English 104: Finals Edition

Here we have the final of the final papers, for my English class. This essay is an one thousand word minimum, compare and contrast essay, comparing and contrasting the various literary elements of Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and "Good Country People". Both are excellent by the way and I highly recommend them.
Having already explained the requirements of the essay I now give you: The Essay

Nothingness and Redemption

Flannery O’Connor created two great works of art with the publishing of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People”. And within these two works of art she has a similar theme of the Salvation, or Redemption, of the protagonist in response to the evils committed by villains who have no belief. To present this theme she uses some similar elements of the two stories and some very different. Exploring the characters, conflicts and symbolism of the two stories this paper hopes to reveal perhaps some new level of understanding towards these two stellar works of literature.

On the surface the protagonists of the two stories, Hulga and the Grandmother don’t seem like very similar people, one is a Grandmother, a lady, as she calls herself, who looks back fondly (almost too fondly) on days gone when people were nicer and a good man was easier to find. On the other hand Hulga is rude, has a Doctorate in Philosophy, and loves the idea of nothing. There is not much similar in these two descriptions but they have a similarity not mentioned: Both characters are shallower than they believe. For all of her university training Hulga is not a true believer in nothing. She just knows words to say. This is shown by her shock in Manly’s change of behavior, from a simpleton and Bible salesman to someone who declares about the truth he sells, “I hope you don’t think I believe that crap! I may sell Bibles but I know which end is up and I wasn’t born yesterday and I know where I’m going!” leaving Hulga alone, “sitting on the straw in the dusty sunlight.” (O’Connor 1030). Similarly the Grandmother would like to think of herself as a good person, but it takes her encounter with The Misfit to really make her a good person. All throughout her encounter with The Misfit she begs and pleads not for the life of her family but for The Misfit to spare her life. Near the end of her life she cries, “You’ve got good blood! I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady! I’ll give you all the money I’ve got!” (O’Connor 1041). A key point of difference between these two characters is that the Grandmother’s transformation is described while the changes in Hulga’s life can only be assumed. But it is a sure thing that her life has to change after her experience in the barn with Manly.

The Misfit and Manly both act as catalysts for change in the lives of the protagonists but they have a key difference: Manly is not searching for anything except a good time. He is a firm believer in nothing. The Misfit on the other hand looks at his life and says, “It’s no real pleasure in life.” (O’Connor 1041). As for question of Jesus The Misfit seems to believe he exists but can’t decide if he did what the Bible says he did. This indecision even causes him great distress. As he says, “Jesus was the only one that ever raised the dead…and he shouldn’t have done it. He thrown everything off balance. If He did what he said, then it’s nothing for you to do but thow away everything and follow Him, and if He didn’t, then it’s nothing you can do but to enjoy the few minutes you got left the best you can by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness.” (O’Connor 1041). But he can’t even enjoy his meanness no matter how many people he kills. Manly on the other hand cares not for Jesus in any way nor is he looking for a way to justify what he does. He may be a Bible salesman but he sure doesn’t believe what in what he sells.

Before a villain is ever encountered, conflicts arises between the protagonists of the stories and their families. Both Hulga and the Grandmother rub against their families like sandpaper, Hulga because of her ugly attitude and the Grandmother because of her constant griping, wishing for the good days. Both of these earlier conflicts could be described as the things that the protagonists need to be saved from. On a deeper level though, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and "Good Country People" share another conflict: both of their female protagonists come face to face with villains and the nothingness they believe in. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” the poor mixed up Grandmother’s encounter with The Misfit destroys her but in the end also brings her to repentance: “[The Misfit’s] voice seemed about to crack and the grandmother’s head cleared for an instant. She saw the man’s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, ‘Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!’ She reached out and touched him on the shoulder.” (O’Connor 1041). She is immediately killed after this action but the change in her is clear. In “Good Country People” the conflict doesn’t lead to as dramatic of a change but Hulga’s encounter with Manly Pointer does change her. It changes her by Manly razing Hulga’s lofty intellectual ideas of nothing and showing what believing in nothing really looks like; he does this by being himself. In the end he declares to Hulga as he is leaving her stranded in the barn, “‘And I’ll tell you another thing Hulga,' he said, using the name as if he didn't think much of it, 'you ain’t so smart. I been believing in nothing ever since I was born!’” (O’Connor 1030).

The symbolism of these two encounters is very interesting especially considering Flannery O’Connor’s firm belief in God which cannot be excluded when analyzing her stories. It is intriguing when looking at the antagonists of the two stories, Manly Pointer and The Misfit, that in a very strange way despite their despicable ways, they act as saviors for the protagonists. In the case of Manly Pointer, he might believe in nothing, but he also removes Hulga’s ability to stand on her own faulty beliefs in nothing. As she says to Manly before he shows his true self, “We are all damned…But some of us have taken off our blindfolds and see that there is nothing to see. It’s a kind of salvation.” (O’Connor 1028). But it is only when Manly symbolically pulls off her blindfold by taking away her leg, and showing her real nothing that she can move on to a true salvation. The Misfit also serves as a Messiah for the Grandmother. The Misfit does this by forcing the Grandmother in the end to come to a place where she can see the world unselfishly and reach out in love. Also in the action it is possible that the saved might also be the savior. For it is only after the Grandmother calls him her own that he sees that, “It’s no real pleasure in life.” (O’Connor 1041). After being touched by someone who truly loved him, even if it was for just a moment, he can now never be the same. There is a symbol not dealing with salvation that is exclusive to “Good Country People” and that is Hulga’s false leg. Her leg might literally be her means of getting around after the accident that took away the real limb, but deeper than that, it is her crutch, something she can stabilize her life around. O’Connor describes Hulga’s attitude towards her leg as, “[S]he was as sensitive about the artificial leg as a peacock about his tail. No one ever touched it but her. She took care of it as someone else would his soul, in private and almost with her own eyes turned away.” (O’Connor 1028). Her leg was her stability and before her experience with Manly she was stable, stable in her intellectual superiority and her firm belief in nothing. She even smugly tells Manly, when he asks if she is saved, “In my economy…I’m saved and you are damned but I told you I didn’t believe in God.” (O’Connor 1026). But when Manly takes away her leg she shows that it was all a weak belief because she might say she believes in nothing but she expects others to behave like they say they do (Therefore a belief in something). Such as when Manly shows his true character she says angrily to him, “You’re a Christian! … You’re a fine Christian! You’re just like them all - say one thing and do another. You’re a perfect Christian, You’re…” (O’Connor 1029). It is in this encounter that Hulga finds out that to truly believe in nothing it will take away everything she holds dear.

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People” share similarities but they are not interchangeable. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” focuses on the redemption of its leads, where “Good Country People” is more about the destructiveness of disbelief and the start towards redemption. But even with these differences “Good Country People” and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” both serve as excellent parables of redemption and the emptiness of life that comes with a belief in nothing.

Works Cited

O’Connor, Flannery. “Good Country People.” The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. 7^th ed. Ed. Ann Charters. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. 1016-1030.

O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” The Story and Its Writer: An Introduction to Short Fiction. 7^th ed. Ed. Ann Charters. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2007. 1030- 1041.