because of the fugitive that is loose going to Florida. When she was trying to tell every one about the fugitive they acted like they couldn’t hear her for instance in the “ The grandmother when she showed her son Bailey the newspaper about the fugitive he just continued to to his reading ignoring the grandmother.
“A work of literature, he believes, is the external expression of the author’s unconscious mind. Accordingly, literary works must then be treated like a dream, applying psychoanalytic techniques to texts to uncover the author’s hidden motivations, repressed desires, and wishes” (Bressler 130). In the first paragraph of the story the grandmother is trying to persuade her son to not travel to Florida. She feels like she knows better than her son. Her grandchildren had been to Florida before, and she wishes her son would take a vacation to another destination.
Despite these clashes of perspective, the main conflict between mother and son derives from Julian’s inability to put his pride aside, accept the sacrifices his mother made for him, and move on from his lack of success in the real world. Julian sees himself as a martyr for African-Americans. He fantasizes about bringing home a black girlfriend just to frustrate his mother mad and sympathizing with all the hardships she has to endure because she is black (O’Connor 1023). Julian’s mother admits that she believes blacks were better off as slaves and that “they should rise, yes, but on their own side of the fence” (O’Connor 1018). She exhibits the philosophy of “separate but equal.” This attitude might place her in the racist category, but there
They manage to flee together, but ultimately the grandma must kill her beloved dog in order to protect them both. Hood emphasizes the conflicting emotions involved in unconditional love and familial commitments. The grandma shows devotion to her deceased daughter when she tends to her grave. However, she is also reminded of her offspring’s wild and difficult personality now that she is dealing with raising her daughter’s similarly difficult child. Although she greatly loves her dog, she somehow manages to sacrifice him, all to protect the unspoken higher commitments she feels for her daughter and grandchild.
The grandmother is persistent on not going to Florida as they have been there before states, “’The children have been to Florida before,’ the old lady said. “You all ought to take them somewhere else for a change so they would see different parts of the world and be broad. They never have been to east Tennessee.’” (Kirszner and Mandell)The grandmother made every excuse as to why they should not go to Florida. While traveling to Florida, the family of six traveled outside of a small town called Toombsboro, when the grandmother awaken and recalled an old plantation that she visited when she was a young lady. She described a beautiful house with “six white
Kethia Joseph 3/7/2011 “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by FLANNERY O’CONNOR A family of six is planning a vacation trip to Florida. The family consists of the grandmother, the father, the mother and three children. The grandmother tried to convince her son to go to Tennessee instead of Florida. She is concerned about a criminal on the loose who is also going to Florida. Nobody listens to her and the trip will end up in tragedy.