Point of View

“The Grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind.” From these first two sentences we know not only that the grandmother is headstrong and nagging, but we know the precise reason for which she does not want to go to Florida. But somehow we never discover why the rest of the family does.

A Good Man is Hard to Find is written in the third person limited point of view. Any background information, characterization, opinions, and occurrences are given to us from a biased grandmother’s point of view. This aspect of the writing really brings it to life; even if opposite the grandmother in age and character, each of us experience this story in the same way we experience our own lives—from a single point of view. In no way is the story’s power limited by this choice of point of view—in fact, the characters come immediately to life through the grandmother’s comments and thoughts. These last open a whole new dimension to the story as we compare the grandmother’s perception of herself with what others think of her.

O’Connor is in no way compressing the power of her story by choosing to write it from a single point of view. One might initially suspect that we cannot get a true idea of the characters and situation, since everything we are told is from a biased point of view. Quite the contrary, we discover more about each character through grandmother’s eyes than we might otherwise. A single—and often scornful—thought of the grandmother can give us great insight into a character’s personality. For example, the day that the family leaves for vacation, from the grandmother’s point of view: “The children’s mother still had on slacks and still had her head tied up in a green kerchief, but the grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot on the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” Here my imagination comes into play, and a ready picture of both characters discussed here comes quickly to mind. The mother has surely been busy all morning, the driving force that got the family out the door; tidying the house, putting together a lunch for on the road, and getting the family up, dressed, fed, and packed. Like any good mother, she has sacrificed her own time for that of her family, and has not had time to mess with her hair and has simply tied it up under a kerchief. She is wearing clothes suitable for the work to be done and comfortable for a long car ride. The grandmother, on the other hand, is decked out in her Sunday best, and scorning her daughter-in-law for not following her example. However, she could scarcely have done much in helping the family out the door—after hours were spent in her closet and at the mirror, she would have been afraid of wrinkling her stiff proper clothing.

Not only does O’Connor clearly portray characterization by choosing the third person limited, but she also adds a whole new dimension to her story: the grandmother’s opinion of herself versus what others think of her. We are given the impression throughout the story that the grandmother feels above her son and daughter-in-law, but we cannot help but feel sorry for the two putting up with their mother. When the grandmother dresses up before the car ride, we do not think of her kindly, but as prissy and inconsiderate. When the grandmother writes down the mileage on the car, she feels aloof—“it would be interesting to say how many miles they had been when they got back.” But we get the impression that she is rather odd and childish.

A Good Man is Hard to Find is written entirely in the third person limited point of view, which greatly adds to the power of the story. The characters come alive as they really are—not simply as who the grandmother portrays them to be. Also, a whole new dimension is developed as we compare the grandmother’s opinion of herself with the impression she makes on others, including ourselves.