"On Trial: Flannery O'Connor's 'A Good Man is Hard to Find' " an essay by Tracy DeHoff from Virginia Commonwealth University reads as follows:
O'Connor's work is that of very dark humor, irony and grotesque characters and situations. Her themes have a religious nature, with characters who experience horrible, soul wrenching moments that lead them to an epiphany. For O'Connor the merging of good and evil does not necessarily mean that good prevails; happy endings aren't an ingredient of her tales. O'Connor was raised as a Southern Catholic and was devoted to her faith. She recognized the paradox of the Southern personality and culture regarding etiquette and religion. She was quoted as saying the South "may not be Christ—centered but was most certainly Christ haunted."
We see that the grandmother and the Misfit are haunted by Christ in "A Good Man...." Neither are Christ—centered and yet the grandmother is portrayed as the more qualified of the two to accept Christ's salvation. The question is: Is she more qualified? She would certainly say so. Her moment of redemption comes at the hands of a character who is evil beyond belief. However, the grandmother is quite evil herself. Her evilness has been disguised as that of an innocent grandmother which makes the reader uncomfortable in judging her harshly. The grandmother does indeed have her moment of redemption but not until exhausting every means possible to avoid it. She invokes the name of Jesus in an attempt to save the Misfit and herself.
O'Connor's judgmental attitude comes through in the story by means of her narrative strategy. We are privy to the grandmother's thoughts on a couple occasions and these tend to show her high opinion of herself and selfishness "...anyone seeing her ...would know she was a lady." "...Bailey would not be willing to lose any time...she wanted to see it...." This would appear to be a limited omniscient narration and yet for the most part the narration is third person. The narrator isn't completely detached and seems to delight in showing us the bad side of the family, particularly the grandmother. O'Connor gives us what she wants us to see in order for us to make a judgment that she may or may not have already made. Although she is judgmental, she does not place herself above God. She gives her characters free will, which, ironically is the key to the the grandmother's grace and redemption. We hope, and to a degree expect, that the grandmother will save the Misfit. In an unimaginable twist of irony, it is this exertion of free will that places the grandmother's redemption in the hands of the Misfit.
-http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/litweb05/workshops/fiction/oconnor7.aspOriginal reading and post can be found at this website.
I found this interpretation interesting because of the way in which the writer speaks of how O'Connor's background and own attitudes play a huge part in the story. At the beginning of "A Good Man is Hard to Find", there is a short excerpt on the history of O'Connor. It mentions that she was a devout Catholic, and that "the extraordinary violence of her fiction is designed to expose the precarious condition of the spirit in a temporal world, as the startling comedy disintegrates the pretenses of a facile civilization" (O'Connor 1201). In DeHoff's essay, she further recognizes this aspect of the author through the ways she uses the typical Southern personality and culture in regards to etiquette and religion. DeHoff states that O'Connor "was quoted as saying the South 'may not be Christ—centered but was most certainly Christ haunted' " (DeHoff).
After my initial reading of the story, I recognized the grandmother as an individual who attempted to live a Christ-centered life, but didn't necessarily see this in the character of The Misfit as much. DeHoff states that both the grandmother and The Misfit are haunted by Christ, in different ways of course, but neither of them are "Christ-centered". Yet it is the grandmother who is conveyed as the individual who is better able to accept Christ's salvation. "The question is: Is she more qualified?" DeHoff poses this question, and answers by saying that the grandmother would certainly feel that she was in fact the more qualified of the two. I agree with this statement due not only to the descriptions of the grandmother that are given throughout the story, but also through her actions. "Her evilness has been disguised as that of an innocent grandmother which makes the reader uncomfortable in judging her harshly" (DeHoff). I did at first find it hard to place bad judgment on the grandmother, but through her actions throughout the story, especially those towards the end, I was able to see the evil instilled in her. After continuous pleas, the grandmother does in fact have a moment of redemption which up to that point she has done everything in her power to avoid it. As an attempt to save both herself and The Misfit, "she invokes the name of Jesus" which again portrays the grandmother as a Christ-centered figure, but at this point the reader knows better and is able to see her for what she truly is.
What I thought was most interesting about DeHoff's essay was the way in which she reads into the author's attitude of the story. She states that "O'Connor's judgmental attitude comes through in the story by means of her narrative strategy" (DeHoff). The reader becomes aware of the grandmother's high opinion of herself as well as her selfishness through lines such as "anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady" (O'Connor 1202) and "She knew that Bailey would not be willing to lose any time looking at the old house, but the more she talked about it, the more she wanted to see it" (O'Connor 1205). DeHoff states that these lines represent an omniscient narrator, but the narration is for the most part in third person. I mistakenly didn't take into consideration the narrative standpoint of the story, but in reading DeHoff's essay I found that it plays a large part in the interpretation of the text.
DeHoff continues by stating that there isn't a complete detachment of the narrator and it seems as if the narrator almost finds enjoyment in showing us the bad character of the family, especially the grandmother. She feels that "O'Connor gives us what she wants us to see in order for us to make a judgment that she may or may not have already made" (DeHoff). DeHoff feels that O'Connor is in fact judgmental, although, unlike the grandmother of the story, she does not place herself above God. This could be an attempt to portray moral through the story, however it is not clearly defined. By giving her characters free will, O'Connor toys with irony because it is this free will that is crucial to the grandmother's grace and redemption. As I did, DeHoff hopes that, and expects, the grandmother to save The Misfit. Through her use of irony, O'Connor brings to play the unimaginable. The grandmother's attempt of free will "places the grandmother's redemption in the hands of the Misfit" (DeHoff).
By instilling her trust in The Misfit, the grandmother's fate is determined. This interpretation was enlightening to me in the sense that it brought forth the views of the author and put them into play regarding the story. The author's attitude clearly shows us that what she wants is for the reader to make a judgment of the characters of the story, or rather their own interpretation of what the characters portray. I did recognize the grandmother as a symbol of grace and redemption, however I did not take into consideration the author's thoughts. This essay proved very helpful in furthering my understanding of the reading.
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