Foreshadowing In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, multiple themes are conveyed through her use of foreshadowing and irony as well as a consistent point of view. The story centers around the major conflict between the Misfit and the grandmother along with her family. This story can be viewed in many ways because of the unusually large number of themes used in this story ranging from religion to society and class. Foreshadowing can be found throughout the story leading up to the brutal execution of the family beginning with the grandmother’s comment on her elaborate outfit for the road trip to the “hearse-like” (373) vehicle the Misfit drove. O’Connor’s clever use of irony stands out in this short story. She uses a wide range of irony to get across her message. Third person point of view was used for the short story. The point of view was limited because the reader is informed of only the grandmother’s
The story is not told specifically by one character. Not only is the story in third person, it is also limited which means “the author reveals only one character’s emotions and thoughts to the reader” (Harvest Books 5). The mother in this story does not have a name and is “referred to as the children’s mother. This reveals that the grandmother thinks of her only as her son’s wife and her grandchildren’s mother” (Harvest Books 6). This helps embellish the point of view in the story. Even though the point of view is centered around the grandmother’s thoughts, O’Connor never fully gets into the thoughts of the grandmother. This distance helps readers develop conclusions about the story and its characters. The only other character that is not given a name is Grandmother and that is to keep from giving Grandmother an identity and instead make her a “type of person” (Harvest Books 5). O’Connor did this so the readers would judge her by her actions not a