A Good Man Is Hard to Find

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A Good Man is Hard to Find

"A Good Man Is Hard to Find," is the title that was selected in the 1995 O'Conner's collection and has attracted a wide sort of critical attention. The account serves an outstanding beginning of the function by O'Connor since it entail all the aspects which demonstrate her work, a correlation of horror and humor, grotesque characters, as well as, a chance or the characters to accept the grace of God. Initially, critiques were intrigued with the author's use of violence in all the accounts, uncommon for a writer, especially a female during the 1950s to 1960, but they recognized her capability of drawing characters with detachment and clarity. The characteristics led to critics categorizing O'Connor as a writer of the southern Grotesque comparable to William Faulkner who also criticized in writing his southern heritage. Nonetheless, these same critics were rather confused by O'Connor firm Roman Catholic standpoint, which was not common for a writer residing in an area which was dominated by Baptists. O'Conner had the point of view that she was an outsider, not a southern writer since of her catholic affiliation, not a catholic writer since of her southern roots.

The foremost reaction of the account was mostly positive. In the New York Times Caroline Gordon noted that the account was characterized by "density, precision, and circumscriptions that was alarming" (5). O'Conner standpoints are usually theological, and she fails to clear present a frank moral message, in most cases the message in her stories is usually misinterpreted. Gordon was attempting in analyzing the whole story depicted in the account. Louis Rubin in "Two ladies of the South" noted "in the fundamental nature O'Conner was a spiritual writer" Stating that "the knowledge of evil and good is at the core of her stories" (25). I agree with this notion by Rubin since Mystery and Manners notes that the Grandmother had been depicted as being a Misfit of a fallen prophet and a Witch. O'Conner notes "there are probable ways than her own which could be read, but not other through which it ought to have been written" (O'Conner). Russell Kirk in an essay entitled "The World" noted "the misfits is the most terrifying desperado and forlorn in all Flannery tales" (429). Hendin Josephine notes about the author in the "world of Flannery O'Conner" stating that there exists two O'Conner's," the perfect daughter living in memory of her mother, and a writer who is enigmatic and writes of violent and strange tales". Notwithstanding that some of the foremost reviewers were confused