Introduce, Discuss, and Analyze A Good Man is Hard to Find

A detailed Summary of Introduce, Discuss, and Analyze A Good Man is Hard to Find

The purpose of this paper is to introduce, discuss, and analyze the short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor. Specifically, it will focus on the use of comedy/humor, foreshadowing, and irony in the work. Flannery O'Connor is one of the South's most well known writers, and nearly all of her works, including this short story, take place in Southern locales. Her work embodies the Southern lifestyle, which includes close family ties, attention to family roots, and a more laid-back and relaxed way of looking at the world. In this short story, the matriarch of the family is The Grandmother, and she plays a key role in the story and in the story's outcome. Her impetus sets the family out on their adventure and leads to the inevitable conclusion. This is a story with humor, irony, and a heavy sense of foreboding, and yet it is enjoyable, if predictable, to the very end. O'Connor is a master of characterization, and here, her characters endear themselves to the reader and make the story more interesting and more unusual. It is not a happy story, but it is a memorable story, and this is one of the things that can make a story great and stay in the mind of the reader long after they finish it and close the book.

O'Connor uses several literary devices in this short story. One of the first to greet the reader is the use of foreshadowing. The Grandmother influences where the family is going on vacation by scaring them with tales of The Misfit, the convict who has broken out of jail and is probably heading to Florida. This is where the rest of the family wants to go, but she urges them to go to Tennessee instead, and ultimately seals their fate. Already, the reader has an uneasy feeling about The Misfit, and it is easy to tell that eventually, the family is going to run into him, or he would not appear as a concern so early in the story. The Misfit continues to turn up throughout the story in conversations and in the background of each character's mind, and so, it is clear when the story reaches a climax, The Misfit will be at the center of it. It seems inevitable from the very beginning of the story that the family is heading toward an important and unavoidable fate, and that indicates O'Connor's skill at foreshadowing. It is subtle, but it is always there, and the reader senses tenseness to the story because of it.

In conclusion, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a quintessential O'Connor look at families and life in the South. She uses many literary devices to pull the reader into the story and keep them turning the pages until the outcome, as shocking as it is. O'Connor's work paints vivid portraits of the people and the places she writes about, and her use of comedy, irony, and foreshadowing help make the piece more textured, more detailed, and far more interesting. It is clear O'Connor understood her characters completely, and knew exactly what she wanted them to accomplish as she wrote. Critics have called her work some of the finest fiction the South has to offer and this story clearly shows why. The characters, even "The Misfit" make the reader care about them, and the story pulls the reader along with the family as they follow the road to its' inevitable conclusion. The reader cares when "The Misfit" shoots the family, and really wants to believe there is enough good in him to spare the Grandmother. Of course, he does not, and that is the ultimate message of this story. The Grandmother may have touched this violent and evil man, but not enough to really make a difference in his life. Ultimately, this theme can be used to think about any life, and to q

Some common words found in the essay are:
Miss O'Connor's, Critic Votteler, O'Connor South's, Iowa University, Thomas Merton, Thomas Votteler, Finally O'Connor's, Flannery O'Connor, , Roman Catholics, short story, literary devices, story humor, votteler 333, flannery o'connor, wrote critics, critic thomas, story irony, own worst, inevitable conclusion,

Approximate Word count = 1607
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English