Deconstructing OConnors A Good Man Is Hard to Find Research Paper Example

Deconstructing OConnors A Good Man Is Hard to Find Research Paper Example Deconstructing OConnors A Good Man Is Hard to Find Paper Deconstructing OConnors A Good Man Is Hard to Find Paper It is for centuries past that the theme of death and salvation was encapsulated majestically in western literature. Also, it is for centuries that modern writers have refrained from the intervention of such topic into their pieces of work, condemning its solemn repetition and its obsoleteness. However, in the 20th century American literature, Flannery OConnor has revived the thematic significance of Christian salvation in which death occasionally gets involved. A devout Christian she is, OConnor combines her profound religious knowledge with her Southern milieu, contemporary violence, and satiric sense of humour, which has emerged mostly in form of the short story, her most celebrated genre. Published and re-published since 1955 is OConnors first collection of short stories, A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories, throughout which her Christian beliefs have been meticulously patterned. Apart from other short stories that deal with the downfall of pride is A Good Man Is Hard to Find whose major concern has been directed toward death and salvation and has been embodied with other minor concerns, such as adults influences upon children and changing values in American society. This short story contains many jaunty features that help depict Flannery OConnors theme of death and salvation. OConnors unique choice of narration allows the reader to interpret the thematic messages at different dimensions, to display the evils of adults world as well as to capture more clearly the psychological complexity in the protagonists mind. Using the intrusive third-person limited omniscient narrative, OConnor introduces her heroine of the short stories along with her characteristics and her familial relationships. To begin with, A Good Man Is Hard to Find is viewed through the eyes of a talkative grandmother who, ignored by the rest of the family, relies on the texts to structure her reality. With no desire to go to Florida as well as the burning desire to visit east Tennessee, the grandmother in disguise of a good-hearted person refers to the newspaper article about the escaping Misfit and exclaims to her son Bailey, I wouldnt take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. It should also be noted that the article itself is a written text and, even though it refers to events outside and prior to the primary ri cit, it stands as an unrecognized prophecy of the later event. At this stage, indeed, the Misfit does not represent a real threat to the grandmother but is just a ploy to get her own way. The grandmother in A Good Man Is Hard to Find is typified as talkative and manipulating. OConnors highlighted portrayal of the grandmother is, in some way, associated with the image of an old, deceitful witch with her hidden cat, Pitty Sing, and her big black valise that [looks] like the head of a hippopotamus. The head of a hippopotamus is an African sacrificial offering that is believed to placate the haunting spirits. The reader is also acknowledged at the beginning of the story that the heroine is about to take a journey that she is apparently unwilling to. The grandmother is on the way to Florida with her family. On the way to death and salvation, OConnor equips her stories with many picaresque elements in order to reflect the protagonists background as well as to illustrate the protagonists limited secular and religious knowledge. The grandmothers behaviors in A Good Man Is Hard to Find reemphasizes the fact that she is deceptive, a characteristic that will harm not only her family but also herself. She, prior to the trip, has managed to sneak the cat-that her son, Bailey, didnt like to arrive at a motel with-justifying her behavior by imagining [the cat] would miss her too much and, [fearfully,] he might brush himself against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself. Then, the grandmother reads fictions to the children, John Wesley and June Star, recounts them some ostensibly true stories, and provides a continual gloss on the physical world they are passing. Little niggers in the country dont have things like we do. If I could paint, Id paint that picture, or Look at the graveyard! ] That was the old family burying ground. That belonged to the plantation. Further on, the conversation between the grandmother and Red Sam, in which they discuss People are certainly not nice like they used to be, unveils the truth that the older people are delusory about their own bad characteristics and unaware of the inheritance of such behaviors to their innocent descendants. To be specific, the grandmother bequeaths her superficiality that is exposed through her obsession with the ladylike image to June Stars praise of materialism: her money-drive appearance, for instance. The concrete evidence for the inheritance of Grandmas characteristic is Baileys yellow shirt with bright blue parrot in it, which is passed from hand to hand, from dead Bailey to the Misfit. The blue parrot is somewhat a reminiscence of OConnors thoughtlessly talkative grandmother who is likewise in navy blue dress that day. An aggressive, bossy person like Red Sam is, at the same time, responsible for militant John Wesley, who always uses forces to get his own way: Well poke all the woodwork and find [the hidden silver]. Some readers may look at the kids in A Good Man Is Hard to Find as an exaggeration as well as externalization of adults bad characters, the caricatures of adults bad manners. Having prepared the ground for the protagonists cathartic moment, OConnor then creates a critical moment for the Grandmother in A Good Man Is Hard to Find, which functions as stimulus for the enlightenment of the central character. Having had an accident on the way to the house with a secret panel and now encountering the Misfit, the grandmother is in the most crucial position that life