In chapter two of Charles May's book titled The Short Story: The Reality of Artifice he states that in the nineteenth-century a new genre was created which would be called "the short story". He describes it as a "combination of code-bound narrative convention of the old allegorical romance forms with the verisimilar techniques of the new mimetic forms" (May 22). He states that the short story "reflects a reality that is primarily a transcendent, timeless ideal or a projection of human desire for transcendence, and the best way to reflect it is to construct narratives that center on revelatory moments when that ideal or desire is manifested. It is primarily a romantic rather than realistic form, in which revelation--what the romantic poets describe with phrases such as 'moments of vision'--reflects true reality. The short story reflects on the sacred rather than on the profane, the universal rather than the particular. However, it differs fundamentally from the old romance in that the revelatory moment is experienced by an individual perceiver" (May 22), which in O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" would be the grandmother. "It is not a result of the direct intervention of an absolute, transcendent reality" (May 22)".
In May's analysis of Herman Melville's short story "Bartleby the Scrivener" I found many parallels that pertain to O'Connor's story. In Melville's story, May states that the character Bartleby serves as a metaphoric figure rather than a realistic one. The grandmother in O'Connor's story seems to represent this same type of metaphoric figure in that she symbolizes grace through her actions towards the end of story. In his interpretation, May claims that "this metaphoric process (in which an object stands for something else) forms the basis of romanticism and symbolism, whereas the predominance of metonymy (in which an object stands next to something else) is what forms the basis of the realistic style" (May 35). The Misfit character of O'Connor's story becomes a symbol for the grandmother in that he brings to her the realization that she is not after all such a good person.
Characters used in short stories by authors such as O'Connor often live a "safe", "snug", "prudent," "methodical" existence. This romantic convention of such smugness, as seen through the grandmother, must be challenged by a mysterious stranger from the outside, a stranger whose reality is more metaphoric than metonymic; a stranger much like The Misfit. The other characters of O'Connor's story, Bailey, John Wesley, June Star, the mother, and The Misfits two accomplices, seem to have an aspect of metaphoric human emptiness. None are whole in themselves, but when taken together, they constitute one passably whole individual. Where they are characterized by little more than the sum of their traits, the grandmother, like Bartleby, seems to "metaphorically stand for a universal human awareness" (May37). This being recognized when she fails to salvage the lives of her family members and instead attempts to save her own by talking her way out of being killed. This brings about an awareness of selfishness, a very recognizable and immoral characteristic.
Like the story of "Bartleby", "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is problematic because it marks a transition between romance narratives, in which characters are two-dimensional representations, and realistic stories, in which the characters come off as if they were real. The story seems so firmly grounded in social reality that it is difficult to take the grandmother as a purely symbolic character; at the same time, if we take her as an "as-if-real" character, we have difficulty understanding what motivates her to act in the contradictory way that she does. However, as put by essayist Erich Heller, what does seem realistic, as in "Bartleby", is what is new about nineteenth-century realism generally--"the passion for the understanding, the desire for rational appropriation, the driving force toward the expropriation of the mystery" (May 39-40). The mystery behind The Misfit is continuously questioned by the grandmother. She asks questions about his life and about his faith asking "Do you ever pray?". It appears as if she's trying to wipe away the mystery of the man by digging into his personal life which angers the man and ultimately leads to her death.
"With the rise of realism and the resultant focus on specific everyday experiences, the short story has shifted from a symbolic embodiment of human experience to an illustrative example: instead of saying, with authority of the old romance, 'this is what human experience is,' realistic fiction says, 'given the way human experience is, this is what might happen.' Whereas the old romance story says, 'this is the way people are', the new realistic story says, 'this is the way people act' May 40). It is realism that gives the reader the thought that the characters may have a choice and that they might do something other than what they actually do. In O'Connor's story, this aspect of realism correlates directly with the grandmother's actions. The grandmother seems somehow bound, obsessed, driven, and determined to win over The Misfit even as the reader implicitly thinks that she "might" do something else if only she would turn back, get out, or snap out of it. The reader hopes that she might keep her thoughts to herself and keep her family out of danger, but her outspoken character causes each of them their lives.
The central characters of O'Connor's short story do not seem to be allegorical characters in the sense of the old romance form, yet they seem somehow caught in the conventions of allegory. O'Connor achieves this effect by bringing together the two worlds of the grandmother and the Misfit: she lives a life of what she views as righteous and proper whereas he lives in one of darkness and anger. This juxtaposition allows the reader to recognize the effect of The Misfits words and actions towards the grandmother ultimately bringing her to the realization that she is not such a good person after all. "Thus, the very mythic, traditional pattern of the story of the archetypal journey into the 'heart of darkness' transforms an 'as-if real' character", the grandmother, "into an allegorical figure" (May 40).
Works Cited
May, Charles E. "Chapter 2: Nineteenth-Century Beginnings." The Short Story: the Reality of
Artifice. New York: Routledge, 2002. 21-41. Print.
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