Guest Post by Chris Hooker
You may not realize it by looking at her, but Flannery O'Connor is kind of a badass. I say this in the sense that her stories read like Tarantino films: unforgiving, gory and tense.
Take the first story in this collection "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." In it, O'Connor meticulously crafts The Misfit, a man full of evil and violence, but examines who really is the "good person" at the end of the day. She asks the age-old question: Is true human character only revealed at gun point? Just ask the supposed innocent grandmother after The Misfit shoots her dead.
What I love about Flannery O'Connor is her ability to create true unlikeable characters and make them the focus of her stories. We almost root for the villains to successfully perform the villain-things they must do, and for that each O'Connor story is a page-turner.
In the Burroway reading for last class, she wrote this of character: "Conflict is at the core of character as it is of plot. If plot begins with trouble, then character begins with a person in trouble; and trouble most dramatically occurs because we all have traits, tendencies, and desires that are at war, not simply with the world and other people, but with other traits, tendencies and desires of our own."
Reflect on this idea of "trouble" in a story and you blog on Flannery O'Connor. What sense of doom to you get from these stories? How does it make them better?
I think that the “trouble” in both of O’Connor’s stories helped to make the story better by keeping the plot moving. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” O’ Connor clues the reader in early that her characters will most likely be encountering The Misfit. I felt that O’ Connor intensified the sense of impending doom through the character traits of the Grandmother. The Grandmother is opinionated, controlling, and has the attitude that she is better than everyone. One way that O’ Connor illustrates this is through the Grandmother’s choice of clothing. “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” I agree that I almost wanted the Grandmother to be “put in her place” by the Misfit because O’ Connor created the Grandmother to be an obnoxious character.
ReplyDeleteO’ Connor also created unlikeable characters in “Good Country People.” Mrs. Hopewell views Manly Pointer as a simple country boy who can do no harm. Joy/ Hulga is rude, especially to her mother, and thinks highly of herself. Ultimately, Joy/ Hulga’s sense of superiority is what causes her demise. Mrs. Hopewell’s superficial judgment of Manly Pointer as a simple country boy causes her to underestimate him at the end of the story. The idea of doom that I got from both of O’ Connor’s stories was that the main characters were taught a lesson too late.
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” I was particularly struck by the quote, “’She would have been a good woman,’ The Misfit said, ‘if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.’” I didn’t really know what to make of this at first (or the entire ending), but when I reread it I really liked it because I took it as the lady was only a good woman when held at gunpoint. In order to always be a good woman, she would need to always be held at gunpoint.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” I was sort of expecting “Good Country People,” to have some kind of weird twist, but, when I continued reading about the women characters in their kitchen, I saw no sign of this story taking a tragic turn. I agree with Chris in his blog post when he says, “We almost root for the villains to successfully perform the villain-things they must do,” especially in this particular story because Hulga was a character that got on my nerves. In the last few scenes in the barn, I was indeed rooting for Manley over Hulga despite Manley being considered the villain.
"A Good Man is Hard to Find" was interesting in an extremely weird way. I knew O'Connor was setting it up for The Misfit to make an appearance, which kept me more interested in the story as I went on. I kept waiting for him to show up, so when the car pulled up after their accident, I knew who it was. I liked that she did that (including all those clues) because it's almost like a spoiler, but it keeps it exciting and interesting.
ReplyDeleteAfter the morbid ending of "A Good Man is Hard to Find," I also expected a tragic twist at the end of "Good Country People." When Pointer got Hulga alone and took her wooden leg away from her, I was expecting the encounter to end in rape or something equally as tragic, so it was a strange twist for me when he settled with stealing the leg and leaving her there. That's a good thing though, when the author doesn't always do what the reader expects. I expected the ending of "A Good Man is Hard to Find," but I did not expect what happened in "Good Country People."
Flannery O'Connor has a knack for gothic oddity in her writing. The first time I read "Good Country People" was over the summer, and it took me a little while to make sense of it. The way that Hulga acts towards everyone and her own opinion of herself throughout the story makes it easy for the audience to not like her. Her opinion towards Manley Pointer and how it changes throughout the story also hints that something will happen. And at the end it does. In the end we have almost a power shift. Hulga is at her most vulnerable and Manley turns out to be a typical, sniveling conman. The character we had more sympathy for at the beginning, becomes the more loathed character at the end.
