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By By

Flannery O’connorFlannery O’connor

(first published in 1953)(first published in 1953)

A Good Man is Hard to A Good Man is Hard to FindFind

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Flannery O’connorFlannery O’connor (1925-1964) (1925-1964)

http://library.gcsu.edu/~sc/foc.htmlhttp://library.gcsu.edu/~sc/foc.html

• American author• Born in

Savannah, Georgia– Bible belt

• Catholic background

• Attended Georgia State College for women

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Flannery O’connorFlannery O’connor http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/flannery.htmhttp://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/flannery.htm

• Wrote in Southern gothic tradition

• Combined comic with tragic and brutal

• Was profoundly influenced by the spiritual nature of the region in which she lived

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Types of ConflictTypes of Conflict

• Person vs. person• Person vs. self• Person vs. God

• Person vs. Nature• Find evidence of each type.

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Movement of EventsMovement of Events

• Exposition – Family discusses trip to

Florida.– Children are rude and

cynical.– Grandmother doesn’t want

to go.

• Complication– The Tower Restaurant– June Star is rude.– Discussion of “The Misfit”– Title line occurs.

• Climax– The murders– Grandmother’s and

Misfit’s epiphanies

• Denouement– “It’s no real pleasure in

life.”

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Natural SettingNatural Setting——both friendly and both friendly and hostilehostile• Georgia roadside

– Stone Mountain– sparkling trees– child waving– private cemetery with 5 or 6 graves– moderate temperature– deserted back road outside

Toomsboro– woods

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Man-made SettingMan-made SettingBoth friendly and hostileBoth friendly and hostile

• The family’s house– Arguing goes on there between children and

Grandmother.• The car

– Stories from Grandmother and fighting of children

– The accident• The Tower Restaurant

– Filling station/dance hall– Outside Timothy, Georgia– “Tennessee Waltz” – Monkey

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Major CharactersMajor Characters• Protagonist =

Grandmother (developing)

– Dresses like a lady – Values orderliness– Is practical– Forgetful– Tells stories– Is good-hearted– Believes in Jesus– Gives and receives

grace in the end

• Antagonist = The Misfit (developing)– Looks like a scholar– Is driving a hearse– Polite– Speculative– Rejects Christ– Perceives and rejects

grace– Loses pleasure in

meanness

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Minor CharactersMinor Characters

• Spiritually undeveloped– Bailey Boy

• Easily manipulated• Wears parrot shirt

– His wife• Remains unnamed• Resembles a rabbit or

cabbage

– John Wesley and June Star

• The children• Disrespectful to adults

• Hiram and Bobby Lee– The Misfit’s boys

• Red Sammy– Owns Barbecue– Laments lack of

goodness in people

• Red Sammy’s wife– Remains unnamed– Polite– Distrustful of husband

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• Title– Refers to every person’s need for

grace.– Note similarity between “Good

Man” and “Young Goodman Brown.”

• Point of View– Third person limited through

Grandmother’s eyes

“ “A Good Man is Hard to Find”A Good Man is Hard to Find”

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Major and minor symbols Major and minor symbols abound.abound.

• Names of people and places– John Wesley

• Major religious figure

• Wrote and preached about grace

– Red Sammy• Devil figure• Sees only evil in

mankind

– Lack of names in some

• Most of the men and boys have names but no women except for June Star.

– The Misfit• Rejects social and

moral norms

– Toomsboro• Foreshadows

death of family

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Other SymbolsOther Symbols• Animals

– Monkey•a symbol for the devil and many vices

– Cat •also associated with the diabolical•Clings to Bailey “like a caterpillar”

– Signifying transformation?

•Rubs against Misfit

– Parrot and rabbit•Bailey Boy and wife•both passive and irresolute

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More SymbolsMore Symbols

• The Color Red– Red Sammy

• Devil image

– Bobby Lee’s red shirt

– Misfit’s red eyes and ankles

• brutality• Evil• impotence

• Physical positions– Bailey Boy

• In sprint position but doesn’t move

• Leans against a “gray, naked pine trunk

– Cross image?– Is Bailey transformed at the

end in his confrontation with death?

• Cat clings to his neck– Bailey is always acted

upon– But this could ironically

be the act that saves him

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Other SymbolsOther Symbols

• Physical Positions (cont.)– Grandmother

• Begins by looking down on Misfit

• drops hat– resignation

• Dies smiling and looking up

– In a state of grace

• Foreshadowing– Cemetery with 5 or

6 graves– “Woods gaped like

a dark mouth”

• Snake image– “sprang back as

though a snake had bitten him”

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• Like Hawthorne, O’connor explores the evil nature of mankind. But for her, although evil abounds, grace does as well. Every person needs grace. Every person can have it.

The need for and availability of The need for and availability of gracegrace