Grandmother And The Misfit example essay topic

"A Good Man is Hard to Find' Despite the relatively limited volume of Flannery O Connor's published fiction, she has begun to be regarded as on of the most significant figures in the American literary canon in the 34 years since her death. Throughout her three novels and two volumes of short stories, O Connor addresses a number of problematic issues and ideas, mostly through a conceptual framework firmly grounded in her devout Catholic faith. An overarching theme in O Connor's fiction is the indictment of the paucity of ethics extant in modern society. Further, the characters in her stories are often exposed to shocking violence as a means of achieving an ultimately meaningful moment of grace (Martin 15).

An examination of the use of symbolism, religious motifs, and characterization in O Connor's short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find' reveals her emphasis on both of these recurrent themes. Because many of O Connor's stories are didactic in nature and similar in function to parables or fables, she relies heavily on the use of symbolism in order to invest even the minutest elements of her fiction with thematic significance. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find,' O Connor employs symbols that not only serve to define the archetypes of certain characters, but also to amplify the confusion surrounding the lack of the expected moral characteristics associated with the characters (Merton 146). In the story, O Connor uses images and symbols to add to the reader's perceptions of the archetypes she presents in the story. The grandmother is painstakingly associated with the archetype of the genteel, aging Southern belle. She goes to great lengths to be certain that her outer appearance conveys what she perceives as the information most vital to her self-definition.

She impracticably bedecks herself in the regalia befitting of Southern Womanhood so that "anyone seeing her dead on the highway would at once know she was a lady' (138). Likewise, O Connor associates the Misfit with symbols of foreboding and dread. The car in which the Misfit and his gang approach the scene of the accident is described as a "big black battered hearse-like automobile' (145). The Misfit appraises the family "with a steady expressionless gaze' that betrays his apparent lack of moral center (ibid. ).

These symbolic associations serve as a backdrop to the unexpected moral ideas O Connor advances through the characters. The story is rife with religious elements. Most notably, the Grandmother attempts to engage the Misfit in a theological discussion not in hopes of assisting his redemption, but solely as a means of prolonging her life (Bandy 116). Alluding to the story of Lazarus and Jesus ability to raise the dead, the grandmother at once reveals her stubborn refusal to truly embrace the ambiguities inherent in Christian doctrines and the Misfit's ability to do exactly this.

By bringing religion into the scenario, O Connor demonstrates the hollowness of the institution in a world where a practiced manipulator like the grandmother can be considered a faithful devotee, and the Misfit, a former gospel singer who has thoroughly pondered the mysteries of Christ, eventually becomes a sociopath (Owens 101). Although all of the characters in the story are memorable, the grandmother and the Misfit are the only two who are clearly drawn, as well as the only two whose individual qualities are of lasting significance to the story. In order to underscore the moral ambiguity that pervades the text, O Connor endows the grandmother and the Misfit with contradictory qualities. The grandmother is outwardly congenial and matronly, but her inner dialogue betrays a bevy of crafty, calculated machinations. Similarly, the Misfit has committed a series of unspeakable crimes, but O Connor chooses to describe him as physically resembling a scholar, while his restless movements are disarmingly childlike. These unusual characterizations are paired with the grandmother's ultimate realization that the breed of man the Misfit represents is an indirect outgrowth of her own collusion (.

Together, these elements effectively accentuate O Connor's tacit assertion that the societal paradigm that posits a distinct separation between good and evil is inevitably harmful.

Bibliography

Bandy, Stephen C". 'One of My Babies: The Misfit and the Grandmother. ' Studies in Short Fiction 33.1: 107-18. Clark, Michael Martin. "Flannery O'Connor's 'A Good Man Is Hard to Find': The moment of grace. ' English Language Notes 29.2: 66-70. Carter W. The True Country: Themes in the Fiction of Flannery O'Connor. Nashville: Vanderbilt UP, 1969.
Merton, Thomas. "The Other Side of Despair. ' In Mc Clave, Heather, ed. Women Writers of the Short Story. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1980.
O Connor, Flannery. Collected Works. New York: Library of America, 1988.