A Good Man is Hard to Find

situations. Her themes are of a religious nature, with characters who experience horrible,

soul wrenching moments that lead them to an epiphany. For O’Connor the merging of

good and evil does not necessarily mean that good prevails; happy endings aren’t an

ingredient of her tales. O’Connor was raised as a Southern Catholic and was devoted to

her faith. She recognized the paradox of the Southern personality and culture regarding

etiquette and religion. She was quoted as saying the South "may not be Christ - centered

but was most certainly Christ haunted." We see that the grandmother and the Misfit are

haunted by Christ in "A Good Man...." Neither are Christ - centered and yet the

grandmother is portrayed as the more qualified of the two to accept Christ’s salvation.

The question is ‘is she more qualified? She would certainly say so. Her moment of

redemption comes at the hands of a character who is evil beyond belief. However, the

grandmother is quite evil herself. Her evilness has been disguised as that of an innocent

grandmother which makes the reader uncomfortable in judging her harshly. The

grandmother does indeed have her moment of rede

. . .
She invokes the name of Jesus in an attempt to save the Misfit

and herself. You

cannot let her get away with this simply because she’s ignorant and incapable of

comprehending results of her own actions. We see that, the Misfit sees

that, the only one blind to these manipulations is grandmother herself.

(The grandmother rocks quietly, her hands folded in prayer. If she cared so much for Bailey why

would she sneak Pitty Sing along in the car?. " This would appear to be a limited omniscient narration and yet for the

most part the narration is third person. The narrator isn’t completely detached and seems

to delight in showing us the bad side of the family, particularly the grandmother.

(The grandmother puts forth her most convincing ‘pity me’ face and ‘innocently’ wipes a

tear with one gloved hand.

Common topics in this essay:
Pitty Sing, Ms OConnor, Red Sammy, Misfit OConnors, Cut Flash, Neither Christ, , OConnor Thats, Remember Jesus, God God, ms oconnor, ladies gentlemen, pitty sing, attorney ladies gentlemen, invokes name, save misfit, characters free, red sammy, grandmother misfit, moment redemption, invokes name jesus, ladies gentlemen jury, name jesus,

Approximate Word count = 1931
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)

Already a member? Click here