In “ A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor morality is often a theme that is repeatedly explored through out her body of work, in particular the lack of morality her characters have. For example, O’Connor writes about the Grandmother sharing a story about an old house she used to live in and stated “There was a secret panel in this house,” she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that she were”(Page 16). Without feeling remorse for being dishonest the Grandmother is telling a lie to manipulate her son into changing the direction of the road trip.
Another example of morality being examined by O’Connor is through the character “The Misfit” who is on a murder spree. O’Connor repeatedly places “The Misfit” in situations of a moral divide, where he inevitably chooses to do the wrong thing, or an evil act. For example, after the family gets into a car accident, and uses this as an opportunity to kill the family and take their car after he shot the grandmother and “ put his gun down on the ground and took off his glasses and began to clean them”. O’Connor purposefully placed these characters in cross road situations, and had them make poor decisions to make a point of the commonality of the every day person making poor moral decisions often.
During the exploration of characters morality, O’Connor frequently uses direct characterization to describe all of her characters as normal, everyday people. For example, in the introduction, O’ Connor states, “The children’s mother, a young woman in slacks, whose face was as broad and innocent as a cabbage and was tied around with a green head-kerchief that had two points on the top like rabbit’s ears. She was sitting on the sofa, feeding the baby his apricots out of a jar.”(Page 6). Commonly depicted throughout the story, her characters are described as ordinary people partaking in ordinary things, such as feeing their baby, or going on road trips. By depicting her characters as average people, this will allow to reader to connect instantly and deeply to these character who are relatable to themselves.
I agree with you on how O’Connor tried to make his text more relatable to his audience through bringing up commonalities between the characters and average people.
Great use of your example in the first paragraph, something so simple altered the course of the story and their lives. Also, I agree with you on how O’Connor wrote the story as a way to relate to the audience.
I really enjoyed your approach and the way that you chose a theme that represents the lack of a quality rather than the quality itself. You presented great examples that accurately portray this theme and brought up a great point about O’Connor continuously putting characters in “moral divide” situations. I think that’s a really important part of the text.
I really liked your comments on her use of direct characterization! I never really thought about the effect that would have on readers however after reading your blog, I see how it is an interesting/successful rhetorical choice.
It is true that these are quite ordinary people. And yet — O’Connor has often been discussed for the rather bizarre way she characterizes them. The mother, for example, may be completely ordinary and uninteresting, but her face is like a cabbage and her kerchief makes her look like she has rabbit ears? 🙂 O’Connor does have a sense of humor, and an interest in the absurd and bizarre about people, and in this case, I think the broad, cabbage-like face of the mother suggests that while she may not be as selfish as the Grandmother, she’s also not as interesting — a kind of blank-faced, empty person. Which is, in O’Connor’s universe, also a troubling thing.