Good and bad. Guilty and innocent. These are only a few of the countless themes that surround everyone’s life. All of these themes are found in the short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, by Flannery O’Connor. The story is about a “good” woman (the grandmother), who goes on a vacation with her son and his family and in the end suffers horribly due to her poor beliefs and judgment, but at the same time learns real importance of “good” in a “bad” situation.
Does she remain a static character or does she in any way change as the story goes on? · The grandmothers is very observant, she talks a lot and thinks she knows it all. She makes a lot of remarks in the story about the misfit which tells that she has some type of concern about running into him. 3) When the grandmother’s head clear, what does she suddenly understand? · The grandmother understands that her life is about to be taken from her and that the Misfit has no feeling.
She reacts the same when she finds out about Eric being the father of the baby. She thinks she knows best for her children, she probably believes she is protecting them, for instance, when Gerald talks about “women of the town” and Mrs Birling wants Sheila to go out and not listen“ It would be much better if Sheila didn’t listen to this story at all”. Sybil is an extremely self-satisfied woman: “Yes. We’ve done a great deal of useful work in helping deserving cases”, she is very proud of herself and of the “kind” things she does and she is also a judgmental person. Priestly shows how she is the one that decides if she wants to help a woman in need.
Secrets In Sue Monk Kidd’s novel The Secret Life of Bees Lily Owens is seeking to find the truth behind her mother Deborah Owens’s death. Since her mother’s death Lily’s life is incomplete, she hears stories from her father (who she calls T-Ray) about her mother but does not believe them. She has been living with guilt since that one night after killing her mother. T-Ray tells Lily that her mother ran away and left her behind, Lily believes he is just saying to punish her, and does not believe what he says. She says, “What if my mother leaving wasn’t true?
Grandma’s Personality In the short story, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, we find that Grandma, one of the main characters, aids in the death of herself and her family because of her own superior and conceited self. Grandma can be interpreted in many different ways, but I believe the strongest way to interpret her is that she is a woman who thinks highly of herself. Her actions are for her own personal gain and not considering other people’s feelings or thoughts. Throughout the story there are many scenes in which Grandma exhibits her superiority and self-conceit. The superiority and conceitedness of Grandma is portrayed at the very beginning of the story where the narrator gives us in detail what she is wearing.
O’Connor brilliantly uses the grandmother’s ignorance to set up this question. The grandmother is very set in her ways and is extremely narrow minded. She means well at times, but her ignorance fails her for the most part. We can see this ignorance in a statement the grandmother makes as she and her family are taking a road trip, “ In my time, said the grandmother, folding her thin veined fingers, children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then.
5. Good qualities: cares about her son and cat, polite Bad qualities: selfish, begged for her own life and not her family’s, hypocritical, racist 6. 7. When the grandmother knew she was about to die, she showed her true colors. She abandons the high moral ground she held as a façade and embraced her and the Misfit’s common humanity.
"Mindless and persistent, she seemed is a sort of ecstasy to coming near to her fulfillment, her own glorification, approaching her dead mother, who was glorified" (Lawrence 2263). This quote states how she feels happy when she's near her mother's grave; it makes her feel as if she is right next to her mom. On the other hand, Jack Fergusson was a "mere hired assistant" (Lawrence 2263) who liked to help others yet also felt superior from the people around him. We can also determine that both he and the three brothers have been acquainted for a reasonable amount of time judging from their greeting of one another. What is astonishing about Jack is that he truly did love to help others.
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People” are two great works created by created. Within these two works of literature she has a similar/reoccurring theme of the Salvation or Redemption of the protagonist in response to the evils committed by villains who have no belief. she uses some similar elements of the two stories and some very different. Exploring the characters, conflicts and symbolism of the two stories this paper hopes to reveal perhaps some new level of understanding towards these two works of literature. On the surface the protagonists of the two stories, Hulga and the Grandmother don’t seem like very similar people, one is a Grandmother, a lady, as she calls herself, who looks back fondly (almost too fondly) on days gone when people were nicer and a good man was easier to find.
Flannery O’Connor should have titled the story “A Good PERSON Is Hard to Find” this would have fit with the theme of what she was trying to get across to the audience. O’Connor used gestures to grab her audience and what better than an old Southern woman and a sociopath killer. In the end after years of acting like a good lady and good Christian the Grandmother has a revelation and understands that it is not her life that needs salvation and hopefully for the Misfit one good deed deserves another and he will be able to change his course in life and become a man that looks to help instead of hurt the fellow