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A good man is hard to find” by Flannery O’Connor

“A good man is hard to find” is a gothic short tale published in the year 1953 by Flannery O’Connor. The story comprises of a household of six people who, on their way, while driving to Florida, are wiped out by a convict called the Misfit who had escaped from prison. This essay presents the relevance of the language of O’Connor’s story.

To begin with, the story’s tone combines detachment, humor, seriousness, and irony. Throughout the story, the readers come across humorous situations; for example, in this story by O’Connor, she labels the children’s mom as having “a face that is as innocent and broad as a cabbage that is tied with a green head scarf with two points on the top like the ears of a rabbit” (O’Connor 1). The narrator also uses detachment to approach the characters in the story. Her narrative voice does not help the readers be sympathetic to her story’s characters. She presents the characters with all their oddities and faults so that the readers can honestly judge them. As the story ends, the narrator’s tone begins to be more tragic and serious due to the Misfit that starts to happen to the family. The narrator brings about a situation whereby ordinary people are seen to confront the force of pure evil. This dark tone is recognized when the characters in the story cannot reason with the Misfit, who is evil, and thus are seen to confront mortality of their own.

Additionally, the narrator uses diction to deliver the dialogue in the story. The delivery of Grandmother’s dialogue by O’Connor is simple and deliberate to a point that she wants the readers to focus more on the supporting and the main character’s dialogues instead of the character’s details. The way the narrator writes the sentences in the story is short, simple, and plain because it was deliberately done to make it simple. For instance, in the central part of the story, O’Connor writes the description of the action by the Grandmother “old lady settling herself very comfortably, removing her gloves made of white cotton and putting them up together with her purse on a shelf that is in front of a black window” (O’Connor 2). O’Connor’s writing style is also effective and very consistent because she wants the narrator to convey the story in a descriptive, clean, and evident way that compliments her writing of this story.

Despite the language diction, the tone of the diction conveyed in this story is extraordinary and very different. Throughout this story, the choice of words for the grand Grandmother is uncanny and, at the same time, inflammatory. O’Connor wrote this diction since it was a common way to talk to minorities, especially African Americans, in the early 1930s when racism was widespread. For instance, the Grandmother at a Negro out of a black window and said, “Oh, look at the cute little pickaninny” (O’Connor 3). The term pickaninny is an belligerent word that is used to refer to young black kids. O’Connor uses the word deliberately and carefully since it is slang or jargon by the Grandmother to the young child. O’Connor’s choice of diction and words is unique and colorful due to her origin in South Florida, where jargon words are different compared to most writers in America.

In the story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, the figurative language is centered on comparisons and mainly on personification and similes. A simile is an open comparison shown by connections similar to, like, and as. O’Connor uses simile while describing the mother to the children referring to her face “as broad and innocent as a cabbage” (O’Connor 1). A simile is also showcased when Bailey doesn’t allow his children to move into the house with a secret board as the Grandmother says, that his jaws are as rigid like a horseshoe (O’Connor 6). O’Connor also defines the Misfit’s vehicle saying that it was “big battered, just like an automobile” (O’Connor 7). On the other hand, personification is where an animal, a thing, or an intellectual term that is made to be human. The narrator uses it in the line “…the dust coated trees looking down on them” (O’Connor 13). This strengthens where no other thing except the family in the story, but trees only existed in that place. The trees, which are lifeless objects, are lively and given a coat to wear in dust form. The trees are said to look down on them, which is impossible.

Works Cited

O’Connor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find: And Other Stories. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 1953.