ReplyDeleteWhat I thought was the most interesting point of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is the interaction between the grandmother and the Misfit. I thought it was interesting how the grandmother remains completely oblivious to what he and his gang have done to her family. She spends so much time trying to convince him, and moreover herself, that he is really a good person when ultimately he is the one who takes her life.
Both of Flannery O’Connor’s stories deal with the idea of trust, and show how sometimes our judgments betray us when we think we trust the right people.
While reading "A Good Man is Hard to Find", I was constantly reminded of Chekhov's quotation, if a gun is described in the first act, it had better go off in the third. By talking about him early in the story, an increasing sense of doom hung over me, while I waited for the Misfit to show up and reek havoc.
ReplyDeleteWhile I really enjoyed "A Good Man is Hard to Find", because of the suspense with in it. However, because the ending of "Good Country People" was spoiled in the introduction. Because I knew that a Bible salesman was going to steal the false leg of a Ph. D. the entire atmosphere was ruined. All the suspense in the story was lost, making it the action less troubling to me.
I have to say I didn’t enjoy O’connor’s stories as much as Richter’s. I found all the characters in a “Good man is Hard to Find”, quite annoying. Between the whinny kids and the attitude of the grandmother, I found myself waiting for doom to hit them. Saying this I praise O’Conner for creating such characters. Even if the reader doesn’t like them, they are able to visualize them and understand what it would be like if they were to actually meet them.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Misfits come into the story I think the readers know what’s coming. Although the outcome is terrible, it’s almost like we are ok with it. I also think O’connor does a lot of foreshadowing throughout this story. Between seeing the Misfits on t.v, and the conversation the grandmother had with Red Sam, I knew that the idea of fixing the corruptions of the Misfits wouldn’t work. That being said, there would be no way the grandmother could beg them enough to save her.
While these two stories do seem very unforgiving and bleak, there is a truth of human nature in them. Not simply that corruption is everywhere, but also that even those who represent “good” can still be flawed. Take Joy (or Hulga) for example. Though she was a sympathetic character, she clearly was indifferent towards Christianity which, indirectly, caused her destruction. In both of these stories, some of the characters act very naive which may explain why they are “doomed.” But of course, regardless of how the characters are, the point is that sometimes there is inescapable doom which is very true to real life. There are not only “bad” people but bad circumstances that cannot be avoided.
ReplyDeleteWhat's interesting to me about both of these stories is that they both deal with religion, specifically Christianity. Of course, both of these interpretations are warped which tie into the pessimistic nature of these stories. To me, this shows that even if the endings were brighter, they would still show a distorted interpretation of humanity. The realism presented in both stories shows how some situations bring out a dark side in all the characters, even the ones you relate to.
In A Good Man is Hard to Find, O’Connor creates the sense of doom in the very first paragraph of her story. The grandmother says about The Misfit, “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it.” This is an omen that trouble is coming- why would the author have her character mention this if it had nothing to do with the story’s conflict? We feel a similar sense of doom after the accident when the suspicious characters are introduced- and of course what are they driving? A “big black battered hearse-like automobile”!!! That is never good.
ReplyDeleteWhen the “good country boy” decides to take Joy (or Hulga) out for a stroll, he says that he wants to take her “O’er the hills and far away.” Far away, in the dark, the girl has a wooden leg- that has “doom” written all over it for me.
O’Connor sets up her stories in such a way that the doom makes me want to read more- she first creates average characters but then throws a twist to their story. Will the grandmother encounter The Misfit? Will the bad side of the good country people be revealed? O’Connor keeps the reader wondering until the end.
Man, I’ve read these stories before but I think no matter how many times I do they’ll always be intense, and I’m just left shell-shocked for a while. In a good way. But what Burroway said really made me think (the quote Chris included). Is conflict at the core of every story necessary? Can a story move without it? I’d say technically yes, a story could be conflict-free. But it would have to move minimally, and carefully. I tried to imagine taking the conflict out of either O’Connor story but I don’t know if it’s even possible. You’re left with the family in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” unable to talk (because the moment one of them does there’s instant conflict) and staying home, or in the “Good Country People” the women sitting home in the kitchen, eating. The point is, sure I can imagine these standing as stories, but would they leave me with the same rush they do now? Definitely not.
