Literary analysis of “A Good Man is Hard To Find” ...

Inside the short history A Good Guy Is Hard to look for by Flannery O’Conner, you is taken on a journey and tags along with a independent family because they explore the sights from the rural southern while to their vacation spot, a family getaway in Florida. As they travel around the dirty road, O’Connor (2012) will take them by heaven, “all at once, they can be on a hill, searching down in the blue clothes of trees for kilometers around, ” (p. 139) and spirals them into hell “then the next day, they would have a reddish colored depression with all the dust covered trees seeking down on them, ” (p.

139) where they fulfill their unexpected and unforeseen demise. Through it all, O’Connor spins a violent, dark and gloomy tale, utilizing symbolism, allusions, irony and psychological factors to effectively convey her theme of very good versus evil, and reminds us that good will not always earn. O’Connor (2012) starts us in an un-named city, having a family of 6 as they go over their upcoming vacation to Florida.

The husband, Cromwell, is concise and short with his words. His better half and mom, both stay unnamed inside the story but have quite different personalities. Bailey’s mother, the grandmother, can be self-centered and quite often manipulative. His wife, the children’s mother, is quiet and meek as your woman cares for her youngest child, the baby.

His 2 older kids, John Wesley and 06 Star, are outspoken and disrespectful, and their rude patterns goes unpunished. They travelling the back streets of Georgia together as the grandmother tells stories of the earlier and highlights uninteresting views, which land on the deaf ears of her family members. The family members stops for lunch by a side of the road diner, and the reader gets a further view into their every day interaction, and for a moment, items actually seem to be hopeful pertaining to the dysfunctional family.

After their food, the family continues to their destination, and the grandmother and kids manipulate Baily into having a detour to see an old, mystical estate the fact that grandmother once visited in her more youthful years. An abrupt and embarrassing considered the granny leads to a car accident where incredibly, nobody maintains any serious injury. A flash of wish in relief turns depressing as their rescuer turns out to the escaped great, the Misfit, who ultimately kills the family. The grandmother, who have in more ways than one is responsible for the family’s unforeseen end, provides a moment of grace in her last moment and dies using a smile on her face (p. 134-146).

O’Connor’s story is stuffed with symbolism and allusion, to be able to further express her darker theme of loss of life and ideas surrounding this. An example of these kinds of symbolism is usually when the is passing the city of Toombsboro. O’Connor (2012) writes “outside of Toombsboro she woke up and were recalled an old planting that the lady had frequented in this community once once she was a young lady” (p.

138). The name of the community, Toombsboro takes on on the word tomb, which will represents loss of life. This refers to the reader that fatality may be inside the family’s long term. O’Connor proceeds with the significance after the relatives has crashed, and their expect rescue also comes in the form of a hearse. The family views a car slowly driving toward them, lumbering along the twists and becomes of the street they had only traveled.

Since it appears in the garden, O’Connor (2012) writes “it was a big black battered hearse-like automobile” (p. 140). Again, the of a hearse, which is used to transport the useless, brings thinking about death for the mind of the reader, and additional alludes for the death the family is gonna encounter.

O’Connor (2012) furthers her fatality allusions and symbolism when ever she produces “the Misfit pointed the toe of his shoe into the ground and made a little hole and after that covered it up again” (p. 142). The Misfit in this instance, is searching a opening and then covering it back up, symbolizing the digging of a grave, and then filling the grave back in.

O’Connor’s usage of symbols of death improve her idea and add towards the dark sculpt of the history. O’Connor as well uses a quantity of psychological factors to further connect her heroes to her viewers. As O’Connor starts the story, all family members appear in one way or another to be self-centered, which relates to the psychoanalysis term with the “Id, ” which are the unconscious desires with the character and the gratification of these desires.

In one passage, the grandmother speaks to the children of an old southern lady she once knew, Mr. Teagarden. O’Connor (2012) writes “she would have done well to marry Mister. Teagarden because he… acquired bought Skol stock mainly because it first turned out and that he acquired died… a very wealthy man” (p. 137).

This review by the granny hints on her behalf unconscious materialistic desires about money, which is even shameful enough to impart this negative personal quality on her grandchildren. Moreover, this quality is observed in the children when O’Connor writes regarding June Celebrity as your woman speaks about the roadside diner exactly where they have halted. June Legend says “I wouldn’t are in a broken-down place such as this for a million bucks” (O’Connor, 2012, p. 137).

06 Star can be showing her materialistic desires when ever she declares that this lady has no proper care to live in not luxury, also for a large sum of money. Even more in the history, the children toss a tantrum, even resorting to chaotic tactics, to get their approach and go to the old property where hidden valuables will be rumored to become stashed. O’Conner (2012) produces: “The kids began to scream and scream that they planned to see the home with the top secret panel.

Steve Wesley started the back with the front seat and 06 Star hung over her mother’s make and whined desperately in her ear… The baby started to scream and John Wesley kicked your back of the seat so hard that his daddy could feel the blows in his kidney” (p. 139). Once again, O’Connor shows the Identification of the children as they seek gratification of their desires, which is to get the concealed valuables. This shows the materialistic values that the young children hold.

O’Connor’s use of psychoanalytic ideas helps further express her topic and tone to the audience. O’Connor as well employs many examples of irony in her story to higher involve you. The grandmother states “I wouldn’t consider my kids in any path with a criminal like that aloose in that. I couldn’t answer to my conscious basically did” (O’Connor, 2012, p. 134). This kind of statement, when foreshadowing to a certain degree, transforms ironic by the end of the story, as it is the grandmother that detours the family down the dirt road, where they ultimately come into contact with the Misfit, and are killed.

Additionally it is ironic because the grandma does have to answer to her mindful, and O’Connor (2012) explains the granny, after staying shot by the Misfit, because having “her face smiling up with the cloudless sky” (p. 145), showing which the grandmother died at peace. Again, this really is ironic in this the grandmother was directly responsible for her kids and grandchildren’s deaths, but she passed away at peacefulness with the world. O’Connor’s utilization of irony over the story is a great way to increase her general tone, and have interaction the reader deeper into the tale. O’Connor’s story brings you into the world of loss of life by her use of symbolism, irony, and psychoanalysis.

Her use of icons and allusions of fatality, seeking gratification for personal needs, and the idea that the personas meet an ironic loss of life, all develop a solid foundation in which to convey her theme that living a good, pure and nutritious life might spare you from evil. The character’s may possibly feel along with the world as they travel throughout the dusty, winding road of life, but ultimately pass away, due to their self-centered ways, within a reddened, profound ditch, close to a darker woods.