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A Good Man is Hard to Find

Introduction

American author Flannery O'Connor wrote the short story titled, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” in the year 1953. The collection of short stories in which it was published was of the same name (O'Connor, pp. 18). The writer has written on a variety of subjects that include controversial topics as well. The subjects included baptism, exploitation, greediness and serial killing. All the short stories have a reflection on Catholicism linked to life and death situations (Eder, pp. 25).

Essence of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” holds important significance in Southern Gothic literature. In Southern Gothic writing, there is special focus on supernatural and weird events, strange characters and a local touch to depict upset reflection of life that prevailed in the American South. Southern history was about conditions of slavery suffered by people, feelings of defeat after the Civil War, and empty, dark surroundings (Coles, pp. 53). Everything like the people, places and things happening seemed to be normal at first, but upon close observation it was noticed that there was something disturbing about them. The events taking place in the surroundings appeared to be disturbing, peculiar and terrifying. Even though the tone in which the works were written was unreal and predicted destruction, there was still an element of reality in them. This is what the made the actions and characters in her work believable and gave them a sense of realism. O'Connor formulated the story by focusing on reality of her character's actions and not by emphasizing on the strange things happening around. This is what diverted the focus of the reader from the peculiar atmosphere to the relationships and events happening in the story (Coles, pp. 86)

Themes

“Good Man”

The character of grandmother is of pertinent importance in the story as she transforms the definition of who is known as a good man. She applies this label first to Red Sammy when he expresses his anger about how untrustworthy people are. In grandmother's views, the good man is one who is naive, cannot make judgment with intelligence, and is prone to getting tricked by others, which are actually not the qualities of a good man. The next character on whom she applies the label of 'good' is the Misfit (O'Connor, pp. 56). After getting familiar with him, she questions him about shooting a lady, to which he does not say that he would never do such a thing. In this case, grandmother considers that being a woman is an important aspect to the definition of morality. Misfit's answer to grandmother's question is a clear indication that there is difference in his moral codes when compared to those of grandmother. She still calls him a 'good' man, and her label is based on her belief that he does not share common blood (O'Gorman, pp. 72).

The difference in grandmother's views about who can be categorized as good shows ...