Date: 15-01-‘07
Name: Marjan
Class: 4VA
Title: A good man is hard to find
Author: Flannery O’Conner
Explanation of the title: The grandmother says this line in the story. There’s an accident and the children are screaming, they’re expecting help. The grandmother continuously says things that make her feel/look better than others, she doesn’t even think there’s such thing as a ‘good man’ . It’s also a relation to “ The Appointment in Samarra “.
Theme/subject: There are more themes to this story. Inevitability of death, there’s no escape to dying. Who or what is a good person. In the end it appears that the grandmother is the ‘ good person’, and that it isn’t a man. The Misfit says: “ She would have been a good woman". The longing for her own will lead the grandmother and her family to death. Lies, or having secrets could be a theme, the grandmother lies a lot and has some secrets.
Characters descriptions:
Grandmother: She’s an old lady who is very talkative and full of herself. She wants to do everything in her way (pushy) so sometimes she can be quite manipulative. She is a selfish person, who believes she is above everyone else.
Bailey: He is the son of the old lady. He’s a silly man and can’t stand his mother sometimes. He wants to be the leader of the ‘group’, but his mother is too strong for him.
Mother: She is Bailey’s wife. There’s isn’t said a lot about the mother, but you notice that she loves her children a lot and watches over them.
John Wesley and June Star: These are the children of the mother and Bailey. They are like normal children, but they look a bit smarter. They make fun of their grandmother and manipulate their parents to do what they want.
The Misfit: He used to be a prisoner but escaped. He’s a smart old man with glasses (scholarly look). He seems to have a nice heart and is polite to the family. He is very calm through the whole murdering scene.
Hiram and Bobby Lee: They belong to the Misfit’s gang. They are younger than him and do what he tells them to do.
Setting: In many different places in America, because the family is traveling, the ending is on a deserted road in the forest. It’s more than 50 years ago, because there are no mobile phones and a day journey is 30 miles.
Summary: A family, consisting of a grandmother, her son, his wife and their children are going on a trip to Florida, even though the grandmother refuses because there is an escaped murderer (The Misfit) loose there. They stop for lunch somewhere and the grandmother talks with the man of the place there about how a good man is hard to find nowadays. They drive on and then the grandmother thinks she remembers a plantation in this area, and convinces the children about a secret panel, so they talk into their father. The road isn’t well traveled and it’s very long, and then the grandmother suddenly remembers that the house was in Tennessee. By surprise she kicks and upsets her cat, which she had taken secretly, and the cat jumps and the car crashes. Then the family stands face to face with the Misfit, and all of them get killed.
Language/imagery: I have pointed everything out in the text. The narrator makes great use of foreshadowing events and also uses similes and metaphors.
Structure: I have pointed out the climax and introduction in the story.
Personal opinion: When I had read the story for the first time, I thought it was very boring, and it left no impression on me whatsoever. When we started analyzing, I came to know more about the story, and why it was so boring. It sort of interested me, and made me want to find more clues about the story. There are many revealing things in the text, which can make it more interesting. The use of foreshadowing is used very well. The fact that the story has a religious theme does annoy me, because apparently it has to be in every story and in this way the story is no different from others.
Name: Marjan
Class: 4VA
Title: A good man is hard to find
Author: Flannery O’Conner
Explanation of the title: The grandmother says this line in the story. There’s an accident and the children are screaming, they’re expecting help. The grandmother continuously says things that make her feel/look better than others, she doesn’t even think there’s such thing as a ‘good man’ . It’s also a relation to “ The Appointment in Samarra “.
Theme/subject: There are more themes to this story. Inevitability of death, there’s no escape to dying. Who or what is a good person. In the end it appears that the grandmother is the ‘ good person’, and that it isn’t a man. The Misfit says: “ She would have been a good woman". The longing for her own will lead the grandmother and her family to death. Lies, or having secrets could be a theme, the grandmother lies a lot and has some secrets.
Grandmother: She’s an old lady who is very talkative and full of herself. She wants to do everything in her way (pushy) so sometimes she can be quite manipulative. She is a selfish person, who believes she is above everyone else.
Bailey: He is the son of the old lady. He’s a silly man and can’t stand his mother sometimes. He wants to be the leader of the ‘group’, but his mother is too strong for him.
Mother: She is Bailey’s wife. There’s isn’t said a lot about the mother, but you notice that she loves her children a lot and watches over them.
John Wesley and June Star: These are the children of the mother and Bailey. They are like normal children, but they look a bit smarter. They make fun of their grandmother and manipulate their parents to do what they want.
The Misfit: He used to be a prisoner but escaped. He’s a smart old man with glasses (scholarly look). He seems to have a nice heart and is polite to the family. He is very calm through the whole murdering scene.
Hiram and Bobby Lee: They belong to the Misfit’s gang. They are younger than him and do what he tells them to do.
Summary: A family, consisting of a grandmother, her son, his wife and their children are going on a trip to Florida, even though the grandmother refuses because there is an escaped murderer (The Misfit) loose there. They stop for lunch somewhere and the grandmother talks with the man of the place there about how a good man is hard to find nowadays. They drive on and then the grandmother thinks she remembers a plantation in this area, and convinces the children about a secret panel, so they talk into their father. The road isn’t well traveled and it’s very long, and then the grandmother suddenly remembers that the house was in Tennessee. By surprise she kicks and upsets her cat, which she had taken secretly, and the cat jumps and the car crashes. Then the family stands face to face with the Misfit, and all of them get killed.
Language/imagery: I have pointed everything out in the text. The narrator makes great use of foreshadowing events and also uses similes and metaphors.
Structure: I have pointed out the climax and introduction in the story.
Personal opinion: When I had read the story for the first time, I thought it was very boring, and it left no impression on me whatsoever. When we started analyzing, I came to know more about the story, and why it was so boring. It sort of interested me, and made me want to find more clues about the story. There are many revealing things in the text, which can make it more interesting. The use of foreshadowing is used very well. The fact that the story has a religious theme does annoy me, because apparently it has to be in every story and in this way the story is no different from others.
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