Questions and Answers for A Good Man Is Hard to Find
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Please explain the irony in the story "A Good Man Is Hard To Find."
Flannery O’Connor utilizes irony throughout her classic short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” in various ways. Situational irony occurs when the grandmother tries to persuade Bailey against...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What are the literary devices in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"?
Allusion and irony are the two significant literary devices employed by Flannery O'Connor in "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Allusions are references to other works, historical figures, or historical...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What is the meaning of this quote below from "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor? "She would have been...
At the end of the story, the Misfit and his criminal associates have dispatched the rest of the family, and The Misfit has taken the bright yellow shirt with blue parrots that Bailey had been...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What is the main conflict in the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor?
You could answer this question regarding conflict in two ways. You could examine this question in terms of the characterization of the protagonist, the grandmother. She is the central character in...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," why does the grandmother say the Misfit is one of her children when she only has one...
Throughout the story, the grandmother has made it clear that she is the type to judge other people quite freely. She feels that she, unlike so many others around her, is a lady, and she laments the...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What does the grandmother mean when she says, "Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children"?
For the first time in her long and selfish life, the grandmother has finally realized that she's a part of something bigger. As a deeply judgmental woman, an unrepentant racist, and an...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What is a good thesis statement for discussing "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor?
When formulating any thesis statement, or literary argument, it is important to make sure that you create a statement that is debatable. Observations and facts are not debatable, so the first step...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
How do Flannery O'Connor's religious views affect her short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"?
Flannery O’Connor was a deeply devout Christian and a seriously committed Roman Catholic, and so it is not surprising that her religious views affected such works as her famous story “A Good Man Is...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Why does the Misfit say that the grandmother "would have been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her...
At the end of "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the grandmother undergoes, in her terror and panic, a profound epiphany as to the shared humanity between herself and her murderer, reaching out to the...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What is the ironic significance of the title of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor?
When the family stops at The Tower for barbecued sandwiches, Red Sammy and the grandmother have a conversation about how difficult times have gotten. Red Sammy tells her, "A good man is hard to...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Explain the exposition, rising conflict, climax, and resolution for "A Good Man is Hard to Find".
The exposition includes the background information regarding the Grandmother and her family, which includes her son, Bailey, his unnamed wife, and their children, John Wesley and June Star. The...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
In A Good Man is Hard to Find, why is the mother just called the mother? Why does O'Conner make her a non-entity?
The "mother" in the story is unnamed, a non-entity as you put it, because her identity is unimportant. Like the grandmother, who is likewise unnamed, the mother is a representation of her...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
In Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," why does the grandmother have an epiphany, and what is its...
The grandmother has an epiphany, an illuminating realization of truth, because, as the Misfit identifies in the end, she finally "had...somebody there to shoot her." It took being in a...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Why does the Misfit kill?
The Misfit is aptly named. For here is a man who doesn't feel as if he belongs anywhere. No matter where he goes, no matter what he does, he'll always feel out of place. Not surprisingly, the...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What is the irony in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"?
There are three major situational ironies in "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Situational ironies occur when events in a story work out differently than characters or readers might anticipate. In the...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Why does the Misfit kill the Grandmother when she does the right thing? What statement about faith does this make? At...
The key to this question is that first of all, it hasn't been established that the grandmother does the right thing at the end of the story. That is a highly debatable point. Consider the following...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What are two examples of foreshadowing in "A Good Man is Hard to Find"?
When the family stops at Red Sammy’s BBQ place for lunch, Red Sammy and the grandmother talk over their shared values and disdain for contemporary attitudes and mores. Despite the fact that Red...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What does the Misfit mean when he says that Jesus has "thrown everything off balance"?
Jesus throws everything off balance by causing the Misfit to question his murderous lifestyle and even, perhaps, to feel twinges of conscience over his chosen path. The Grandmother and the Misfit...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," what has the Misfit’s life been like? Why was he put in jail? He says he kills for...
The Misfit claims that he was raised well and that his life turned when he was put in prison for the murder of his father. However, he also remembers his father dying 1918. There's a certain...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," what are the conflicts of the story?
An external conflict in the story is between the Misfit and his gang and the Grandmother and her family. When the family's car ends up in a ditch on a back road that the Grandmother mistakenly...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
How does Flannery O'Connor mix humor with horror/disgust in "A Good Man is Hard to Find"?
Through characterization Flannery O'Connor creates humor as she depicts comedic characters with regional dialects and ridiculous physical appearances. For instance, Bailey's wife is described as...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," what role does the BBQ episode play?
Similar to the grandmother, who calls herself a lady but actually behaves pretty terribly, Red Sammy calls himself "a good man." He does this because he sells gas on credit to boys who work at the...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
How does the grandmother define a good man?
The grandmother in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" places a great deal of value on outer appearances in defining what constitutes a "good" man. She exemplifies this in her own dress, making sure to...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Why does the grandmother call the Misfit a "good man" in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor?
The grandmother calls the Misfit a good man because she is trying desperately to save herself. She uses the protections that have served her throughout her life. She tries to offer the Misfit...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What does the Misfit say about the grandmother?
Of the grandmother, The Misfit says that "She would of been a good woman [...] if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." He realizes that she was not a very good person...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What is the significance of the title " A Good Man is Hard to Find"?
