The story A Good Man Is Hard to Find written by Flannery O’Connor has many subtexts that underline the author’s religiosity and the desire to promote peace. Nevertheless, the plot itself is frightening, and the actions that unfold, on the contrary, describe the cruelty and injustice of the world. When criminals take family members to the forest, the hope of their rescue is lost, and O’Connor does not choose a happy ending (p. 714). The killing of all the main characters is the culmination, which, at the same, was expected. A peaceful and calm atmosphere that preceded the main events hinted that danger was imminent. The mentioning of the escaped criminal also provided another hint at the possible ending of the story (O’Connor, p. 705). However, it is possible that O’Connor did it intentionally in order to show readers once again, how fragile happiness can be in an aggressive world.
A Christian context is relevant because the story itself may be interpreted from a biblical point of view. Trying to convince the criminal that he is a good person leads to nothing, and the grandmother’s death proves that preaching is powerless if a person is not ready to accept peace (O’Connor, p. 714). When describing the impressions of the story, one can note that the plot is unjustifiably cruel. Nevertheless, the realism of A Good Man Is Hard to Find gives an opportunity to think about how individual the concept of faith is and what difficulties religious people can face. The context of the narrative and its style conveys the author’s fascinating style, and despite a frightening culmination, interest in this genre of a short story can be maintained largely due to such plots.
Work Cited
O’Connor, Flannery. A Good Man Is Hard to Find. New English Library, 1962.