Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” includes a man who kills a family as they are heading to Florida on vacation. Unfortunately the Misfit and the grandmother could not come to terms and bring forth the points regarding good versus evil. Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” uses color imagery to challenge the notions of good versus evil.
Flannery O’Connor incorporates red to signify blood, death, and even hell. O’Connor shows this in the statement “Red Sammy was lying….” Or when she says “His ankles were red and thin….” Red Sammy could signify Satin and his evil ways by pulling passer buyers into his restaurant. He also signify by lying on the ground that blood is about to be shed in a violent manor. By saying the Misfits ankles were red the author could be trying to say that he is not a good man and that evil lives inside of him. It’s for telling the future.
Besides her use of Red, O’Connor’s black imagery suggests the grandmother and the Misfit were all carrying their death with them. This is shown for the grandmother when O’Connor says “She had her big black valise….” This means that the grandmother carry’s her death like she carry’s her clothes. For the Misfit it is shown when O’Connor says “…He put on his black hat…” showing the Misfit was or has been for a long time carrying his own death along with him everywhere he goes and while he does his killings.
But it is her use of gray that points to the ambiguity of good versus evil. O’Connor shows an example of the Misfit when she says “….His hair was just beginning to gray….” Or “….against a gray naked pine trunk…” Both saying that the Misfit was unsure of the actions he has performed which leave him to question himself and if his beliefs are wrong or right. The Misfit as a main character seems to question his actions and beliefs he has about Jesus and his rights.
Flannery O’Connor’s story has a deeper meaning to it once you read below the surface. She uses color