A summary of ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.'

Flannery O'Connor wrote the novel 'A Decent Guy is Hard to Find.' When writing prose, O'Connor follows the southern gothic style. Whether or not the narrator has lines or plays an important part in the creation of the novel, the American South becomes the primary character of the majority of his novels. ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find' is a tale of unusual occurrences and significant people that are southern residents that aim to create an unpredictable world that accurately reflects the essence of living in the south. The story throughout heavy embraces the southern culture, prominent historical figures, and history of slavery, displaying the feelings of hurt pride upon losses during the civil war, isolation neglected community people, important events, and places (Hooten, 2008). Most events in the story are presented in a normal way at first. However, as the reader progresses they come to earn the revelation of how strange disturbing and terrible things get in the south, O’Connor was the master of this genre for a long time, and throughout the story, she can maintain a tone of realism. The story uses prose, and she tells it in reality with minimum eerie but pays close attention to the relationships and events in the narrative. Time to time we meet grandmother recalling the good old days when they used to work on the plantation, and she was a beauty who would smile at cute Negros. The story is always mentioning about a stereotype of the old south. The grandmother is portrayed as a stereotype type and this way she also manages to take up her grotesque role. All family members appear to preposterous as well. The family lacks manners completely, their father is intense and ease to anger, the mother lacks an identity or personality. The father is a social misfit and lacks regard for anyone or anything. The environment in this story is not delightful but critics the south and the way of family life in the south.

Some authors argue that the author employs the use of various literary devices throughout the story (Hooten, 2008). Foreshadow has been employed in various instances. The mention of the is fit on several occasions foreshadows that the father is a dangerous person and though it isn’t yet known to the reader, they can already imagine that the father is either not a good character or will change in the course of the story. Foreshadowing has been used to create a mood that gives impact to the title of the story that ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.' After the family crashes foreshadowing is endorsed. The car that comes to ‘help’ them is described as looking like a hearse. Nearly all the events that happen to the family members after they leave for the tour is described with some level of darkness. This is confirmed later to be true when the trip to Red Sammy’s turns out to be more hurting than fascinating.

The story to a large extent fails to name the character’s despite the important role they play in the story. Most characters are referred to like their social status for example; the grandmother hasn’t been referred directly, neither has the Father or the mortar. Only the young boy- John Wesley and his sister- June Star is known by their names. More interesting is how these named individuals have been named. Symbolically John Wesley is named after the Methodist religious movement while ironically, June Star has been given a very modern name.

The title of the story ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ gives a complicated meaning. On the one hand, the title stands to loses its meaning if only the death of the family is meaningless and all the activates, hard work and effort to get to Florida is only a swift end, then the title of the story will lose its meaning. As such the title presents a lack of meaning in itself given the ugly outcome of the crime. At the end meaning it is clear that the much that the family strives for in the story ends as nothing. The uses a lotto carefully and clearly build the characters and later all these will change unexpectedly. The strong character of the grandmother shows clearly just how hard life can’t get. The grandmother stays put throughout all these struggles, and she only gets emotional when confronted with news of death which can be argued as the very extreme act of manipulation.

Suppose the grandmother had kept quiet, the misfit might have spared her life. However, he shoots her three times in the chest as soon as she says ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.' His partner says that it is good for some fun, but the misfit stonily replies that there is no fun in life and as such, the reader has to examine the title of the story. It does appear that the misfits also agree that a good man is hard to find since eh heartless shoots and kills the whole family and it is clear that he fells the pain and that he is not proud of what he is.

The grandmother, Red Sammy, and misfits are nostalgic for old times from time to time. They seem to have believed in the past that a ‘good man’ could be found without much struggle. Pursuing goodness in the past was virtuous and worth unlike today where it is pointless and difficult. For example, it is clear that the grandmother’s old suitor who brought her water melon every weekend was clearly a good man. This contrasts with the misfit who mercilessly shoots her three times even as she begs for mercy. These characters’ present life in the present as rife, sad and ambiguous. Having this as the reality reminds and to some extent convince them that it is pointless to explore their potential for goodness since the world is not a conducive environment for such traits.

Conclusion

The story ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ has been written with a unique approach and it critics the way of life in the south. The tragic end of the story leaves readers sad and eager for change probably rediscovering the goodness within themselves and examining if it is worth pursuing in the own society



References

Hooten, J. (2008). Individualism in O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find. The Explicator, 66(4), 197-200. http://dx.doi.org/10.3200/expl.66.4.197-200