Thesis: This paper will analyse the undertones and themes of O’Connor’s Christian faith and southern life in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People.”
Introductory Paragraph
Thesis statement
2. Body Paragraph 1- Religion and Faith
A. Background information on O’Connor’s religious dedication and Christian faith
B. Examples from the texts
3. Body Paragraph 2- Southern Background
Background on O’Connor’s Southern roots and attitudes
Examples from the texts
4. Conclusion Paragraph
Summary of thesis and restatement
Conclusion
Flannery O’Connor and her Personal Theme
Flannery O’Connor was a writer who liked to focus her stories in the American Gothic tradition, focusing on grotesque characters and deep thrills. In her short stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People” her personal life and her faith shine through. She was born in the south, and raised Roman Catholic, both of which are represented in the themes of her stories. Many of her stories, especially the two that are focused on for this paper, take place in southern United States and feature characters that are largely influenced by religion, whether it is in a positive or a negative way. This paper will analyse the undertones and themes of O’Connor’s Christian faith and southern life in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People.”
Flannery O’Connor was very religious. She has admitted that she was a devout Catholic and all of her work is rooted in “the central Christian mystery” (Wood 1076). Everything that she wrote about has religious undertones. There is always a dilemma between good and evil, and she always calls in the question of morality and ethics. It is argued that O’Connor uses violence and endorses it as a way of making people more aware of their own faith and recognition (Bloom 4). Those who have “exiled God” are the ones who have rejected their faith and turned to a life of crime or deception (Bloom 5). These are the villains of the stories and can be exemplified through their actions, and admittance of not being religious at all. In both “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People,” O’Connor paints those who lack religion or faith as the villains. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the Misfit is seen as lacking God’s vision. The grandmother accuses him of this as he is attacking the family. The villain in “Good Country People” admits that he has lied about being religious, stating “I hope you don’t think I believe in that crap” (O’Connor 451). It turns out that he has lied about being religious in order to trick Hulga into trusting him. In addition, each story contains a character that Mary Aswell Doll calls the “Mary” character (Doll 16). This character is the central female character that represents the light of God, while they have an opposite character that is lacking their humanity (Doll 20). In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” this character is the grandmother, who is naive and innocent and even as she faces her death she tries to instill the fear of God into her captor. She recognizes that the Misfit is lacking of religion and morality. She tells him “Jesus would help you” and encourages him to pray for his own humanity (O’Connor 435). This implies that the Misfit has not embraced Jesus in the first place and is lacking in any type of proper guidance. In addition, she uses this as leverage in order to attempt to persuade him to spare her life and the lives of her family. In “Good Country People” this character is Mrs. Hopewell, who is naturally good and tries to find the good qualities in other people while keeping a positive attitude. One of her favorite statements is “nothing is perfect” (O’Connor 439). This showcases her ability as a person to be able to accept life as it happens, including the flaws that she sees in other people. Mrs. Freeman is annoying, and Mrs. Hopewell is warned about her, but she still tries to see the good in her and be nice to her because she cannot be mean to anyone (O’Connor 438).
O’Connor was raised in Georgia according to the southern views of the twentieth century. Both of the stories take place in southern United States, and all of the main action happens in rural areas. When the car crashes in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” it is because the grandmother has attempted to find a plantation that she had visited when she was younger, something that was prominent in the south (O’Connor 431). These plantations had held slaves in areas such as Tennessee, Georgia, and Florida. In fact, O’Connor’s work is so largely influenced by her southern upbringing that some critics have pegged her as a racist (Wood 1077). O’Connor believed that southern writers were good at writing about “freaks” because they were good at recognizing them (Bloom 8). By this, she meant that southern people were religious and good people, and could recognize easily the people who were not like them. In this sense, she drew a very distinctive line between the proper southern people and the uncivilized delinquents. She also once said that, as a writer, “you have to be able to dominate the existence you characterize” (Bloom 15). By this, she meant that writers should always take the position of what makes them superior. This is very evident in both stories because it is the religious, “good” characters that recognize that they are not the villains or the evil ones in the story. The good, southern people are seen as the better people than the others because the author herself sees southern people as better in general. O’Connor was raised with the concept of southern manners, meaning that those in the south were supposed to be well-behaved and classy (Wood 1079). The good characters have southern manners and are polite, well-behaved, and intelligent.
Flannery O’Connor’s southern roots and religious faith are present in her short stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People.” Many of the characters and settings represent what was familiar to O’Connor throughout her lifetime, and all of the undertones of the story can be taken as some type of symbolism. The central characters, such as the grandmother and Mrs. Hopewell, represent the people who have a strong sense of faith and a good-mannered southern style, while the villains of the stories are represented as unruly, uncivilized anti-religious beings. All of the settings are rural and in the south of the United States, which reflects O’Connor’s childhood home of Georgia. Many of her stories and novels also have these themes, and she was well known during her lifetime for her Christianity.
Works Cited
Bloom, Harold. Bloom’s Modern Critical Views: Flannery O’Connor. New York: Infobase
Publishing, 2009.
Doll, Mary Aswell. “Flannery O’Connor’s Country of the Soul.” Journal of Arts and Humanities
3.1 (2014): 16-25.
O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” In The Bedford Introduction to Literature.
Ed. Michael Meyer. United States: Bedford Books, 2013. 427-437.
O’Connor, Flannery. “Good Country People.” In The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed.
Michael Meyer. United States: Bedford Books, 2013. 438-451.
Wood, Ralph C. “Flannery O’Connor’s Racial Morals and Manners.” Christian Century 111.33
(1994): 1076-1081.
