“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by
Flannery O’Conner I would argue was undoubtedly one of the most context heavy stories
that we have read in this class thus far. I would also argue that it is the
most intriguing story that we have read as I feel it has no clear or concise
moral theme. She addresses a number of topics such as our prison system and its
effects on it inhabitants, family dynamics and Christianity. Although she
alluded to a number of concepts, the one that stuck with me the most is the
concept of Christianity. O’Conner used the character of the grandmother and her
persona in the story to speak on, or allude to, a number of concepts as it
pertains to Christianity such as hypocrisy and the use of the religion.
In researching the personal life of
Miss O’Conner, I found that her and her family were devout practicing
Catholics. With this being said, this leads me to believe that she may be
speaking of accounts that may be specific to her interactions with Christians
and Christianity. Speaking on that matter, Abbie C. Harris in “”Jesus Thrown
Everything Off Balance”: Grace and Redemption in Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good
Man is Hard to Find,”” says that “her [speaking of O’Conner] stories bring to
life a land overflowing with churches and self-proclaimed Christians, where
religion is present everywhere, but rarely practiced in its true form.”
I actually primarily read this
story in a college credit English course in high school. It is not until I was
forced to further look at the literary work with an analytical eye that I
noticed what O’Conner could have been saying about Christianity. The prominent
character that can be associated with Christianity in “A Good Man is Hard to
Find” is the grandmother.
Within the work, we are not aware
that the grandmother is a Christian at all in the beginning of the story. Ironically,
when the reader is fully aware of the religion of the grandmother is when she
is in a high anxiety situation such as her looking face to face with death. In
fact, we are made aware numerous times that she is immensely concerned with her
appearance being “lady-like” before we are aware of the religion that she
practices. O’Conner even goes as far as to say in the beginning of the story, “In
case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once
that she was a lady.” Ironically enough, as we see in the story, it is not her
appearance or apparel that she uses to try to bring her out of a fate of death
but it is her religion that she uses as an agent. When the grandmother realizes
that she may be subject to death, she says things to the Misfit such as “If you
would pray, Jesus would help you” and “that’s when you should have started to
pray,” speaking of a particular time in the Misift’s life. Another time when
the grandmother could not think of anything else to say when faced with
adversity in the story she said, “pray, pray, pray.”
I think this is the phenomenon that
O’Conner was trying to bring awareness to- the fact of putting Christians
portraying themselves in a prominent manner but puts their religion on the
backburner until it’s convenient for them. This is exactly the hypocrisy that
we see in the grandmother, she only practices her religion primarily when she
is faced with adversity. Abbie C. Harris in “”Jesus Thrown Everything Off
Balance”: Grace and Redemption in Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man is Hard to
Find,”” solidifies this by saying “This land of Christianity in turn becomes a
land of hypocrisy, where people strive for respectability, ignore Biblical
teachings and only act as “Christ followers” when it benefits them.” This quote
perfectly illustrates the character of the grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard
to Find.”
Overall, in this story we can take
a number of different angles as it pertains to Christianity, as O’Conner
designed it to be, but the concept of hypocrisy and backburner Christianity is
what stood out to me most. It also had a substantial amount of evidence to
support the claim. In researching O’Conner and analyzing this literary work of
hers, it entices me to read what other claims does she make throughout her
works.
Scholarly Source:
https://digitalcommons.northgeorgia.edu/papersandpubs/vol3/iss1/5/
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