Abstract
Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, is an intriguing story of a typical American family from the mid-20th century who set out on a vacation to Florida. The reader is taken on a journey along with the family meeting new people and learning of events that unfold before them. However, after taking an unwanted turn down a winding road, the family comes face to face with a violent criminal. A family vacation turns awry.
Despite her incurable terminal disease of Lupus, Flannery O’Conner was a fictional Southern writer who found short stories like this to be comical yet serious. O’Conner was raised Roman Catholic, and at times found ways to incorporate religion into her stories.
Within this short story, O’Conner used a feminist style of writing. Gender roles are contrasted and very distinct. Often times, she used foreshadowing to set off clues to the reader of what might happen next or even later in the story. Moreover, O’Conner was a brilliant writer depicting scenes of grotesque, deformity, or mutilation most likely that had arisen from her own fight with her lifelong terminal illness.
A Good Man Is Hard to Find (c.1955)
Flannery O’Conner born in Georgia and a strong believer in her Roman Catholic faith has been known to write short stories in such a way to send her readers a hidden message. Most of her messages are not clear right away, but in her writings she always conveys an underlying meaning. She would tend to associate most of her work to a “Southern Gothic” style and incorporate many of her short stories around the south that one might relate to (Kennedy & Gioia, 2013, Ch.10). O’Conner is known for writing short stories based on a feminist style of writing which is quite clear. She orientates the men to be strong and assertive, and the women to be weak and submissive. O’Conner also uses an abundance of foreshadowing effects within this story.
Summary
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by
References: Kennedy. X., & Gioia, D. (2013). Chapter 10: Two Critical Casebooks (Flannery O’Conner). In Literature. An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing (12th ed., pp.419-420). Pearson. Kennedy. X., & Gioia, D. (2013). Chapter 3: Character. In Literature. An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing (12th ed., p.84). Pearson. O’Conner, F. (1955). “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” In Literature. An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing (12th ed., pp.420-420). Pearson.