A Good Man Is Hard To Find Ethical Analysis

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Curtis Vreen Dr. Harun Thomas ENC1102 30 NOV 11 The Living Dead We all must make difficult decisions when we face ethical situations, ones that guide our conduct, challenge us to determine between right and wrong, and allows us to question our motives. In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, a grandmother who is on vacation with her family faces an ethical situation in which she tries to persuade her antagonist, the Misfit, to make the right ethical decision. In James Baldwin’s “Sonny’s Blues”, the protagonist, a young man named Sonny, must face ethical decisions and situations because no matter how confident he is with his music, he still feels he needs drugs in order to cope with the everyday life of Harlem.…show more content…
Harlem is a place that Sonny and his brother do not see as positive because it does not kill one physically, it kills mentally. Sonny’s brother states “And he’d always been a good boy, he hadn’t ever turned hard or evil or disrespectful, the way kids can so quick, especially in Harlem” (Baldwin) because he believes there is hope for Sonny. Sonny’s brother sits and watches him from the front window and he realizes that he has been putting up walls to deter their communication; that night he goes to the night club with his younger brother and tries to understand why he behaves the way he does. Elaine R. Ognibene says, “Black literature is a godsend to the teacher who wants his or her class to deal with genuine communication problems.” Today blacks feel they can communicate with others in ways other races cannot because of slavery, racism and music. The grandmother and the Misfit of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” are different because the grandmother does not think it is too late to pray to God but the Misfit does not want to think about God because the life he lives. The Misfit is also someone who will not only kill you physically with the crimes he commit but also verbally by the remarks he makes, “Nome, I ain't a

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