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A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor presents controversial themes and topics that are quite unusual to the reader. The short story is dark and mystical at times, with a variety of symbolic elements, which subsequently create various interpretations. O’Connor creatively uses debilitating and morose leitmotifs in her writing to reveal the central themes of beauty and grace. Therefore, through cruelty and violence in the characters, specifically in the Grandmother, who has significantly altered her perception of the world throughout the story, O’Connor conveys the theme of perceiving divine grace.
The story’s protagonist may be considered the unnamed Grandmother, who undergoes the most change of character during the story. She is introduced to the audience as a closed-minded person with obtrusive values she is certain everyone must uphold. The author portrays the dynamic character as follows: “Her collars and cuffs were white organdies trimmed with lace, and at her neckline, she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O’Connor 8). Despite her personal beliefs of being a conservative woman, she is directly depicted as a hypocritical woman with precautious standards.
O’Connor uses the direct presentation of the protagonist, vividly demonstrating the flaws of the character, who considers herself to be a perfect, Godly woman. The authors portrayed the development of a central theme of grace through the protagonist’s character flaws, which proceeded to change by the end of the story. For the most part, O’Connor openly critiques the Grandmother through the literature demonstrating the inconsistency between attempts to dress and behave like a lady and constant criticism of her grandchildren.
The epiphany moment, which fully opens the central theme of divine grace, is depicted towards the end of the short story. The story reveals the sins of the Grandmother she commits, which define her as an unholy individual, that does not realize it due to her egocentric nature. Only at her death, does she begins to realize how sinful her life was and starts living through the notion of divine grace. The Misfit, who shot her, claimed: “she would have been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (O’Connor 32). Thus, grace is granted even to a person like a Grandmother to demonstrate that God saves all.
In terms of characterization principles, the Grandmother is consistent in her judging character and continual demands of having everything her way. She is a master manipulator, as the woman always subtly leads other characters to act in her desires, as in the case of picking Tennessee over criminal Florida for a trip: “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did” (O’Connor 6).
The Grandmother seems to be motivated by public opinion only in her persistence to remain a true lady. She constantly emphasizes the importance of being a lady, always looking sharp, and having good manners. More comprehensively, the Grandmother can be identified as a Lady of the South, which makes her character lifelike, and corresponds to many old-fashioned individuals.
The central theme of divine grace is being portrayed more towards the end of the story; however, it remains its central topic. O’Connor conveys the divine grace momentum as a result of severe violence and suffering, stating that such a holy phenomenon can be accompanied by death and cruelty. Therefore, only a nearly-deadly experience motivates the Grandmother to reevaluate her life and experience the most spiritual sensation.
Work Cited
O’Connor, Flannery. A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data.
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