the Short story `A good man is hard to find`

An Analysis of "A Hard Man is Good to Find " by Flannery O 'Connor

Abstract

There is an ancient adage that tells of a picture being able to speak a thousand words . Likewise , there are occasions when powerful messages themes and symbols can be projected with a limited amount of words Indeed , most of the best known written works throughout literary history are not necessarily the longest in length , but are the highest impact because of their skillful construction

Within modern literature , there are countless examples of stories that while

appearing to be brief and deceivingly simple to understand , are in fact highly complex and full of detailed information when examined from below the surface of the words in the story and actually in terms of the meanings to be found inside of them . An excellent example of this can be found in Flannery O 'Connor 's A Good Man is Hard to Find . For some , the story is seen as satire-something that is amusing but not realistic . For others , it is dark humor at its best . In this , as was suggested at the outset , A Good Man is Hard to Find ' will be examined much deeper beyond the surface , by analyzing key components of the work itself . Ultimately , the researcher will have shown , the complexity of O 'Connor 's story when it is placed in proper context

Overall , the thesis that will be proven in this is that in writing A Good Man is Hard to Find , Flannery O 'Connor was in fact making a strong statement about the presence of good end evil in the world , the ugliness of hatred , and the lethal nature of selfishness and lack of concern for others . More than an entertaining work of literature , the story is in fact a morality tale and dissection of the human soul

Tone

In this story , the overall tone plays a pivotal role in setting the stage for the unfolding of the plot , which in retrospect , takes a course that the average reader probably would never suspect when starting to read the story . Without summarizing the entire plot of the story , the tone from the beginning is ominous- a family sets off on a trip from Georgia to Florida , which in itself can be unforgiving terrain especially in the times that O 'Connor wrote the story

Within the scope of this family trip , the reader encounters a grandmother who is far from the innocent old woman that can be seen in many other works rather , she is cranky , bossy , and shows a great deal of racism and prejudice through her dialogue , which manages to offend entire races of individuals in a few brief sentences . Moreover , the grandmother does not give the impression that she wants to be on the trip itself . In fact , the grandmother does not seem to come to any sort of a rational realization of the value of life and the importance of the other people within her life until the end...