1. 11
ByBy
Flannery O’connorFlannery O’connor
(first published in 1953)(first published in 1953)
A Good Man is Hard toA Good Man is Hard to
FindFind

2. 2
Flannery O’connorFlannery O’connor
(1925-1964)(1925-1964)
http://library.gcsu.edu/~sc/foc.htmlhttp://library.gcsu.edu/~sc/foc.html
• American author
• Born in
Savannah,
Georgia
– Bible belt
• Catholic
background
• Attended Georgia
State College for
women

3. 3
Flannery O’connorFlannery O’connor
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/flannery.htmhttp://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/flannery.htm
• Wrote in Southern
gothic tradition
• Combined comic with
tragic and brutal
• Was profoundly
influenced by the
spiritual nature of the
region in which she
lived

4. 4
Types of ConflictTypes of Conflict
• Person vs. person
• Person vs. self
• Person vs. God
• Person vs. Nature
• Find evidence of each type.

5. 5
Movement of EventsMovement of Events
• Exposition
– Family discusses trip to
Florida.
– Children are rude and cynical.
– Grandmother doesn’t want to
go.
• Complication
– The Tower Restaurant
– June Star is rude.
– Discussion of “The Misfit”
– Title line occurs.
• Climax
– The murders
– Grandmother’s and Misfit’s
epiphanies
• Denouement
– “It’s no real pleasure in
life.”

6. 6
Natural SettingNatural Setting
——both friendly andboth friendly and
hostilehostile
• Georgia roadside
– Stone Mountain
– sparkling trees
– child waving
– private cemetery with 5 or 6 graves
– moderate temperature
– deserted back road outside Toomsboro
– woods

7. 7
Man-made SettingMan-made Setting
Both friendly and hostileBoth friendly and hostile
• The family’s house
– Arguing goes on there between children and
Grandmother.
• The car
– Stories from Grandmother and fighting of children
– The accident
• The Tower Restaurant
– Filling station/dance hall
– Outside Timothy, Georgia
– “Tennessee Waltz”
– Monkey

8. 8
Major CharactersMajor Characters
• Protagonist =
Grandmother (developing)
– Dresses like a lady
– Values orderliness
– Is practical
– Forgetful
– Tells stories
– Is good-hearted
– Believes in Jesus
– Gives and receives grace
in the end
• Antagonist = The Misfit
(developing)
– Looks like a scholar
– Is driving a hearse
– Polite
– Speculative
– Rejects Christ
– Perceives and rejects
grace
– Loses pleasure in
meanness

9. 9
Minor CharactersMinor Characters
• Spiritually undeveloped
– Bailey Boy
• Easily manipulated
• Wears parrot shirt
– His wife
• Remains unnamed
• Resembles a rabbit or
cabbage
– John Wesley and June Star
• The children
• Disrespectful to adults
• Hiram and Bobby Lee
– The Misfit’s boys
• Red Sammy
– Owns Barbecue
– Laments lack of goodness
in people
• Red Sammy’s wife
– Remains unnamed
– Polite
– Distrustful of husband

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• Title
– Refers to every person’s need for grace.
– Note similarity between “Good Man”
and “Young Goodman Brown.”
• Point of View
– Third person limited through
Grandmother’s eyes
““A Good Man is Hard to Find”A Good Man is Hard to Find”

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Major and minor symbols abound.Major and minor symbols abound.
• Names of people
and places
– John Wesley
• Major religious figure
• Wrote and preached
about grace
– Red Sammy
• Devil figure
• Sees only evil in
mankind
– Lack of names in
some
• Most of the men and
boys have names but
no women except for
June Star.
– The Misfit
• Rejects social and
moral norms
– Toomsboro
• Foreshadows death of
family

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Other SymbolsOther Symbols
• Animals
– Monkey
• a symbol for the devil and many vices
– Cat
• also associated with the diabolical
• Clings to Bailey “like a caterpillar”
– Signifying transformation?
• Rubs against Misfit
– Parrot and rabbit
• Bailey Boy and wife
• both passive and irresolute

13. 13
More SymbolsMore Symbols
• The Color Red
– Red Sammy
• Devil image
– Bobby Lee’s red shirt
– Misfit’s red eyes and
ankles
• brutality
• Evil
• impotence
• Physical positions
– Bailey Boy
• In sprint position but doesn’t
move
• Leans against a “gray, naked
pine trunk
– Cross image?
– Is Bailey transformed at the
end in his confrontation with
death?
• Cat clings to his neck
– Bailey is always acted upon
– But this could ironically be
the act that saves him

14. 14
Other SymbolsOther Symbols
• Physical Positions
(cont.)
– Grandmother
• Begins by looking down
on Misfit
• drops hat
– resignation
• Dies smiling and
looking up
– In a state of grace
• Foreshadowing
– Cemetery with 5 or 6
graves
– “Woods gaped like a
dark mouth”
• Snake image
– “sprang back as
though a snake had
bitten him”

15. 15
• Like Hawthorne, O’connor explores the
evil nature of mankind. But for her,
although evil abounds, grace does as
well. Every person needs grace. Every
person can have it.
The need for and availability of graceThe need for and availability of grace