... group two's analysis of Flannery O'Connor's short story.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

Theme

“It isn’t a soul in this green world of God’s that you can trust. And I don’t count nobody out of that, not nobody,” she repeated, looking at Red Sammy.

A writing of true literary merit has not only a simple moral, but a complicated theme. Often this theme cannot be stated in a sentence, but is a number of entwined ideas. This is the case with O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find. However one theme stands far above the others—the one to which the title and an entire conversation are devoted. A good man is indeed hard to find if we refuse to acknowledge the goodness even of those surrounding us.

O’Connor presents this theme throughout the whole story, but chooses to reveal it most clearly in The Tower, a restaurant at which the family has stopped for lunch. We are presented with a conversation primarily between the grandmother and Red Sammy (the restaurant owner), in which it is agreed that “people are certainly not nice like they used to be.” Even as they say it, both look down on those around them, who could themselves be classified as “good.” In the grandmother’s case it is her son; Bailey is a good man—for one thing he has taken his complaining mother not only on vacation, but into his house—but she looks down on him, partly because she sees herself as far more than she really is. In Red Sammy’s case it is his wife; she works hard and well, but somehow he seems only to notice when she needs to be doing something more.

“People are certainly not nice like they used to be”, the grandmother complains. She is right that there is much evil in the world, but she is closed-minded towards the goodness in the people around her. A large part of her problem is in her vanity, for she seems to consider herself nearly perfect, and looks negatively at others. For example, there was music playing in the restaurant and “[the grandmother] asked Bailey if he would like to dance, but he only glared at her. He didn’t have a naturally sunny disposition like she did and trips made him nervous. The grandmother’s brown eyes were very bright. She swayed her head from side to side and pretended she was dancing in her chair.”

Red Sammy’s wife is a hardworking, patient woman. She takes the family’s order, smiles politely in the face of a flat insult, and balances five dinner plates at once. However, the only statements directed towards her by Red Sam are negative—“quit lounging on the counter and hurry up with these people’s order.” But then he sits down sighing to chat with the grandmother. “You can’t win,” he complained, “These days you don’t know who to trust…. A good man is hard to find. Everything is getting terrible.”

It seems to be a general consensus among the characters in this story that a good man is hard to find. But even as various characters say it, they ignore the people surrounding them, who, though not gods, are hardworking and devoted. This seems to be a major theme of O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find.

1 comment:

Debra Bell said...

Very good job, Emily, backing up your assertion with examples from the story.

Title is always the first clue to the central idea and theme of the story.

Why the violence? How does that contribute to O'Connor's exploration of finding good in the world?