This newly belief she holds only became apparent when she was face to face with her killer and on the verge of death. Many writers, Jenn Alves-Jackson, Brenda Brandon, and Gary Sloan, agree with this irony that takes place between the grandmother and the Misfit. They argue the fact that a good man is truly hard to find. This essay will focus on the different character flaws and ironic situations that are present within “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. Also, the essay analyzes how Jackson portrays the grandmother, her actions, and the character flaws that she represents throughout the story.
Film Connections: Unforgiven and Mercy among the Children Justice Although good or evil is not that clear in the movie Unforgiven, I believe that there’s no one has a “just” idea of what to do. First, Alice is the only one shows good comparing with Skinny and Little Bill. She clearly knows what she loves and what she hates. Although she collects money to hire killers to revenge Delilah on the cowboys (because of the strong sense of self-esteem), she definitely regrets doing that since she saw the dead body of the young cowboy. She never thinks about killing is really going to happen.
On its surface, “Jury of Her Peers” appears a simple detective story, but through extensive dialogue between two women, Glaspell slowly reveals that her story is really more of a commentary about female oppression, justice, the confirming nature of rigid stereotypes, and the differences in perspective between men and women. The continuing popularity of Susan Glaspell’s story, “Jury of Her Peers,” and the play “Trifles” from, which it emerged, cannot really be explained by an examination of the plot (Alkalay-Gut 1). Two housewives, Mrs. Hale and Mrs. Peters accompany their husbands while they investigate the murder of Mr. Wright by his wife, Mrs. Wright, otherwise known as Minnie Foster. After Mr. Hale’s description of what he had come across the day before, the men continue their investigation in the bedroom of the Wright’s home, where the strangled body of Mr. Wright was discovered. They jokingly leave the housewives in the kitchen in search of clues.
The title “Trifles” is quite tricky, since it means more than what it appears at first. Perhaps trifles refer to the way the men in the story treated, and considered the women, like for example: “Sheriff - Well, can you beat the women! Held for murder and worryin' about her preserves. County Attorney - I guess before we're through she may have something more serious than preserves to worry about. Hale - Well, women are used to worrying over trifles.”** Clearly, we see in the play, how men treat the women.
Of mice and men is essentially a microcosm of the socio-economic problems faced throughout the great depression in America. The only definitive representation of women throughout the novella is Curley’s wife. Steinbeck was quite cruel in the way he portrayed Curleys wife in the novel, not even giving her a name or identity – this is because he is trying to get across to the reader the patriarchal society that this was. Curley’s wife appears three times in the book; the first time is in chapter 2 where the reader gets the initial impression that she is a “tart”. The second time we see her is in chapter 4 where we gain knowledge of her temperamental side.
A Good Man Is Hard To Find A Good Man Is Hard To Find, a short story written by Flannery O’Connor, is about a selfish, dishonest woman, who thinks as herself as a superior being. However, in the end, she realizes that she too has faults of her own. The Protagonist of the story is the grandmother. In the beginning of the story, she tries to convince her son Bailey, and his wife, to take their family trip to east Tennessee rather than to go to Florida. The grandmother reads in the newspaper about a convicted killer, The Misfit, who has escaped from the Federal Pen, and is headed towards Florida.
The county attorney’s opinion is that women are just simple, trivial people that are used to worrying over “trifles” (256). The county attorney also underestimates the women and does not think they can pick out anything dangerous to bring to the jail so he does not investigate the things they have packed. Mr. Hale, at one point, made a remark about the women being able to comprehend a clue if they came upon one. The county attorney made a statement that “a…sheriff’s wife is married to the law” (265). The reader can take this as meaning the women are entitled to tell them about any variety of evidence that they may happen across.
Not much of a housekeeper, would you say, ladies? Mrs. Hale (stiffly): There’s a great deal of work to be done on a farm. (Glaspell, 2011, p. 143) I think that Mr. Wright may have been the kind of person that had maybe two different personalities. In the public eye he was remembered as a “good man”, but then at home he neglected his wife’s happiness and paid little attention what she may have wanted or what she may had enjoyed. (2011) The play centers on the motive for his murder, in which the men are trying fiercely to prove that Mrs. Wright have committed the murder of her husband not knowing that Mrs. Peters and Mrs. Hale had already just about put the pieces together themselves.
Steinbeck wanted to show that, after the stock market crash of 1929, the American Dream was becoming impossible to achieve or even believe in. The relevance of loneliness to “Of Mice and Men’ is shown through the characters. As Curley’s wife says, “Ever’body needs someone to talk to.” Most of the characters suffer from loneliness at some point. Curley’s wife, Candy and Crooks are lonely as a result of being different to the social norm of the ranch. The need to be accepted drives the characters to extreme behaviour for example when Curley’s wife tells Crooks that she “could get [him] lynched so easy it ain’t even funny.” The loneliness she feels means she cannot interact properly or form relationships with the men on the ranch because she constantly has to defend herself.
Explaining the attitude of Mr. Wright, Mr. Hale adds, “…I didn’t know as what his wife wanted made much difference to John -” (1315). In response, the County Attorney dismisses Mr. Wright’s attitude as inconsequential with, “Let’s talk about that later…” (1315). Even though the men are searching for a motive, already a contributing clue has been dismissed by the investigators due to their acceptance of a societal allowance that men should make all of the important decisions. Searching the kitchen, the attorney discovers some broken bottles of fruit preserves and disdainfully states, “Here’s a nice mess” (1317). Mrs. Peters quickly defends the mess when she explains to the lawyer that the extreme cold caused the jars to break.