A Good Man is Hard to Find
O’Connor’s work is that of very dark humor, irony and grotesque characters andsituations. 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.
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