ReplyDeleteThe troubling part of these stories is that, as readers, we see by the end what is about to happen and we can’t do anything about it! Flannery O’Connor creates the momentum in such a way that’s almost unbearable to watch. And as a reader I felt sorry for the grandmother and for the girl, yet like others have said it draws upon the question of humanity. Who is right? Who is the villain? Did any of these characters deserve what they got? O’Connor’s use of characterization makes it somewhat impossible to tell.
Flannery O’Connor kept me entertained and into the story as I went along. Her characters seem so particular and seemed so independent from any other character I’ve read about before. This really stood out to me. She took the time in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” to make sure we knew the characters. I particularly liked the section “The old lady seated herself comfortably, removing her white cotton gloves and putting them up with her purse on the shelf in front of the back window.” O’Connor continues to describe the grandmother in a way that keeps me interested in what she has to say.
ReplyDeleteI also loved the plot twist, where the family would stop at some random woody spot and run into The Misfit. However, I felt rather attached in an odd way to the characters as they all died in the end of the short story. I was conflicted about whether or not I liked them and what the represented, and felt bad that the family that became familiar to me as a read was killed off in the end. If only they had listened to the grandmother, they would’ve all survived.
While reading these stories, I felt detached from everything. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," I was sort of expecting The Misfit to appear, but I honestly didn't think that the story was going to take that turn. I like that O'Connor developed the grandmother and The Misfit the most, and in the end, her endless talking is what killed them all, which was sort of ironic. What I liked most is his acute sense of detail. The dialogue gave the characters away as well, which I really enjoyed. When The Misfit said "Lady, there never was a body that give the undertaker a tip," I got chills. You can feel how he must be pretty twisted inside to be the way he is, and it's very chilling. You actually almost feel pity for him, especially in the end when he says "Shut up, Bobby Lee. It's no real pleasure in life."
ReplyDeleteI wasn't as fond of "Good Country People." I'm not sure why really. I think because I could tell that Manley wasn't a good country person at all. His overstaying his welcome really threw me off. It was like he was trying too hard, and that is a trait I always pick up on. Also, I felt that this story was very predictable and that I knew it would end in tragedy with Hulga and Manley. Once again, the detail is great, but the plot was too simple.
I must admit that while I was reading " A Good Man is Hard to Find," I kind of knew what was going to happen before the main character, the grandma, realized who the man helping them after the accident was. There was a lot of foreshadowing throughout the story not only to the eventual introduction of the Misfit to the entire family, but also to the car accident because at one point in the story the grandma talks about how if they were to find her body after an accident they would definitely know she was a woman because of her clothes. This development of the plot along with the development of the Misfit's character as well was in many ways enjoyable for me because oftentimes throughout the short story I kind of thought that the Misfit might just be a good man wrongly accused of a crime, but once I read the mention of gunshots in the distant woods I knew he was a cold-blooded criminal. I applaud O'Connor's ability to charcaterize the characters through the use of plot and dialogue and I in many ways do agree with the blog itself. O' Connor is like the Tarantino of writing and you can see that through the way in which she describes her charcaters and expands on the plots of both stories. She made me hopeful that the Misfit might become a better man, but then shocked me somewhat when she had him shoot the grandmother in the chest and kill her. Overall, her desciption of the characters was great and the plot was sort of cliche but I did enjoy reading both the stories.
ReplyDeleteSo I totally didn't see the ending of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" coming. I figured they would run into the Misfit at some point, but the "everybody dies" ending was way outside of what I was expecting. The characters O'Connor creates are vivid when they need to be, and otherwise slip into the background. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the grandmother is someone we end up knowing a lot about. I could tell you exactly what kind of a lady she is, all from the description of one brief road trip. Her son I know much less about, only a general idea of character. Her daughter-in-law I barely know anything about, and I don't care. The way in which the grandmother was crafted allows me to access the story without needing huge character development from the other people. I will say I'm not really sure as to what I'm supposed to take away from this story. I ended up just feeling bad for the family and appreciating the good writing.
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