dotted outline of a black cat sitting within a basket in front of an older woman wearing a sundress

A Good Man Is Hard to Find

by Flannery O’Connor

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Discussion Topic

The elements of Southern Gothic in "A Good Man is Hard to Find."

Summary:

Southern Gothic elements in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" include grotesque characters, such as The Misfit, and disturbing events like the family's murder. The story explores themes of decay, moral corruption, and the grotesque, often set against a Southern backdrop. These elements create an eerie atmosphere that critiques social issues and human nature.

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How does "A Good Man is Hard to Find" fit into the Southern Gothic genre?

A Southern Setting: Southern gothic stories have, as you might expect, a deep connection to the South itself. And since the identity of the South is deeply entrenched in the land, there are typically elements of nature—often harshly depicted—in Southern gothic literature. The family is in Georgia, and the grandmother longs to visit family in Tennessee. Woven into the journey are descriptors of Southern life and setting:

Outside of Toombsboro she woke up and recalled an old plantation that she had visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady. She said the house had six white columns across the front and that there was an avenue of oaks leading up to it and two little wooden trellis arbors on either side in front where you sat down with your suitor after a stroll in the garden.

The idea of plantations is presented in a romantic way—except the...

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very nature of a plantation relies on an often harsh abuse of workers. Southern culture is instrumental to the way the conflict develops with the Misfit.

The Macabre and Grotesque: The grandmother's attitude is pretty grotesque in itself, but the way the family dies is also macabre. The Misfit doesn't even spare the baby, and the murderers don't mind taking the literal shirt off Bailey's back before killing him. As the gunshots ring out, taking one family member at a time, a grotesque reality settles over the plot.

Outsiders and Outcasts: Most Southern gothic literature involves characters who exist outside social norms of acceptance in some way. This certainly applies to the Misfit, and he's the character who really propels the conflict of the story.

Ideas of Slavery and/or Race: The grandmother's attitudes related to race are clear from the beginning.

"Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!” she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack. “Wouldn’t that make a picture, now?” she asked and they all turned and looked at the little Negro out of the back window. He waved...
“Little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do."

Although she considers herself a fine woman, the grandmother is blind to her own racist beliefs. Statements such as this one show the dark areas of her heart.

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Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a fine example of Southern Gothic literature because it reunites the elements that withstand this genre from the rest.

1. Southern traditional location- The story takes place in Georgia during a family trip to Florida, the grandmother insisting upon stopping in Tennessee. This brings with it the opportunity for the Southern Goth author to expand upon the descriptors that are salient in the setting such as the Blue Mountains, the hills of the South, the flora and the fauna of the locale.

2. Civil War and Southern history- the memory of antebellum homes, the grandmother's insistence in seeing the "secret panel" home, the remembrance of a better time, and of how great the South once was. There is also the use of the "negro" epithet which is a direct characterization often attributed to Old South folk.

3. Black humor/irony- the ironic events in the story lead to a deadly tragedy. However, there is a lot of enigmatic and conflicting dialogue which frames the somewhat pathetic begging of the grandmother.

4. Tragedy- the end of the story is that the family is murdered in the woods by a most-wanted criminal dubbed "The Misfit". The inevitability of their fates, the fact that it was by coincidence that they crossed paths with this mentally-ill criminal, and the grave mistake of the grandmother in remembering at the last minute that the detour that she wants to take was the wrong one all compile to show how we are all prone to tragedy and death. One decision can ruin everything. Life is fickle and does not always have a happy ending.

5. Eccentricism- the grandmother, June Star, The Misfit, and even Bailey, all show traits of eccentric and stubborn behavior. The manner in which the diner's owner also acts denotes O'Connor's insistence in making her characters stand out by quirks and habits that the reader will find strange, to a point. Yet, this is the enigma that is produced in Southern Goth, and the reason why this particular story exhudes the traits of the genre almost entirely.

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Which passages show "A Good Man is Hard to Find" as a Southern Gothic story?

Flannery O'Connor's short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," is an example of Southern Gothic fiction. In fact, O'Connor is closely associated with this literary movement. Francis Russell Hart describes this genre as…

...fiction evocative of a sublime and picturesque landscape … depict(ing) a world in ruins...

These stories give the audience a chance to "vicariously experience horrifying realities." O'Connor's story is one of these.

A common aspect of the gothic story includes, among others, a "good versus evil polarity in the characters," which is seen in "A Good Man is Hard to Find," but…

...Southern Gothic fiction focuses largely on themes of terror, death, and social interaction.

Social interaction is first seen in the disrespectful behavior of the grandchildren toward their grandmother, for which the children are not corrected by their parents. When the grandmother suggests they not go to Florida on their trip because a depraved killer (the Misfit) is on the loose (foreshadowing), the grandson is belligerent. His name, John Wesley, is ironic in that this is the name of the man who is noted for founding the Methodist movement, but the boy is barely civil let alone Christ-like. The child's response is, "If you don't want to go to Florida, why dontcha stay home?" June star, his sister, is not much better. They further demonstrate their rudeness at Red Sammy's.

We see the aspect of social interaction again as John Wesley complains about the state of Georgia (their home state) and Tennessee. The grandmother stands up for the two places, but George Wesley considers Tennessee a "hillbilly dumping ground" and Georgia not much better. His father's mother says,

In my time…children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then."

Ironically, contradicting everything she has just said, she sees a black child on the side of the road and makes a racial comment, which she thinks nothing of—but it shows that her idea of doing "right" is skewed:

Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!…Wouldn't that make a picture, now?

The occupants of the backseat turn and look; the child waves, and June Star notes he had no pants. The grandmother explains that "little n***rs in the country" don't have as much as they do. But without feeling sad about this, she declares that if she could paint she would paint a picture of it, as if this poverty was worth saving on canvas. She hasn't a clue.

The parents are oblivious, and perhaps they are as much to blame as the grandmother for what happens. When the children have a tantrum in wanting to go "the house with the secret panel," the dad gives in, saying...

This is the only time we are going to stop for anything like this.

This is quite true, and foreshadowing. They will never again stop for anything, for soon after the accident, a "black, battered hearse-like automobile" (this is more foreshadowing) heads toward them, with three men inside.

Another element of the Southern Gothic is terror; we feel it when the grandmother foolishly announces the one man's identity:

"You're the Misfit!" she said. "I recognized you at once!"
"Yes'm" the man said…, "but it would have been better for all of you, lady, you hadn't of reckernized me."

Death is inferred when the Misfit speaks of how they got new clothes after escaping from jail:

We borrowed these from some folks we met.

We can be sure they weren't borrowed, but that they are dead.

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