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. .

             (Mary) Flannery O'Connor was born in Georgia to a family of dedicated Roman Catholics. She began writing at an early age, and got her Master's degree in writing from Iowa State University in 1947. She wrote throughout her life and one several awards, including the O. Henry prize three times, and many other awards and recognitions. She died in 1964 from complications of the disease lupus, and many critics call her the best short story writer in American history (Votteler 333-334). "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is extremely representative of the kind of fiction she wrote, as critics has said her stories routinely depict "a rural domestic situation featuring a parent and child who are suddenly invaded by an often criminal or perverse outsider, a distorted Christ figure who serves as the agent of grace" (Votteler 333).