Preview

Irony In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
807 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Irony In A Good Man Is Hard To Find
Irony and surprise are common literary devices authors use to communicate their ideas when writing literary works. Irony allows the writer to suggest an interpretation that is different from the literal meaning of the words used in the text. The element of surprise allows the writer to manipulate the reader’s expectations and take them somewhere completely different. In the short stories, A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flanney O’Connor and Happy Endings by Margaret Atwood, both authors use the element of irony and surprise to engage readers and to develop deeper levels of meaning in their text. In A Good Man is Hard to Find, O’connor uses several kinds of irony to communicate her message about the human condition. The foreshadowing of irony …show more content…
You don't look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people!" At the beginning of the story, her …show more content…
In story A, we are given a perfect story of what an ideal marriage should be but the John and Mary still die and that is not a happy ending. Atwood challenges the reader to engage with all that happens in the middle because the journey is the interesting part In story A, John and Mary appear to be happy because they possess the ideal elements to a happy lifestyle: fabulous jobs, money, children, a large home, and personal luxuries. However, at the end of the story, they just die and the story comes to an end. As the stories progress, the characters' lives become a bit more complicated, but they still always end up at story A, and they die in the end. At the end. By the end, all one can say is the fact of what has happened, not the "how" or the "why" of the situation. In story A, how do all these things make the couple happy. Why? They're really not happy at all and have no actual story to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Irony, in literature can be anything from sarcasm to a shocking plot twist that can be inconvenient to the characters toward the end. A type of irony is situational which is where something very unexpected shows up at the last minute making the outcome of the story completely different then you expected. Such as the one in Lord of the Flies that effects one special character named Simon, and really almost all the characters.…

    • 294 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Irony In Greasy Lake

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Ironic is characterized by often poignant differences or incongruities between what is expected and what actually is. There are many ironic events that happen to the narrator in the short story: The ironic…

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In A Good Man is Hard to Find, Flannery O’Connor tries to show that we are all one of the same and that all man can receive God’s grace. In the short story we are compelled by the completely opposite mannerisms of The Misfit and the grandmother; one character who believes she has no faults and with weak moral convictions. O’Connor uses irony to exemplify two individuals with different moral codes to reveal the notion that all men are ultimately punished, but can achieve grace through attainment of self-awareness and compassion.…

    • 1129 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the story, A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor is about a family whom wanted to go to a family vaction along with the grandmother. However, along the way, the family bumped into the "Misfit" and his friends. The "Misfit" is a crimina whom escape from prison along with two criminal escapees. One by one, every family member were sent to the woods to meet their deaths leaving the grandmother talking to the "Misfit" and pleading him to spare her life other than beg for her family's lives. In the end, it turned the family vacation to a murder. O'Connor used the literacy devices such as foreshadowing which gives a hint or a suggestion on a event that will most likely happen and irony which is between what actually happened and what is expected to happened. The author is trying to show her readers that everyone has their own values and opinions than others. She's having the readers understand what her views and…

    • 447 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Through these examples, one can see the amount of irony that O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” has in it. O’Connor uses many types of irony in the story and portrays the characters as a normal southern family on a normal trip. Her education had a good influence on her ability to write. Overall the story was a good…

    • 674 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    A story is comprised of literary elements and literary devices. The basic literary elements of a story are setting, character, conflict, point of view, plot and theme. A story must have all these elements in order to become a fully developed story. Aside from these elements, writers often use literary devices to enhance the story, perhaps making the story more popular. Irony, a statement meaning the opposite of what is written literally when taken in context is one of the popular literary devices used. R. H. Lawrence also uses various ironies in his short story, Rocking-Horse Winner. Consequently, the various ironies in the story Rocking-House Winner effectively help to enhance the story by further developing the literary elements.…

    • 909 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother goes through a dramatic and ironic change of events during a family trip to Florida. O’Connor uses foreshadowing and irony to portray the main conflict. The conflict plays a role that in which the grandmother’s character is transformed for the better due to the traits she had in the beginning of the story.…