The two characters who most believe that "a good man is hard to find," as Red Sammy says to the grandmother, are both quite deceived about their own goodness, and the title helps to draw attention...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
How did the Misfit get his name in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"?
An escaped convict, the man who calls himself "The Misfit" renamed himself because he could not make what he had done align with the punishment that he had been given. But, there is a deeper...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Describe O'Connor's style in "A Good Man is Hard to Find." What sort of diction does she use? What effect does it...
O’Connor’s style is often described as Southern regionalism/realism. Her stories are often categorized somewhere between the Southern Gothic and contemporary genres. Her plain style is infused with...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What is the grotesque element of "A Good Man is Hard To Find"?
In her 1960 essay, "Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction," O'Connor defines the literary grotesque as follows: In these grotesque works, we find that the writer has made alive some...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," what does the conversation with Red Sammy contribute to the plot?...
In addition, the conversation also provides an element of foreshadowing, as their discussion of the Misfit soon turns into an actual encounter with him for the family.
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," why does The Misfit kill the grandmother last?
It seems possible to me that the Misfit kills the grandmother last because she is actually giving him an opportunity to explain his life to someone. No one seems to have been interested in his...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Analyze The Misfit's motivation for killing the family and for his criminal behavior in general. Unlike his...
At first glance The Misfit's motivation for killing the family seems to be solely that the grandmother identified him. When she does he says, "Yes'm... but it would have been better for all of you,...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Compare and contrast the misfit and grandmother. Do they come to seem more different or more alike over the course of...
Since "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a gothic comedy, the grandmother fits the archetypal Alazon role: a character who thinks she's better than she really is. The Misfit is a stock grotesque:...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
The Misfit, in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," tells the grandmother, “I call myself the Misfit,...
The Misfit is a character of surprising depth. He is first introduced to the readers as a vague fear, one that represents the possibility of violence in the world. Then, at his first appearance, he...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
In "A Good Man is Hard to Find", what is Misfit's motivation for killing the family and for his criminal bahavior in...
The Misfit apparently does not need much motivation at all. Hurting and killing others has become a way of life for him. He is insensitive to the lot of others. He does not value anything, least of...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Why does the misfit think that Jesus “thrown everything off balance” by raising the dead?
The Misfit thinks that Jesus "'thown [sic] everything off balance" because Jesus was subjected to a terrible punishment even though he hadn't done anything wrong. The Misfit tells the grandmother,...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What did the Misfit mean when he said What would it have taken for the grandmother to have been a good woman late in...
The speaker of O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" writes near the conclusion of the piece: "She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What are the religious themes from "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor?
As far as this particular story is concerned, I think it centers around themes of sin and grace. These are two of the central themes of Christian teachings: that the world is in some way fallen but...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What is the climax of the story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"?
The tension in the story rises higher and higher as we, and the grandmother, realize that her family is being murdered by the Misfit's henchmen, one by one. The Misfit begins to tell his story, how...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What are some examples of figurative language used in Flannery O'Connor's short story A Good Man is Hard to Find? Why...
Flanner O’Connor was known – justifiably – for a somewhat cynical perspective with respect to the superficial judgments people make regarding the character of those they deem worthy or “good.” Her...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What might the grandmother represent in the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" ?
The grandmother represents people who enjoy cultural privilege. She is white, and she is likely from an upper-middle class background. As such, she has a very particular stance on the past—she...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What is the Misfit's favorite saying in "A Good Man is Hard to Find"?
The Misfit does not have a phrase in this story that he repeats again and again. Therefore to answer your question it is important to identify what the most important thing is that the Misfit says...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
June Star
According to Victor Lasseter in his article "The Children's Names in Flannery O'Connor's 'A Good Man Is Hard to Find,'" the children were named after two of the most notorious outlaws of...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What is one of the conflicts in "A Good Man Is Hard To Find," and how is this conflict resolved?
One of the central conflicts in Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find (1953)” is between the grandmother’s convenient perception of Christian grace and the demanding way in...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Why does the Misfit kill the grandmother?
When discussing the Misfit, it is important, first of all, to take into account the radical nihilism which shapes his perspective on the world. As he expresses in his conversation with the...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
O’Connor characterizes the children as being obnoxious. What is the significance of this choice? Would the result of...
In "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor, the author portrays the children as obnoxious in a way that fits in with the "meanness" of rest of the characters. Lack of kindness is a large...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
What does the grandmother say to the Misfit to try to convince him not to kill her? Does the conversation alter his...
The grandmother tries to appeal to the Misfit's nonexistent sense of morals by claiming to see in him his "good blood" and by asserting that she "knows" he "come[s] from nice people." She delivers...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
In the story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," what is significant about the grandmother bringing up the Misfit at the...
The grandmother's mention of the Misfit serves as foreshadowing and irony and adds to the characterization of the grandmother. The grandmother is a manipulative and rather selfish woman who does...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Describe the atmosphere (mood) of the story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find."
Evaluating the mood of a story is somewhat subjective. One can, however, look closely at specific language to analyze the way it might influence readers' emotions. The first sentence of the story...
A Good Man Is Hard to Find
In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," what is the Misfit's favorite saying and what does it mean?
We never directly learn that the Misfit has a favorite saying, but he says twice the one we most associate with him, with variation. It's the last sentence of the story and sums up the Misfit's...
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