Discussion Topic
Characterization, Imagery, and Linguistic Techniques in "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
Summary:
In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," Flannery O'Connor uses characterization, imagery, and linguistic techniques to enhance the story's impact. Characters like the grandmother and mother are depicted with relatable imagery, such as the mother's face compared to a cabbage, highlighting their ordinariness. O'Connor employs similes, irony, and allusions, such as references to Gone With the Wind, to add depth and realism. The tone shifts from comic to grotesque, underscoring themes of redemption and grace amidst horror.
In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," how are the family members characterized and what is the significance of O'Connor's imagery and word choice?
The imagery and comparisons O'Connor employs in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" are both natural and relatable. The mother's face is like a "cabbage," and readers are thus able to associate her with an ordinary, generic mother. She is neither flashy nor complex; a cabbage is a particularly bland and generic vegetable. Readers thus infer that the mother is unremarkable and dull. Indeed, she lacks a name of her own in the story and seemingly has no voice of her own.
Comparing the grandmother to a hippopotamus is a natural comparison. Though hippos are often viewed as lumbering and even dim-witted, they actually prove themselves strong and tenacious when facing a challenge. This is an apt comparison for the grandmother, who undergoes significant character change when she faces likely death. It would be easy to dismiss her as a silly and lumbering old lady, but she...
Unlock This Answer Now
Start your 48-hour free trial and get ahead in class. Boost your grades with access to expert answers and top-tier study guides. Thousands of students are already mastering their assignments—don't miss out. Cancel anytime.
Already a member? Log in here.
survives longer than anyone else in her family and even recognizes that her own life is inextricably bound to the Misfit's in her final moments.
As you answer the final parts of this question, you might consider the way your language varies depending on the purpose it serves. Your academic language at school, for example, likely sounds quite different from the language you employ to talk about video games with your friends or to plan the next coffee shop trip with your pals. Language is often specific to its audience, purpose, and goals. That doesn't necessarily mean that you use language to reflect your identity; instead, I would argue that language connects you to various people for various purposes and that its usage thus varies depending on your goals and the level of intimacy of those connections.
I am linking the eNotes character analyses to further help you consider the characterization of the various members of this family.
In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," does O'Connor use unique linguistic techniques or make any allusions? How does the tone and style contribute to the story?
The tone of the story is intimate, focused particularly on the the responses, minute by minute, of the grandmother to the family's vacation.
While beginning with a comic style (to hear how audiences who had never heard the story initially responded, you could listen to a recording of O'Connor reading it aloud), O'Connor uses literary devices such as simile to make her scenes come alive. For example, she describes the mother as follows, saying her
face was as broad and innocent as a cabbage and was tied around with a green head-kerchief that had two points on the top like rabbit's ears.
O'Connor uses dialogue to lend both a realistic and a comic note to the story. The dialogue of John Wesley, when he says he'd smack The Misfit's face, foreshadows how, on a much more serious scale, The Misfit himself deals with conflict (i.e., through violence).
June's dialogue is punctuated with slang, such as when she says of her grandmother,
She wouldn't stay at home for a million bucks.
June also alludes to a popular television show in which an ordinary housewife is made to feel special (like a queen) when she says the grandmother wouldn't miss the family vacation even to be queen for a day.
The grandmother and Red Sammy allude to the United States's policy of giving large amounts of money to rebuild European nations after World War II when they complain of foreign spending as ruining the country.
These allusions show the family to be ordinary, parochial, and unsophisticated middle-class Americans.
One of the most startling turns O'Connor makes in this story is to take a comic, light-hearted family vacation tale and suddenly turn it into a grotesque horror story. She underscores this with imagery, such as the grandmother being in a ditch with The Misfit, that alludes to the Christ story—in this case, the descent into hell. O'Connor's genius, however, is her ability the meld the horror genre with a story of redemption and grace.
One element of style used is the simile. A simile is an indirect comparison that brings an image to the reader’s mind, such as grandmother’s “big black valise that looked like the head of a hippopotamus.” Another element is very specific details, such as the fact that “they left Atlanta at eight forty-five with the mileage on the car at 55890.” In each case, these elements add a note of realism to the story by making it very descriptive.