Review of Flannery O'Connor’s Book, A Good Man Is Hard to Find

We live in a world that is characterized by great and evil, and as most people struggle with getting good and performing good acts, others are comfy exercising evil and performing undesirable acts. The idea of great and evil is depicted in most artistic pieces ranging from paintings, films, music, and literature. Interestingly, absolutely everyone has individual perceptions concerning excellent and evil, although some draw their suggestions from philosophical believed, other folks base their suggestions on religious teachings and practices. 1 such literary piece is the book, A Excellent Man is challenging to Find, written by the well-known American novelist Flannery O’Connor. Influenced by her religious background and her house region, the O’Connor narrates the story of a loved ones who are murdered while taking a vacation trip.

O’Connor is nicely famed for her emphasis of grotesque stories and characterization, which is regarded as becoming realist, as opposed to, idealist (Connie 74-78). Her literary functions have been, tremendously, influenced by the South, and she makes use of this setting to bring out her concepts in every literary piece she produces. Accordingly, the author makes use of her religious background when judging moral and ethical behavior, and for that explanation, her literary pieces of perform have very good versus evil as their central themes. Making use of morally flawed characters, as effectively as, presumably morally upright characters, the author presents intriguing stories that capture the interests of her audience at all occasions (Connie 74-78). More particularly, the novel, A Great Man is Hard to Find, the story is set in Georgia, with the year and time obtaining no explicit definition or designation. The story requires spot in two principal locations: the very first spot is Georgia, whereas the second setting is on a roadside, a lot more especially in a ditch. Using these two settings, the author tells the story of how a household was murdered throughout their trip for a trip in Florida.

This paper presents a literary evaluation of the book, A God Man is Tough to Discover, by Flannery O’Connor. The paper gives an analysis of characterization, and point of views as brought out in the novel. The paper also examines how the author makes use of symbolism, irony, foreshadowing, and similes to elucidate and boost the theme of excellent versus evil.

Characterization

In literature, the characters refer to the folks in the text, whose story the author is keen on narrating to readers and audience. In view of that, characterization refers to the author’s improvement and presentation of characters in the novel (Peterson 1). Just like all other writers, O’Connor has employed two principal strategies of presenting her audience with her characters in the novel, A Very good man is Difficult to Discover. These methods include direct characterization and indirect characterization. With direct characterization, the narrator straight informs readers about the characters in the novel (Peterson 1). This info can variety from delivering a description of the characters, as effectively as, the use of names and overt commentary. Direct characterization in the novel, A Very good Man is tough to Locate, is presented in two methods including an analysis of the characters by the author, as well as, naming. The author gives Misfit his name as an illustration of his character and life experiences. Indirect characterization has also been utilized for the novel’s story improvement, and the author enables every of her characters to reveal themselves and their personalities as the story continues. O’Connor manages to bring this out by way of the provision of details such as, appearance, mannerisms, as nicely as, speech (Peterson 1). Evidently, two main characters are revealed in the novel such as the grandmother and the misfit. Whereas the grandmother is brought out as the protagonist, the misfit is clearly the antagonist in the story. As a character, the grandmother is the focal point of the story, and she since she considers herself as morally upright, she continuously passes judgment to other characters and criticizes their activities. She does not judge her personal methods, something that she later comes to regret quickly before her death. The misfit, on the other hand, is the character that seems to lack moral conscience and is continually in conviction. Observably, the misfit is brought out as the strongest character in the book in relation to disposition, as he possesses qualities that all other characters do not.

