Thomas Andrikus [Instructor Name is confidential] English 161 Wednesday, 28 September 2011 Historical-Biographical Criticism of A Good Man is Hard

to Find The author Flannery OConnor called her story a literal one (OConnor A Reasonable 336), which means that she did not intend to distort but to set down what was it exactly that she observed. Thus, in this criticism, it is necessary to take an analytical approach as to what exactly did she perceive in her life and how did she pour them into the story. The story tells us about a seemingly ordinary family going on a vacation that would prove to be their demise. The foreshadowing of the Grandma fearing being in any proximity to The Misfit from the very first paragraph is comparable to the days before OConnor discovered that she had the incurable disease that had previously killed her father ten years before. The eatery where they got their barbecued sandwiches, The Tower, gives another foreshadowing. For miles in radius from The Tower, there are signs saying TRY RED SAMMYS... and A VETERAN! (OConnor A Good Man 309). The story was written in 1953 during the early years of Cold War (which started as soon as the World War II ended in Europe in 1945). Alluding to the words Red and Veteran hence foreshadows readers to the malignant forces that are about to appear later. OConnor believed that the heroine of the story, the Grandmother, is a typical Christian (OConnor A Reasonable 335), as she knows that she is not prepared to die when being

confronted with the imminent prospect of death. Most likely, OConnor was primarily referring to herself too when she said that the Grandma would like to see the event postponed Indefinitely (OConnor A Reasonable 335). There are six characters in the family, yet only three are named: Bailey, June Star, and John Wesley. Of those three named characters, John Wesleys name struck a remarkable coincidence as being the name of the founder of Methodism, a movement within Protestantism. John Wesley and his father Bailey were the two first victims of The Misfits henchmen. This is a proof of OConnors disdain towards Methodism. Being a Catholic (which had always been a minority among other Christian denominations in Georgia), OConnor might have picked the name of John Wesley for this impetuous, disrespectful boy because of her dislike towards Methodism or even Protestantism in general. Another religious embodiment that OConnor had put is when she wrote that The Misfit may turn into the prophet he was meant to become after the ending of the story (OConnor A Reasonable 336). Here, OConnor equated The Misfit with Saul of Tarsus (who later became known as Paul the Apostle), a zealous Pharisee who intensely persecuted the followers of Jesus during the early years of Christianity. The moment of grace shown by the grandma exclaiming him to be one of her own children may be analogous to two events in the Bible: The moment when Jesus forgave his Roman captors just before he breathed for the last time, and the moment of Sauls conversion after having the vision of meeting the light of Jesus in the Book of Acts Chapter 9. After Sauls change of name into Paul the Apostle, he became one of the most ardent preachers of the gospel. By equating The Misfit with Saul/Paul, OConnor hence showed the true power of repentance: no matter how much blood one has shed in ones life, if one converts into

real Christianity and truly repents by doing Gods work, one could become an exemplary Christian. When OConnor wrote that violence is not necessarily an end in itself because it is a force which can be used for good or evil (OConnor A Reasonable 336-337), she meant to say that accounts of violence can be used by the posterity to learn about what is good and what is evil, so that the future generation will not repeat the same mistakes. After all, even the Bible, which is used as a moral guidance for billions of adherents of Christianity worldwide, had numerous stories of violence, deception, and murder, the most popular of which is the Passion of Christ. If Jesus had not been captured, tormented by the Romans, nor crucified, there would have been no salvation nor redemption at all. There would have been no forgiveness on the cross, and there would have been no church. Thus, OConnor seemed to assert another point about how learning from violence can prevent us from becoming violent ourselves. All in all, OConnors life, perception of grace, and imminent death became an underlying meaning of the story. Though some aspects of the meaning are not readily apparent to us readers because they are embodied in the story (OConnor Writing 334), we can read the story several times and refer to the background of the author in order to help us experience that meaning more fully (OConnor Writing 334).

Works cited

Barnet, Burto, and Cain. "Flannery OConnor: Two Stories and Comments About Writing." An Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. By Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain. 16th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 305-06. Print. O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." An Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. By Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain. 16th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 306-17. Print. "A Reasonable Use of the Unreasonable." An Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. By Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain. 16th ed. New York: Longman, 2010. 334-37. Print. "The Fiction Writer and His Country." An Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 16th ed. By Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain. New York: Longman, 2010. 332-33. Print. "Writing Short Stories." An Introduction to Literature: Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 16th ed. By Sylvan Barnet, William Burto, and William E. Cain. New York: Longman, 2010. 334. Print.