Pinkston 1

Dylan Pinkston

English Literature 1123

David Burton

4-16-07

Annotated Bibliography

Persons, Josh. “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” 12 Nov. 2001. Everything2. 7 Apr. 2007.

<http://everything2.com/index.pl?node_id=864067>

This article sums up the plotline in the story and also lays the foundation for viewing the

characters and situations in the story on a more divine level of interpretation. It states that The

Misfit can be seen as Satan for his horrible deeds and his obsession with Jesus Christ. It also

implies that the grandmother could be symbolic of all humanity, thus saying that all of us are no

different from Satan except in the level of evil in our actions.

This article has several good quotes from the story and also demonstrates a good point on

the divine symbolism given to the characters in the story. I believe the symbolism implied is

legitimately interpretable given the circumstances and characters. It is very likely that this is

exactly what Flannery O’Connor was trying to get across. This article also opened up a new idea

to me; the possibility of the grandmother representing all humanity gives a slightly more

understandable way to interpret her last words.

Pence, Katie. “The Paradox of the Grotesque and Grace in Flannery O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man is

Hard to Find’: A Casebook Study.” Concordia College – Moorhead Minnesota. 7 Apr.

2007. <http://www.cord.edu/faculty/steinwan/nv13_pence.htm>
 Pinkston 2

This article describes O’Connor’s use of violence and the grotesque to both attract

readers’ attention and convey a theme of religion and grace. She is seen to be viewed as a very

prominent religious author who makes great underlying points by some, and others actually view

her work as blasphemous due to the use of violence and a harsh reality. It shows that her use of

highly religious aspects forced into the cruel, real world is exactly how God works and is truly in

our lives, not in a pretty, idealistic world, but in the one that is all around us with all its

gruesomeness and beauty.

This was very good at bringing together several different ways to view the story and

Flannery O’Connor’s writing style. I couldn’t believe someone could actually see her use of

symbols and real-world brutality as something sacrilegious, especially when the author’s beliefs

are quite well known and plainly displayed. This helped me more thoroughly understand her use

of the grotesque reality, which I so enjoyed reading about, as a way to even more effectively

convey her themes than I originally saw.