Point of View

The novel, A Great man is Difficult to Discover, is written from the third individual or omniscient point of view. Accordingly, it is the grandmother’s thoughts and point of view that the readers have access to, thus revealing the use of the third particular person point of view in the novel. In the novel, O’Connor reports the grandmother’s thoughts, as effectively as, her actions and conversations thus introducing a new point of view namely, the restricted omniscient point of view. An instance of this is revealed exactly where the author writes “she knew that Bailey would not be willing to shed anytime hunting at an old house” (O’Connor 35). This statement reveals to the readers the grandmothers thoughts about her son Bailey. Misfit is the only other character whose actions, and thoughts that the readers are introduced to, hence building on the third individual point of view. Nevertheless, readers get to discover about Misfit’s concepts in the final component of the novel after he has murdered the loved ones. In 1 of his thoughts regarding the grandmother, Misfit states, “She would have been a very good woman,.. if it had been somebody there to shoot her each minute of her life” (O’Connor 89). This statement reveals Misfit’s thoughts about the grandmother, as effectively as, very good versus evil.

Symbolism

Symbolism is a single of the literary elements that O’Connor has employed in telling the story. In essence, symbolism refers to the process of giving a individual, object. or event a which means that is outdoors its literal meaning (Peterson 6). Put simply, it is a literary element, which requires the use of representation or imagery. A closer examination of the novel reveals the use of different symbols including grandmother’s hat, Misfit’s auto, Toombsboro, the dark forest and the sunless cloudless sky. Far more especially, Toombsboro, the town which grandmother and her family pass prior to their death is employed symbolically in the novel. Ideally, Toombsboro is the old plantation where grandmother has memories about (O’Connor, 85). Nonetheless, the name of the plantation, as well as, the events that take place instantly soon after passing the plantation reveal some thing deeper than an old plantation. The name of the plantation suggests doom and misfortune, thus the death of the grandmother and her household.

Irony

O’Connor also employs the use of Irony as a literary element in her novel, A Great man is tough to Discover. In literature, irony happens when one of the characters fails to perceive the obvious (Peterson 5). A lot more specifically, the character fails to recognize what the reader and the audience automatically understands when reading the novel. Irony in the novel is demonstrated in the way the grandmother considers herself as a suitable and morally upright lady, anything that the readers would not take into account as accurate. To the readers, the grandmother actions and thoughts bring her out as a various person from who she feel of herself. She is manipulative, she lies and has racist tendencies, and the character sees herself as the opposite of this. Even so, towards the end of the novel, the character soon realizes that she is not who she considers herself to be but she dies ahead of she can make any adjustments.

Foreshadowing

In literary writing, foreshadowing is a literary method where the author uses his characters to foretell the activities that are most likely to happen in the novel. Evidently, foreshadowing is O’Connor’s main option in relation to literary techniques and the author utilizes the character of the grandmother to foreshadow the tragic developments that occur later on in the novel. An instance of the use of foreshadowing is illustrated when the grandmother wears her greatest clothes and hat for the trip with the excuse that one thing tragic may possibly take place to the loved ones during the trip. The grandmother states, “in case of an accident, any individual seeing her dead on the highway would know at as soon as that I was a lady” (O’Connor six). This statement foretells the death of the entire family members in the hands of the Misfit, which happens in the last section of the book.

Simile

In the novel, O’Connor also utilizes a number of literary devices to inform her story. Evidently, the author tends to make her words contribute to the impact of the story by way of the use of similes. The author’s use of similes in the novel both demonstrates her literary skills, as properly as, the events taking location in the novel. An example of a simile utilised in the novel is in the description of the children’s mother. “She was a young lady in slacks, whose face was as broad and as innocent as a cabbage”(O’Connor 24). This simile, illustrate the gullibility and incompetence of the mother, which tends to make it simple for others to manipulate her.

Conclusion

In her novel, A Good Man is Challenging to Discover, Flannery O’Connor employs the use of different literary elements, methods and devices to narrate her story. These literary components and devices contain irony, foreshadowing, symbolism, and similes among other factors. Because the central theme of the novel is very good versus evil, the author utilizes these literary components, techniques, and devices to tell her story. Observably, the author properly utilized these elements, techniques, and devices to communicate the theme of great versus evil in the story.