Foreshadowing In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Candidly, after reading “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor for the first time, I was completely shocked by the violence and the story’s tragic ending. While, I grasped elements of the foreshadowing she used throughout the story, such as mentioning the dangerous Misfit was “aloose” in the first paragraph, Red Sammy’s reference to two men failing to pay for gas, and the odd name and spelling of the town of “Toombsboro” the family was outside of when the Grandmother awakened and mentioned the plantation (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012). Nevertheless, I failed to fully anticipate the impending doom and the brutality O’Connor had planned for the family. As a result, the stunning ending was as disorienting as a bright, burst of light flashing in my eyes and I was unable to identify any of the nuanced literary elements interwoven within the short story (Fassler, 2013). However, after recovering the initial shock and rereading the story, I was able to appreciate how the style and tone of the third person narrator’s vivid descriptions of the characters’ clothing and word choice added contrast, context, and elements of irony to the story.
As a Christian writer, O’Connor would be well aware that the Gospel of Christ, is commonly referred to as the good news (Kirszner & Mandell, 2012 & Bible.Org, 2004). However, as flawed and imperfect humans, no one is capable of embracing the good news of Christ and living every moment of their life in alignment the Gospel. Subsequently, a “good” man or woman in the story is anyone who temporally demonstrates a Christ like virtue by extending grace to another person (Fassler,