An Analysis of Flannery O'Connor’s Story, A Good Man Is Hard to Find

As readers, anytime we read brief stories we usually contemplate various things that tends to make the story unique and insightful for us to study repeatedly. Flannery O’Connor’s quick story, “A Good Man is Challenging to Find”, is a story about a loved ones that was travelling down from Tennessee to Florida for the summer trip. Whilst Bailey bringing his loved ones to Florida for a trip, his mother, The Grandmother, doesn’t seemed to be thrilled going to Florida. The grandmother, who was not thrilled travelling along the household, described about the “The Misfit” in the newspaper becoming on the loose, which her family did not heed her story and ignored her completely. The grandmother faced her ultimate demise as she met The Misfit and succumbed to her death. In the story of “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, we take into account separate techniques that Flannery O’Connor’s writing style and methods in the story specifically point of view, diction, tone, theme and settings that produced it special in the brief story.

Whenever we study numerous kinds of literature specifically brief stories, we usually think about the various points of view that tends to make the story extraordinary and how the author/narrator presents the story. The way that story was written by O’Connor was especially in the third particular person point of view with restricted omniscient. The reason that she wrote the story particularly narrated in the third individual point of view with restricted omniscient is due to the fact the story is centred singularly with the Grandmother. The narrator chose the viewpoint of the grandmother is due to the fact she has some information, which is ready, accessible to start access it directly. For instance, the Grandmother starts to question her son, Bailey, that, “what would you do if this fellow, The Misfit, caught you?” (O’ Connor 2), by asking this query to Bailey, it would recommend us that the Grandmother may well have some understanding about this fugitive. Nevertheless, due to the limited understanding about the Misfit as significantly as the Grandmother would know it from the outside. We may recommend that narrator is foreshadowing that will eventually faced the “unknown” individual known as, The Misfit. Furthermore, O’Connor also wrote the story in a third particular person point of view with limited perspective for the Misfit becoming that as a part of the primary character in that story, he does provides some thoughts about his actions, intentions and previous that made him that way. He said to the Grandmother that, “Then it is nothing at all for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can-by killing somebody…. or carrying out some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness” (27). The Misfit indicates his intentions to kill the Grandmother however, his intention to kill her wasn’t truly recognized though provided his motivation to hurt or even kill someone but he shows his personal moral fabric that his thoughts are clouded and his wish to hurt or kill somebody becomes the ulterior motive and displays his volition to kill her the Grandmother anyways. As a result, it shows that we can trust the narrator in this story albeit that the author put the restricted omniscient point of view these two-major character, the Grandmother and the Misfit. As the point of view is exhibited in the story with fantastic deal of viewpoint, diction is a aspect of how the point of view is carried in the dialogue of the story.

Aside from the point of view point of view of the story, the diction of the words that character delivered the dialogue in the story specifically with The Grandmother. O’ Connor’s delivery of the dialogue from the Grandmother was deliberate and simple to the point simply because she wants us readers to have more concentrate on the dialogue of the primary and supporting characters, instead of the particulars of the characters. Another function that is really distinct in the writing style of Flannery O’Connor is that the way she writes her sentences in the story is rather short, plain and easy, simply because it was completed deliberately on goal to make it basic. For instance, in the middle portion of the story, O’Connor wrote the description of the grandmother action as, “The old lady settled herself comfortably, removing her white cotton gloves and placing them up with her purse on the shelf in the front of the back window” (four). O’Connor’s writing style is really constant and effective in the story because she wants the narrator of the story to deliver the story in a clean, evident and descriptive way which it compliments her writing of the quick story. In addition, besides the diction of the language that was delivered in the story, the tone of the diction that is delivered in the dialogue of the story is quite different and extraordinary in most brief stories. Also, throughout the story itself, the Grandmother selection of words are rather uncanny but inflammatory at the same time although, the Grandmother’s decision of words is rather inflammatory, but we must bear in mind that O’Connor wrote it that kind of diction given that it was the commonality of speaking to the minorities, particularly towards the African-Americans, back in the South for the duration of the 1930s and 1940s which racism was an open season. For instance, the Grandmother says that, “’Oh appear at the cute small pickaninny!’ she stated and pointed to a Negro out of the back window” (five), the word “pickaninny” is an offensive term for a young black child and as I stated, O’Connor utilizes this word “pickaninny” cautiously and deliberately since this was the jargon and lingo that would describe for the Grandmother towards this young coloured youngster. O’Connor’s option of words and diction are quite colourful and unique due to her roots that come from South which the jargon of words is very various than most of the American writers. As diction defines the tone of the language and the point of view of the story that the author exhibits in the story. The setting adds to the

The setting of the short is set in the South primarily in the states of Florida and Georgia. The reason the setting was set in the South was the background of Flannery O’Connor as an author and the historical scenario that was location in that time. O’Connor makes some references of the distinct landmarks such as the Stone Mountains in Georgia. Also, in the story John Wesley created a deprecating reference of both states as, “Tennessee is just a hillbilly dumping ground, and Georgia is a lousy state too” (five), this would recommend that there is some ill will towards these two states that John Wesley would make this deprecating joke given that he despises both Tennessee and Georgia. Yet another instance of the setting that O’Connor displays in the story is in the plantation. The explanation why she put the Plantation in the story is since of two items, a single in a historical sense the plantation have a large lot of land and they have the graveyard along grounds of the plantation and two, the plantation is utilised in the story as a foreshadowing of the Grandmother which it gives us the hint the Grandmother would succumbed her demise at the grounds of the plantation at the hands of the Misfit. O’Connor’s choice of setting was so instrumental and crucial in a sense accomplished the objective of writing the story due to the fact it describes about the nature of the setting that was set and portrayed in that particular area of the South. Also, the selection of setting in the South was specifically accomplished in way that we as readers must understand that the story was set in the 1950s.

Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Great Man is Tough to Find”, has exceed on various levels of analysing the story from the improvement of the character, diction and tone of the language that is presented in the short story and also decision of settings that offers us readers the imagination of what to expect in the story. As readers, we discover different perspectives about this story and how it impacts our thoughts and understanding that surrounds us. Like the story, “A Great Man is Challenging to Find”, we must not befall to the pit of prejudices which succumbs us to our personal dereliction and eventually fall to our own demise just like the Grandmother ruined her life in expense of prejudice and ignorance towards simply because of becoming uptight towards herself.