An research of the agent of elegance archetype

An excellent Man Is difficult to Find

Flannery O’Connor is quite popular for her use of the “agent of grace” archetype. This kind of character, who may be not necessarily a great person, is utilized to surprise divine whim onto the primary character who up until that point had been window blind (sometimes with glasses) to something in life. In O’Connor’s short history A Good Gentleman is Hard to obtain the character with the Misfit will serve as a representative of grace to the grandmother and the granny does without a doubt truly receive grace through the Misfit. Various critics do not believe that the Misfit, a known dramón killer, could be such an agent of grace.

Nevertheless , upon digging deeper one will find that even to his name he could be very Christlike. Jesus him self is a misfit and was unable to really fit in, and was regularly persecuted as well until having been crucified. O’Connor is obviously using a direct opposite of Chris showing redemption and beauty coming from however, most unlikely of men and women. Not a heart and soul in Jerusalem in the times during the Jesus would have predicted that grace would originate from a nobody who is the son of a carpenter. In addition , the Misfit does what Christ himself did which can be show persons what they genuinely appear to be and this is the reason why the Granny gets elegance. Jesus in all of the of the biblical stories is well known for metaphorically holding an image to people and allowing them to see themselves the way God truly does and it is in this manner that grace happens. Numerous instances the granny fails in her faith and even confirms that “maybe he didnt raise the dead”(O’Connor 12) however when she finally touches the Misfit, who will be a Christ figure, she actually is able to discover herself as she is and gain style. It is very similar to the story of Jesus as well as the bleeding woman and O’Connor is applying this parallel and her Catholic background to demonstrate that grace is given even within a split second to the grandmother. Through this bible tale, Jesus can be approached with a woman who have been living a lifetime of sin and is bleeding quite terribly. Because Jesus taking walks through the throngs the woman “reached out and touched him”(O’Connor 12), and Jesus after being carressed “sprang again as if a snake experienced bitten him”(O’Connor 12) and Jesus offered this girl divine sophistication. It is in this fashion that just like the bleeding girl the old girl receives grace.

A lot of literary authorities believe that this supposed elegance is just “cheap grace”, an idea from theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and that the grandma “seems to become merely worth cheap grace”(Fox 11). By other details critics think that since “her head simply clears intended for an “instant”(Fox 10) and that it “is simply not plenty of time to undergo a complete spiritual transformation”(Fox 10). Quite a few assumptions, however much merit may apparently them, are completely false. The discussion that the grandmother receives only cheap elegance is ludicrous because of the fact that lots of in the scriptures who have turn into saints have received grace in a similar manner, and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer himself claims in his book Nachfolge (Discipleship) that expensive grace “is costly as it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him”(Bonhoeffer). This is exactly what is able to happen while using grandmother mainly because during her moment of epiphany, because short since it is, she is proven how she truly through the Misfit and submits to Christ.

How to the second argument, that it is impossible for grace to take place inside such a constraint of the time which is also preposterous. In the Holy book there are many instances of terrible people, suffering people who touched Jesus and had been instantly improved and cured. Paul the famed apostle was a Christian hunter him self and was blinded instantly by the lumination of God and was given costly style very similar to the grandmother, since was Zacchaeus, the blood loss woman and a host of crippled people. The bottom line of this tale is not that sophistication is not possible, but elegance is given to any or all who provide themselves to the Lord and realize they need him inside their lives which by the end with the story the grandmother does. She accomplishes this final grace in the moments of desperation of her previous bit of lifestyle just before her death. This suggests that O’Connor’s usage of a typical Christ determine is apparent in this brief story much like her others.