Summary and Critique of Two Articles on O"Connor"s A Good Man is Hard to Find.

             The article Flannery O"Connor"s A Good Man is Hard to Find: The Moment of Grace by Michael Clark focuses on the climax of the story: the Grandmother"s final act, her touching of the misfit, and its religious and realistic implications. Clark questions her last gesture by asking,.

             "Should the Grandmother"s final act-- her touching of the misfit be taken as a token of true,divine grace and spiritual insight? Or should the story be interpreted strictly as a naturalistic.

             document?" (1) O"Connor refers to the Grandmother"s final gesture as a moment of grace. Sloan states that many critics tend to disagree with O"Connor"s belief that the final act was a moment of grace; rather they prefer to stress the realistic explanation of grace, a more naturalistic grace. Stanley Renner is also uncomfortable with the religious explanation of the climax; he describes.

             the final gesture as, "a vague touch, a parental blessing, or the ceremonial dubbing of knighthood" (Clark 1). According to Clark this explanation sees the Grandmother"s response as one that not so much reflects divine grace as it "touches her instinctive springs of sympathy and human kinship"(Clark 1). Other critics interpret the Grandmother"s final act as "expressing her.

             final hope that her noblenesse can alter her fate" (Clark 1). Clark believes this particular interpretation gives the final gesture a selfish, mundane, and unredeeming sense about it. The question of whether O"Connor"s interpretation should be judged as right or wrong emerges. Clark believes the old dictum of trust the tale not the teller applies. He also believes you must consider the stories connection with the books of 1st and 2nd Timothy of the bible.

             Hallman Bryant, in an article written before Clark"s, noted that there is no Timothy, Georgia,and persuasively argues that O"Connor is referring to the book of Timothy in the New Testament of the bible.