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Grace In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

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Grace In A Good Man Is Hard To Find
The author Flannery O’Conner uses meanings and examples of grace to create an extreme depth into her short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. O’Conner herself was a very religious person when her father died that made her even more religious. In “A Good Man” a family of a gracious grandmother and a loud, difficult family go on a road trip. During a detour the family runs into “The Misfit” and his gang. The entire family gets murdered and The Misfit leaves the grandmother for last. The grandmother tries to show The Misfit that there is still good in him. Despite the violence in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the grandmother still tries to change the Misfits views of life and show him the idea of Grace. The example of grace is used in the story …show more content…
She believes in the good of even the murder of her entire family. She hears the horrific screams of her family and remains calm asking a misfit to pray. She also shows a lot of forgiveness when her family was killed she didn't show hatred she just told misfit to pray and continue telling him that he was a nice person and insisting that he had good morals. Grace is God showing forgiveness and love. The Grandmother keeps insisting that the Misfit is a good person and that he could never shoot a lady. She even mentions that he should not call himself a misfit because he is good at heart. At the end of the story the grandmothers “gesture of compassion throws everything off balance”(Evans). When everything turns gruesome and dark the grandmother is the beam of God's light shining down. When reading the story the reader should be on the “lookout for such things as the action of grace in the Grandmother’s soul, and not for the dead bodies”(Ochshorn). If any quote could explain this short story most it would be that one. The grandmother's faith and representation of grace is stronger that any sin committed, or life taken. Even the title of this story can be broken down to discribe it. It is broken down by “ A Good Man perhaps meaning Christ himself, is hard to find in the sense that faith in the resurrection can be a difficult gulf for non believers or agnostics to cross

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