    • 544 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Chapter 26 of Foster’s How to Read Literature Like a Professor, he explains that any great literary work is dripping with irony. At first glance, a reader may not see the it, but a closer look at a book like Kate Chopin’s The Awakening will make a reader snicker at all the irony that comes to light. In The Awakening, the relationship between protagonist, Edna, and her husband is ironic. As Edna is approaching, sunburned, he looks at his wife “as one looks at a valuable piece of property which has suffered some damage” (Chopin, 7). Mr. Pontellier feels as though he owns his wife, but throughout the book she ignores his opinions, has affairs, and eventually leaves him. The relationship with her husband is not the only ironic one Edna has; she has a love hate relationship with her children. Trying to appease her “mother woman” friend, Adele, Edna says, “I would give my life for my children; but I wouldn’t give myself” (Chopin, 80). However, Edna’s death was very selfish because instead of saving her children, she took away their mother. Edna’s death was Chopin’s great irony in The Awakening. At the end of the book, Edna wades, into the sea, purposefully, until “it [is] too late; the shore [is] far behind her, and her strength [is] gone” (Chopin, 190). Edna’s great awakening, her realization of freedom and self, leads to her suicide. Once a reader is trained to look for irony, she will never stop seeing it, adding depth and humor to the reading…

    • 265 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the author, Flannery O’Connor communicates literary symbols and prominence of Southern culture. Within the story, there are subtle yet important details that make the entirety of the piece as iconic as it is. The reoccurring theme of being a lady and moral codes both are important to the overall concept of the story.…

    • 826 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Southern Gothic Genre

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Irony constructs an atmosphere of suspense within O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” The story follows a family planning a road trip while a convicted killer, a man known as the “Misfit,” has escaped prison. Upon this discovery, the family altered their road trip’s destination to avoid the suspected path of the Misfit. However, as situational irony goes, the family…

    • 679 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” there is irony all through the pages. It shows how you should follow your gut instinct when you think you shouldn’t go somewhere, when you know something bad is going to happen. In the story it also talks about how the grandmother wore her nice clothes in case of an accident, she wanted to look like a lady in case anything bad was to happen. The grandmother was constantly talking about the good in people, but was she a good woman?…

    • 1030 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Throughout literature there is a theme that seems to be constant, the protagonist against the antagonist, good versus evil. It is a theme that reoccurs throughout time because it provides the audience with an interesting conflict and reveals more about the true nature of humans. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” she exposes her audience to the veracity of human nature; through various rhetorical devices and the demeanor of her characters, O’Connor reveals a new perspective on good versus evil.…

    • 1130 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “A good man is hard to find” is a narrative that Flannery O’Connor, a spiritual southern writer, uses to illustrate the simplicity of religion. O’Connor narrates how the fate of a family is doomed by the actions of their grandmother and their encounter with the misfit on a family vacation trip. O’ Connor with excellent diction and imagery tells this tragicomedy to a climax, that creates room for debates among her readers. O’ Connor uses her main grotesque characters (the grandmother and misfit) that are parallel in the ideas of life to demonstrate a relationship between grotesque and grace. This juxtaposition creates surrealism, suspense and humor as O’Connor uses excellent symbolism and allusion to reveal how her grotesque characters receive grace after dooming the existence of a family. O’Connor uses excellent symbolism and allusion to reveal how her grotesque characters receive grace after dooming the existence of a family.…

    • 274 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, O’Connor seems to suggest that only through conflicts can the “good” in people be found. The way that the grandmother seems to dwell in the past suggests that she believes that it would’ve been easier to find a “good” man a long time ago. To the grandmother, trying to find goodness today would prove to be very challenging and possibly even useless. Through the use of symbolism, foreshadowing, and metaphors, O’Connor develops the story’s theme.…

    • 946 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays