A Deeper Look into the Importance of Literature I really liked “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” One aspect I found comforting was the fact that the older generation would reminisce of the past. I have seemed to reminisce a lot more. I’m not sure why I do it. I guess part of me wants to keep those good memories. But I was so busy reminiscing that I failed to make new memories in the present day. I see the same thing happen to the Grandmother in the story. Here she is wanting to go to her home state of Tennessee so bad, that she puts her whole family in danger instead of enjoying a family trip. As a reader I like the unpredictable. Now many could have predicted the Misfit to show up. But many didn’t predict the death of the whole family including …show more content…
People don’t have to be good and they don’t have to be necessarily bad. People are more complex than that. Now the Misfit it’s obviously not a good man, but the only one in the whole story that shows any evidence of being good is Red Sam. But even Red Sam is only running a business. It wouldn’t make much sense for him to be rude and unsympathetic to his costumers. The Father of the family doesn’t really have any evidence of being a good man. Neither of the children appreciate the trip. And the Grandmother gets the family stranded and ultimately killed. So there is no good man, but a mix off good with the bad. The characters were unsure of their roles which I liked. Because real people aren’t always good and aren’t always bad they’re unsure whether they can be all good or bad. Another thing I like as a reader is misfortune. I don’t know if it makes me a messed up person but I like when the characters are a bit misfortunate. But I’ve learned that the misfortune mustn’t come from another character, but as a random unforeseeable lesson of …show more content…
Literature can be viewed in many different lights. That’s all the more reason for a reader to experience itself first hand. People shouldn’t “wait until the movie comes out” because they wouldn’t actually be experiencing the writers work first hand and form their own opinions. Instead, they are watching another person’s interpretation of the work forced to accept their visions of the characters, and their opinions of how the literary work should be viewed. This has been going on for a very long time now and it belittles the importance of literature. Literature when used as an escape, is very enjoyable. Sure literature makes the reader devote time to fully experience it, but with more effort comes more reward. After hours and hours of reading the ending of a literary work is either the best reward of the reader’s effort or the worst waste of the reader’s time. Nevertheless, a reader can’t help but have a sense of achievement after reading the ending of a literary work. That sense of achievement can lead to a boost in confidence and gives the reader a reason to read more, expanding the information the reader
William Martin Professor English 15 April 2017 A Good Man Is Hard To Find: What Is “Good”? In this work by Mary Flannery O’Connor, the protagonist, referred to as “the grandmother,” tries to persuade her son to take the family to East Tennessee. Her son, Bailey, wants to visit Florida instead and so she tries to change his mind.
Most may argue that being a good person is easy and that anyone can easily do it. But the reality is that it's hard, you need a lot of good traits and to learn that it's not always about you. Throughout the book Nick is that person, always putting others before himself. Though a good majority of the characters in the book aren’t the most genuine and good of people, Nick is one that stands out the most. Based on my reading, Nick is a good person because of his selflessness and trustworthiness towards others.
This surprises the Misfit due to his belief that he is unforgivable for the actions that he has committed and leads to the Misfit contemplating his prior belief and possibly changing him in the
The Misfit and his acquaintances were considered wolves dressed in sheep’s clothing because they portrayed themselves as good, but actually, they are evil individuals. The Misfit and his acquaintances portrayed themselves as good people by not just killing them first. Beware
The first sentence, “The grandmother didn’t want to go to florida,” (Lawrence 406) gives the reader a glimpse into who the grandmother is as a person. She is depicted as a selfish and manipulative person. In the beginning of the story she was always trying to change her son Bailey’s mind to get the family to go to Tennessee instead of Florida. “The children have been to Florida before, you all ought to take them somewhere else for a change…” (Lawrence 406).
He has selflessness and can care for other people’s situations and have empathy towards them. So he can just understand the horror that Mr. Nesbitt had to go through because an actual monster named James King shot him. Now you can see that he is a good person but there is still more proof to show you. Similarly, Steve knows that he is a good person but has to prove it to the jury. We know this because when the author wrote, “I want to look like a good person.
Before going on the family trip, grandmother makes sure she is dressed very properly “ In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once she was a proper lady” (421). Grandmother wears white cotton gloves, a navy straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the white brim” which she adjusted often to ensure she had a good outward appearance. Grandmother’s moment of redemption comes to her while she is in a ditch with a serial killer.
and they are all planning a trip to Florida. Although it has been decided that they are going to Florida, the grandmother is frustrated and tries to convince her son and his family that they should go to Tennessee instead since more family lives there and there are sights to see there. She also argues that going to Florida would only put the family in danger as there was a serial killer on the loose who goes by the name of “Misfit”. This, in itself, already raises a red flag for readers since they just so happen to be travelling to a place where a serial killer is running loose. Despite the grandmother’s protests against their trip to Florida, they all get in the car and begin their journey.
The misfit gains awareness of human morals when he kills the grandmother and he says, "She would have been a good woman...if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life" (O 'Connor 1020), he then realized that she wasn 't all that good. O 'Connor did a good job of interpreting the grandmother as a way to put away the values of the old Southern America; she also interprets the Misfit as a type of common man who is defiantly not perfect which can a realistic version of the new Southern America. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find", the irritating grandmother cares more about matters such as her appearance and manners, she dressed her best for the car ride and the reason for her doing this is so that "In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would at once know that she was a lady." (O 'Connor 1010). The grandmother is a very selfish woman, the first thing she said to the Misfit is "You wouldn 't shoot a lady, would you?"
The Misfit is seen as being a part of reality and only believing what he sees with physical evidence. He also stays true to his morals of what he believes is right and wrong, especially when it comes to showing the equality of no mercy among the family members. Both characters reveal their use of Jesus, the spiritual battle that inhibits them and their concepts of reality. All of this gives insight to how there are no good or bad characters at the finale of this story. The battle of morality between the two characters only shows the
In another quote the grandmother implies that the misfit is a good man by stating, "Yes it's a beautiful day," said the grandmother. "Listen, " she said, "You shouldn't call yourself the misfit because I know you're a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell" (421). The grandmother doesn't know the misfit from Adam, yet she already gave him a persona that he has to match. Besides the grandmother has already called Red Sammy a good man, and by now it is already apparent that its feigned.
In the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the author, Flannery O 'Connor, demonstrates how a short story can contain many aspects of feminism without one even noticing. Looking at the short story through a feminist point of view, one can quickly gather that O’Connor uses the old school gender roles from the very beginning of the short story. As reading the title, it automatically suggests the male characters in this short story are untrustworthy, not prevalent, and dangerous. With that being said, the female characters in this story are viewed in the eyes of how a woman should act.
What if someone unexpected changed your way of thinking, permanently? What if God chose to send someone into your life to abolish you superficial thoughts? In both the stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, by Flannery O’Connor, and “Cathedral”, by Raymond Carver, the authors create main characters who lack faith and think superficially about life. However, in both stories, the authors send unexpected characters to act like mediums, for their job is to be the connection of the main character’s initial position in faith and their final position, revealed at the end of both stories. Even though the stories have a different plot and involve diverse kinds of characters, the final message and moral is the same.
The Story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O'Connor uses symbols to depict one main idea. Flannery O'Connor uses the same theme in almost all of his stories which is grace and redemption. Grace and redemption is something the grandmother is working towards throughout the entire story. In the beginning, she's very shallow and only cares about how others see her. However as the story continues and different actions take place, her overall beliefs begin to change as she receives grace and redemption.
The story opens with a man named Bailey who is going on a trip with his family to Florida. However, his mother had other plans and becomes the "manipulative grandmother lecturing her apathetic son" (Sparrow). At first she tries to convince her son to change the trip destination saying ""(O 'Connor). It might be inferred that she meant well by warning Bailey about the prison escapee traveling in the same direction. Unfortunately, later in the story the reader finds out that .