The Consequences of Going to Florida: "A Good Man is Hard to Find" Review by Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find explores the tension between the past and the present through the point of view of a grandmother on a family road trip from Georgia to Florida. In a narrative about morality, the definition of good, and the effects of lingering nostalgia, O’Connor uses several literary devices such as allusion and irony through conversations between the grandmother and other characters, her recollections of her youth, and through detailed descriptions to convey meaning.

Literary devices, such as allusion, help the reader look for meaning in a story as O’Connor uses details of the grandmother to allude to the past. The narrator establishes the grandmother is from a different era by choosing to focus on her style of clothing, her morals (what/who is good), and her actions. She dresses in traditional antebellum-styled garments that alludes to the old south she remembers from youth. The author then makes a comparison between the attires of two generations, the children’s mother and her contemporary fashion, and the grandmother’s formal attire. “The children’s mother still had on slacks and still had her hair 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… (12).” The narrator creates this comparison to show an aspect of the grandmother’s character. While beauty standards have changed with each generation, the grandmother’s idea of what a proper lady should wear has not. It is clear by her choosing to wear hats instead of handkerchiefs, a dress instead of slacks, that she believes her beauty standards to be superior to others. “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once she was a lady (12).”

The allusion to the antebellum south as a foregone era is made clear when the grandmother recollects the old plantation while driving past the family burying ground. Her grandson John Wesley asks where the plantation had gone, and she jokes, “Gone with the Wind (23-24).” By calling to mind a story set in Georgia around the Civil War, the author wants the reader to understand the lingering effects of the past. The current setting of the family burying grounds creates nostalgic moments for the grandmother to feel more connected to a way of life that no longer exists. The imagery of a burying ground instead of a plantation is fitting, as it captures the amount of time that has gone. The reader can feel sympathy for the grandmother as we understand her position as one of the last to live in her generation.

The device of irony is used throughout the story to help the reader evaluate the actions and behaviors of one or more characters. The grandmother herself is an ironic character as the events that happen around her contradict her beliefs on what should happen. The author uses irony throughout the story to shock the reader. One example of this device in effect is towards the end of the story where the grandmother, who did not want to go to Florida out of fear of crossing paths with an escaped convict The Misfit, ends up meeting The Misfit out of coincidence. This turn of events is ironic because it goes against the main characters expectations. Before the family’s encounter with The Misfit, the grandmother convinced her son to turn around to drive up to a plantation she remembered was on an old, dirt road. However, when she forgets the mansion was in Tennessee, the car crashes into a dish, and The Misfit arrives onsite. The grandmother encounters the one person she was trying to avoid, and it was arguably her fault. Since ironic situations are as unexpected for the reader as they are for the characters, it allows them to reassess the character’s meaning. We understand that the grandmother is a purposely flawed and unreliable character to follow. Her memories of the past are no longer as valid after we realize how forgetful she is and the grave consequences of failing to admit responsibility.

We realize that while the grandmother ought to be a good character, she does not understand what it means to be good and does not behave in any acts of goodness within the story. The reader can understand this by going back to when she complains to the restaurant owner Red Sam where she says, “People are certainly not as nice as they used to be (35).” The grandmother’s idea of good creates conflict, as her idea of “a good man” changes throughout the story. She calls Red Sam good after he foolishly trusts two strangers to pay for gas, mistaking goodness for foolishness. The grandmother’s definition of good changes between the time she finishes chatting with Red Sam and her impending death when she tells The Misfit, “You’ve got good blood! I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady (131)!” By using irony, the reader can conclude that the grandmother is only after herself. She pays little attention to the rest of her family as they are killed off and expects her own life to be saved by the mere fact, she is a lady. However, The Misfit shoots her anyway, revealing his morals are more concrete than hers. By not choosing to spare the grandmother’s life, he is living up to his code without compromising his morals because someone is “a lady.”

O’Connor uses irony and allusion as devices to create meaning. With her allusions to the antebellum south, the reader can sympathize with the grandmother by understanding where she comes from. However, the irony is used to reveal what is not being said, exposing the grandmother’s selfishness and carelessness, while exposing her lack of understanding of what it means to be a good man. Through these devices, the reader can understand the effects the past has on people and the consequences of the grandmother choosing to live nostalgically. Looking through the car window and seeing the modern world only makes her call to mind her out-of-date way of life. Beauty standards and ideas on justice (i.e., ladies do not deserve to die) have changed, but the grandmother’s wishy-washy morals have not. The past is like the mansion the grandmother remembers as a kid. The idea of what the mansion represents may still be there, but the details are long gone.

Work Cited:

O’Connor, Flannery. Backpack Literature: An Introduction to Fiction. Poetry, Drama, and Writing, edited by X.J. Kennedy et al., 6th ed., Pearson, 2020, pp. 53-65

Photo Cred:

Ron Dauphin on Unsplash