“ A Good Man is difficult to Find ” was published in 1955 and was said to go one of the best plants by Flannery O’Connor. The most graphic brief critical reappraisal of the narrative is reflected in the undermentioned lines: “ This short narrative really “ exhibits all the features for which she is best known: a contrast of violent action with humorously and carefully drawn characters and a doctrine that underscores her devout Roman Catholic religion. Critics have admired the prose and the manner O’Connor infuses the narrative with her Catholic belief about the function God ‘s grace plays in the lives of ordinary people ” ( Ochshorn, 113 ) . The cardinal subjects, the writer wanted to discourse, were the issues related to decease, redemption, Christian belief, morality. The attack of the writer is nevertheless instead specific and even flooring sometimes, due to its profound pessimism and disclosure of the lip service of some moral rules, people are used to boast approximately. The major subjects are revealed and presented so vividly and seriously largely thanks to the debut of the bright and unusual character – the grandma. The narrative line, the message of the narrative both are closely related to the presentation of the grandma. The image of an aged adult female with blue and old South worldviews is the perfect word picture of the grandma. The writer chose duologues for showing this worldview to the readers, along with depicting her gustatory sensation in dressing and mode of moving and speech production.
Get downing from the really beginning of the narrative, the readers witness the duologue between the household members, sitting in the auto and traveling for a trip. Equally shortly as Wesley expressed his want to go through Georgia every bit rapidly as possible, the grandma reacts with the undermentioned comment: “ In my clip, kids were more respectful of their native provinces and their parents and everything else. Peoples did right so ” ( O’Connor, 2 ) .In this phrase the grandma underlines her positive attitude towards the old South, when everything used to be in a different – better manner.
The attitude of the grandma to the black people was besides another verification of the old-South worldview, because when she saw a kid without pans, she instantly concluded, that he had n’t any, because he was nigga ‘s kid. The universe “ nigga ” itself is already an reverberation from the old-South times.
The manner, how the grandma acts in the narrative, is besides used to underscore her blue positions. When the writer describes the conversation between the grandma and Red Sam, he writes: “ He and the grandma discussed better times. The old lady said that in her sentiment Europe was wholly to fault for the manner things were now ” ( O’Connor, 4 ) . The grandma is perfectly certain, that the state of affairs was much better antecedently, as kids had more respect, people deserved trust and so on. When the grandma sees the dream about being a immature lady and sing some plantation, it is made apparent to the readers, that she still feels herself belonging to blue circle. At the terminal of the narrative, really confronting her decease already, the grandma does n’t lose her places, when she says: “ You would n’t hit a lady, would you? ” ( O’Connor, 5 ) . This is the manner, how the grandma reacts to a atrocious state of affairs in her life, he once more relies on her past – on the old South – when she tries to blandish the Misfit, stating “ I know you ‘re a good adult male. You do n’t look a spot like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people! ” ( O’Connor, 5 ) . Again the readers face the pure blue beliefs, that people of “ common blood ” can non be “ good ” people.
As it was already mentioned non merely the manner of thought, speech production and playing, but besides the manner of dressing gives off a existent lady in the grandma. At the really beginning of the narrative her apparels is described by O’Connor in the undermentioned manner: “ a navy bluish straw crewman chapeau with a clump of white violets on the lip and a navy blue frock with a little white point in the print. Her neckbands and turnups were white organdie trimmed with lacing and at her neckline she had pinned a violet spray of cloth violets incorporating a sachet. In instance of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the main road would cognize at one time that she was a lady. ” ( O’Connor, 1 ) . And even after the auto accident she wears a chapeau, as any lady should make. A clean hankie, which was stuffed into her turnup, is another graphic illustration of that.
Overall, most critics agree, that the character of the grandma, as presented by O’Connor makes the narrative a perfect powerful narrative. The narrative starts with the grandma and is finished with her decease, the grandma is the ground of the struggle and the last to decease as the declaration of this struggle. All the words and actions of the grandma seem instead guiltless on the surface, whereas in world, the writer underlines the extremum of confidence and ignorance in this manner.
