A good man is hard to find paper -- essays research papers fc

â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard To Find† Flannery O’Connor’s â€Å" A Good Man Is Hard To Find† depicts a family’s encounter with a criminal escaped from a federal penitentiary and their essential relinquishment of life. The family that the story surrounds has planned a trip to Florida for a family vacation. Knowing but unconcerned about the criminal at large, also known as the Misfit, the family voyages onward towards their destination until the trip is abruptly stopped by a totally unnecessary exploration down an unkempt, hilly and dangerous road. The dangerous road combined with the unsuspecting attack of the driver from the grand mothers cat, Pitty Sing, lands the family in a ten-foot deep ditch and in need of help. The family frantically waves down the first car to pass and little do they know that the help that they were hoping to get will lead to an encounter with the Misfit and ultimately to their demise. O’Connor’s uses contrasting elements of literature to make the story â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard To Find† mysterious yet predictable, and undeveloped yet totally defined. Her use of third person unknowing keeps the reader wondering but her use of foreshadowing gives the reader insight to what may occur next. The use of these two elements together keeps the reader predicting, therefore leading to an involvement with the reader and the story. The narrator lets the reader know that a criminal is on the loose, â€Å"Here this fellow calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people† (302). The next sentence reads, â€Å" 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† (303) which foreshadows what is to come later in the story. O’Connor also leaves many of the charac ters in the story very undefined except for the main two, The old woman, or the grandmother and the Misfit. O’Connor spent more time depicting the grandmothers outfit in the beginning of the story than she did with all of the undefined characters in the whole story combined, which gave insight to the way the grandmother was, the way she viewed herself and the way her family viewed her; an old, prude, egotistical woman. She did care for her family, but her intentions at heart were only for herself. The... ... Misfit are bound together by the mystery of life and death. The Misfit and grandmother are spiritually connected to each other by the blood and body of Christ that are said to be given in order to free one of sin. When the grandmother reaches out to touch The Misfit as like a hand of god the Misfit "springs back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest"(313). Flannery O’Connor’s background as a Christian influences the themes to her stories. In â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard To Come By† the relationship of God to his disciples, in this case to the grandmother is seen by his presence in her when she touches the Misfit. In the end the grandmother has gained redemption by coming to the acceptance of God and has in some way affected the Misfit. Although he has not accepted God in any way, the Misfit seems to be thinking, â€Å"The Misfits eyes were red rimmed and pale and defenseless looking† (313), maybe contemplating what he thinks about himself and the worth of practicing religion. Works Cited O’Connor, Flannery M. â€Å"A Good Man Is Hard To Find†. Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. 5th ed. Boston: Heinle, 2004.