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 the wild west: John Wesley Hardin, who was said to be so mean he shot a man just for snoring, and Belle Starr, one of the few female criminals. This interpretation seems to ft them better than a religious reading of their names, which is alos plausible.
Lasseter notes that "Hardin's racism was well known, and it was alleged that Starr had aristocratic ancestry--two themes that are evidenced in the story." He also suggests that the children are used as symbols of original sin and that O'Connor described the book in which the story appears as "nine stories about original sin."
The eNotes Critical Overview notes: "Knowledge of good and evil is at the heart of...
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.
her stories." O'Connor herself wrote that "there are perhaps other ways than my own in which ["A Good Man Is Hard to Find"] could be read, but none other by which it could have been written."
The rude grandchildren in this story have interesting names, typical of O'Connor's characters. John Wesley is probably an ironic reference to an English founder of the Methodist Church; the boy's behavior hardly depicts him as religious. This name, by the way, also appears in another O'Connor story, "A Late Encounter with the Enemy," this time for a Boy Scout who abandons his great-grandfather in the hot sun so that the boy can purchase a soda for himself.
June Star is a particularly selfish girl. Although she may be the "star" at Red Sammy's when she tap dances, when Sammy's wife's suggests that she come to be her girl, June Star retorts, "I wouldn't live in a broken down place like this for a million bucks!" Her response reveals truly unattractive qualities, to say the least. I've always considered, too, that her double name is representative of a southern tradition of giving girls two names and addressing them by both. This little girl, however, does portray the stereotypical southern belle.