offers the Christian; she is facing death. She does not really prepare for it and struggles to have the event postponed. Thus, she initiates the conversation with the Misfit, which allows her to contemplate with her own but unrecognized bad deeds and to realize, even in her limited way, that she is responsible for the man before her. OConnor, before the moment of sudden awareness, lets her heroine digress through her false values. The Grandmas litany of convenient fictions involves class distinction: I know youre a good man. You dont look a bit like you have common blood, and her shallowness: You shouldnt call yourself the Misfit because I know youre a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell. The grandmother also asserts vaguely that redemption can be achieved through work: You could be honest if youd only try [ ] Think how wonderful it would be to settle down [ ] If you would pray [ ] Jesus will help you. A hypocritical old soul she is, the grandmas wits are no match to the Misfits. Her attempts are sterile; the killing of her family members continues in the woods [that] gaped like a dark open mouth. At this point, the reader as well as the grandma has learned about the Misfits life profile and opinions in general. He is a different breed of dog from his siblings, as his father says: its some that can live their whole life out without asking about it, and its others has to know why it is, and this boy is one of the latters. Hes going to be into everything. In fact, the Misfit seems to have been through everything-from a gospel singer to a murderer. Unlike the Misfit, the grandmother never questions the mechanics of the universe-to ask herself why things are. This default puts the Misfit several cuts above the grandmother, who is just afraid to miss something and would rather choose to settle down. Her eagerness to be in everything is simply an act of jotting down the mileage on the car at 55890 or an attempt to create a whole universe behind the visual phenomena wishing she were [telling the truth]. It is noteworthy that she is the one who has named the Misfit and thus forces him to become what he is recognized to be. The grandmother, who cannot be categorized into either type according to the Misfits father, and others who possess the same characteristic are somewhat responsible for coercing a defenseless-looking man to become a murderer. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later youre going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it, says the Misfit. They could prove I had committed [crime] because they had the papers on me. [But,] I cant make all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment. This is his divine reason for calling himself the Misfit. However, the grandmother has not fai led to grasp a rare chance for enlightenment and has therefore achieved moral development, though in her limited way. At first, facing the Misfit and never thinking that God will help her, she affectedly advises him to pray for Gods help: If you would pray [ ] Jesus would help you. Then, still encouraging the Misfit, her genuine thought about Christ manifests itself physically: Jesus. Jesus, meaning, Jesus will help you, but the way she was saying it, it sounded as if she might be cursing, an action similar to the earlier moment that her uncontrollable embarrassment has released a hidden cat accidentally. The grandmother, at last, denies Gods grace: Maybe he didnt raise the dead, which the Misfit objects: I wasnt there so I cant say He didnt. The role of the two characters is now vice versa. The grandmother, who is supposed to display her faith in God, reveals her true atheistic self and is ironically successful in her contrition and redemption, while the Misfit is reluctant to oppose God, whose help he has earlier denied overtly. It may be true that a person like the grandmother in A Good Man Is Hard to Find cannot be good unless it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life. But, it is true that she, cherishing the rare moment of salvation that has been offered, has become aware of her sins: the grandmothers head cleared for an instant, repents unintentionally at the critical moment of her being murdered: Why youre one of my babies. Youre one of my own children, and ultimately rests in peace: her [childlike] face smiling up at the cloudless sky. Ironically, the grandmas bad influences become evident upon her murderer. The Misfit, in other words, is bewitched by the old ladys hypocritical soul. He is now wearing Baileys shirt in which is the blue parrot, a reminiscence of the deceptive and talkative grandmother. Additionally, as the grandmother reaches out and touches him on the shoulder, the Misfit springs back as if a snake had bitten him. He also inherits the grandmas witch imagery by picking up the cat that was rubbing itself against his leg. The grandmothers bad influences have, at the end of the story, lowered the Misfits level of Grace to that of the grandmas at the beginning of A Good Man Is Hard to Find. A Good Man Is Hard to Find is not merely an account of a family murdered on the way to Florida. In it, Flannery OConnor has cunningly combined her religious beliefs with her contemporary and realistic environment, presented mainly through a female protagonist, an artful grandmother. Her heroine not only makes the reader laugh heartily but thoughtfully. She instills the universal belief of the Christian salvation through the tactful prevalence of humour and bloodshed. OConnor funny violence in the story is not meant to be the end in itself but a new beginning of an eternal life. The man in the violent situation reveals those qualities least dispensable in his personality, those qualities which are all he will have to take into eternity with him (OConnor, The Element of Suspense in A Good Man Is Hard to Find from The Longman Masters of Short Fiction by Dana Gioia and R. S. Gwynn). The story, thus, reminds the reader of the intrusion of Gods Providence and of the accessibility of salvation, which is regardless of time, place and the impurity of ones soul.