This paper analyzes Flannery O’Connor’s story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”.
This paper discusses Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. The story is analyzed and presented as an example of supreme irony. The writer shows how the story, steeped in irony is a competition between situational iIrony and tragic irony. The author also illustrates how the plot takes the reader through several unexpected twists ending in numbing tragedy.
“The narrative begins innocently enough-comedic even. The family is planning a short vacation to Florida. The matriarch of the family does not want to; preferring instead, to visit her girlhood home in Tennessee. She has read about three escaped convicts. She does not communicate this fear with her family. Perhaps she is not afraid. In her estimation, that happenstance is not likely but certainly worth a few jokes. At this point, the reader is not aware that this information is a portent. Faced with pressure from her son, his wife and her grandchildren, she relents. The next day the family embarks on the short journey across state lines.”