A Common theme in Flannery OConnors stories: `A Good Man Is Hard to Find` and `Good Country People`

A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Good Country People

by Flannery O ' Connor

Introduction

The short fictional stories of Flannery O 'Connor often end in indifferent and dispassionate tragedies , sometimes in an open ended disturbing and a violent way . Her short stories characteristically incorporate dreadful events like freak accidents and the protagonists personal desolation and destruction . If taken in their literal and narrow sense , one might interpret them in terms of naturalism and amoralism that dominated the literary themes of the late 1800 's which depicts how people

tend to become helpless in their circumstances in life . In a more philosophical approach , one can be tempted to the direction towards secularization particularly nihilism , an atheistic doctrine that argues that God is dead or agnosticism in recognition of the principal shortcomings of the preceding religions that rest on divinity and mysticism , which are concepts that are simply unknowable to mankind

However , a serious contemplation and reflection of O 'Connor 's work including an understanding of her religious orientation , one would instead conceive the religious meanings and symbolism underneath her texts . Grotesque and bizarre are common s or elements of O 'Connor 's works , but are not the specific thesis that defines her creative genius . They simply are reflective of her creative philosophical tenets that arise from her religious orientation and objectives . In studying two of her many famous fictions , specifically A Good Man Is Hard to Find` and `Good Country People` , this will attempt to capture two common...