Salvation or Redemption In the two stories, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Good Country people” two characters share similarities. Each story shows similar elements. And within these two works of art there is a similar theme of the Salvation, or Redemption, of the protagonist in response to the evils committed by villains who have no belief. Exploring the characters, conflicts and symbolism of the two stories this paper hopes to show some understanding of the two works of literature. On the surface the advocates 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 on days gone when people were nicer and a good man was easier to find.
Direct characterization is when the narrator, in this case ‘Mama’, tells the reader what the character’s traits are. For instance, when Dee wants the quilts Mama says “I didn’t want to bring up how I had offered Dee (Wangero) a quilt when she went away to college. Then she had told me they were old-fashioned, out of style” (114). Dee leads Mama to think that she [Dee] is self-centered and judgmental of their heritage, represented by the quilts. By rejecting the quilts the first time Dee rejected their culture.
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.
In this short story I think that Flannery O’Conner is trying is trying to “convert” people who have not found Christ over to Christianity. I believe that O’Conner was a strong believer in Christianity. In this story she has a grandmother trying to convert a criminal that escaped from the Federal Penitentiary over to Christ before she is killed. In the short story a family of six was preparing for a trip to Florida when the grandmother finds an article about an escaped convict headed to Florida. 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.
Her family on the other hand seemed a bit more laid back when it came too a religious point of view. In the beginning of the story the grandmother points out on her sons newspaper the article about the misfits who escaped from jail and how she would never head in the direction of where they could be near. The family begins their road trip down south to Florida in which the grandmother wasn’t too fond of. The grandmother lectures her two grandchildren several times during the car ride while the father and mother sat up front quietly. They stop to get food along the way ran by a man by the name of Red Sammy.
The first thing we learned about the grandmother is that she does not want to go on the family vacation to Florida. She has relatives to see in Tennessee so she tries to persuade Bailey, the father in the story, not to go. The grandmother tries to scare him with reports of a criminal on the loose and guilt trip him about taking his children there. She states, "Just you read it. I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it.
His behavior and outlook on life are influenced by how his mother raises him. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “Everything that Rises Must Converge”, Julian and his mother maintain conflicting personal views surrounding the status of African-Americans in 1960’s society. Mrs. Chestny closely associates herself with the time period of plantations and slaves but says that she “can be gracious to anybody” (O’Connor 1017). Julian, on the other hand, believes his mother is a flat-out racist and almost feels the need to apologize to African-Americans for his mother’s behavior and attitude. 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.
Another thing with text messages is that when you tell her you are leaving your house and forget to text her when you arrived to school, she will do the same thing until you finally text her back. She will tell you that she has been very worried and that you need to answer your phone because that's why you have one. Then she is usually annoyed. Which is what you want of course! Now another way to annoy your mom is to swerve all over the road.
She believes that having blue eyes would change the way other people see her, giving her something white America values as beautiful. Even more interestingly, she believes she would see things differently through blue eyes, that they would somehow give her the relatively carefree life of a white, middle-class child. In part because of her low self-esteem as a poor black child, Pecola does not believe in her own beauty or her own free will. She spends her life praying for a miracle because she cannot conceive of being able to change her life on her own. We also like the idea that "blue" can refer to sadness.
'Your mother hasn't given you powers to use them so frivolously, Persephone. You are meant to use them with a purpose, to do something with them.' Leuce explained, lifting Persephone from the puddle and straightening out her dress, more drops of muddy water falling on to her dress. 'Mother said, 'Listen carefully Persephone, I am giving you these gifts because you are a Goddess, and Goddesses like us have special skills.' the girl recited the words, in a perfect imitation of her mother.