A Good Man Is Hard To Find Foreshadowing Analysis

Foreshadowing can be overlooked when reading through a story the first time. It is not until one goes back and re-reads a story after knowing the ending that they can truly see the signs along the way. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor has an unexpected ending but it comes as less of a surprise if the reader pays attention to the details in the story. In this particular story, O’Connor describes the way grandmother dresses, the graves, and the automobile that the Misfit drives. Those details may seem innocent during the first read-through but they are not missed when one realizes, at the end, their true meanings. The way that someone dresses can reveal a lot about them. There are whole studies on how the way a person dresses can be an indicator of more than just what
It is described as “a big black battered hearse-like automobile” (O’Connor 432). This gives the reader the impression that the passengers of this particular car are the very “angels of death” who have come to punish the family for their selfishness and other sins. From the beginning of the confrontation the men speak the truth and expose their flaws. For example, when the grandmother says the car flipped multiple times one of the men corrects her, “Oncet, we seen it happen” (433). The whole reason they are even in that situation is because grandmother used the family’s greed against them in an attempt to convince them to stop by a house she remembers from days already gone. She does this by telling the other family members of a secret wall in the house that contains riches. She then makes them turn off onto the road that will inevitably cause the family to meet the end of, not only their trip, but their lives. The name of the last town the family passes before turning off gives the reader a feeling of doom- Toombsboro. It sounds exactly like the word tomb and no doubt signals danger is