Comparative Essay Sample: "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor

"A Good Man is Hard to Find" and "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor portray deterministic portrayals of "good men." Both share the commonality of taking place in rural parts of southern America, as well as the theme of unexpected plot twists and deception of “good men.” In similar circumstances, the concept of surprise story twists and the cultivation of deceiving "good" men is essential. Both “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People” use similar literary elements of settings, characters, and symbols to promote the same theme. In both stories, the reader feels as if they are halfway through the story before being surprised by a plot twist. 

Both share the commonality of taking place in rural parts of southern America, as well as the theme of unexpected plot twists and deception of “good men.” In similar circumstances, the concept of surprise story twists and the cultivation of deceiving "good" men is essential. The rural countryside's boring and slow-paced environments supply the ideal backdrop for a fast-paced and unexpected story twist that makes these two stories absorbing and intriguing. O'Connor challenges the notion that southern identity is humdrum by sharing her highly engaging anecdotes. Good Country People, Connor explores the contrasting natures of the characters in the explored Southern civilization in this short story. Even though they belong to the most chaste portions of society, some characters have contradictory and misleading appearances. The author named the characters after such motives to emphasize their outlook on life. These names are the significance of their presence in the story.  

In Flint Thomas’s article, he claims the southern identity by saying, “What has not been seen, though, are the ways in which this undertone is augmented via repeated allusions, not to violence and death in general, but to the specific locus of evil that still haunted the South even during O’Connor’s lifetime: the Civil War” (Thomas 1). Isolation is a defining characteristic of both settings; in "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the key characters are mostly confined to the automobile cabin during their journey. After the narrative twist, when Hulga leaves to meet the Bible salesperson, she stays in her mother's house with her. O'Connor uses mundane and normally uneventful settings to cultivate a sense of predictability and comfort at the beginning of the two stories; later, she contrasts this comfortable setting with a rapid change of setting and isolation to pull the reader into a fast-paced and unexpected ending. These two stories are immensely captivating and intriguing because of the monotonous and slow-paced rural scenery they are set in. O'Connor challenges the misconception that southern identity is boring by sharing her immensely interesting experiences. 

The theme of deceptive “good” men is used in O’Connor’s story. The theme is generated by the central characters of Good Country People and, A Good Man is Hard to Find. Hulga in Good Country People and the grandmother in A Good Man is Hard to Find are both well off compared to those they meet throughout the story. O'Connor employs similar female main characters to reinforce her topic of deceitful "good" men. In contrast with the people they meet, Hulga and the grandmother are both financially and socially established throughout the short stories. Both pieces end with O'Connor tearing this feeling of comfort to shreds. Throughout the story, Hulga feels as though she has the upper hand until the Bible salesperson outwits her and walks away with her prosthetic leg, leaving her alone and without legs in a barn. As claimed by Flannery O’Connor in Good Country People, “Mrs. Hopewell excused this attitude because of the leg (which had been shot off in a hunting accident when Joy was ten)” (O ‘Connor 530). Grandmother, of A Good Man, is Hard to Find, is established financially, especially to the "misfit's" situation. Hulga and the grandmother make incorrect judgments about the "nice" man in both stories.  

Because Hulga believes that because she is more educated, she will not be exploited by someone uneducated. uneducated. Marie Lienard and, Charles E. Mays can clarify, “Each story addresses the difficulty of being “good,” that is of coinciding with oneself; human beings are caught in their webs of habits and ideas, be they moral or cultural, even religious” (Marie, Charles 2). Therefore, grandmother, on the other hand, believes that because she is a believer and a "good" person, she would be spared from harm. O’Connor makes this known by the statement by the grandmother, “Jesus!” the old lady cried. “You’ve got good blood! I know you would not shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people! Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady. I’ll give you all the money I’ve got!” (O’Connor 525). Hulga is an atheist while the grandma is a devout Christian, yet both have the arrogant belief that they cannot be led astray by their confidence in themselves or God. In “Consenting to Love”, “Surprised by Hulga's declaration of her atheism, he reckons that she is a woman who has thrown off the Bible-belt conventions of the South. They share a brief kiss on a walk in the country, a walk that ends in a secluded loft in a barn. Once there, Manley Pointer continues his amorous maneuvers and seems chagrined when Hulga resists.” (Bosco 2), claimed by Mark Bosco. O'Connor uses comparable female main characters to emphasize her theme of deceptive "good" guys.  

In the plot twist that ties both stories and themes together, the “good men” are central characters. Because of their respective actions, both stories reveal the supposed “good man” to have bad intentions. Both stories use the concept of a “good” person to develop their characters. While neither story specifies what it means to be a "good" person, the symbol of a "good" man is used to develop the theme and characters in both. As in both stories, the "good men" play a significant role in the plot twist that ties the two stories together. Each story reveals that the supposed "good" man has bad intentions through his actions. JP and Charles show that Hulga deludes herself into believing that things are as they seem, “In “Good Country People,” for example, it is primarily Hulga who will do despite everything, whose inflexibility and lack of self-awareness are the object of our laughter. Convinced unswervingly of her intellectual superiority, she stomps around the house like a toddler in a perpetual pout; and though she is thirty-two years old and hardly condescends to speak to her mother, everything she does is calculated to get her mother’s attention.  

Furthermore, Hulga is fixated on the belief that “everything is nothing,” that evil doesn’t exist, and she sets out to educate a Bible salesman in that regard” (Berguson 182). Hulga mistook the Bible salesperson for a nice picnic date, only to realize that he is not a Christian at all, but a more devout nihilist than herself, even though she studied at university. This is clear when he exclaims cruelly, “You isn't so smart. I've been believing in nothing ever since I was born!” (O’Connor 540). Now the misfit in "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the misfit is revealed to have thought a lot about Jesus' world and acts. When he and the grandmother discuss the nature of Jesus reviving the dead, everything becomes clear. After trying to reason with the outcast, she finally renounces her faith by questioning whether the biblical tale is exact. “Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead,” The Misfit continued, “and He shouldn’t have done it. He has thrown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him, and if He didn’t, then it’s nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him.", "Maybe He did not raise the dead,” the old lady mumbled, not knowing what she was saying and feeling so dizzy. "..."I wasn’t there so I can’t say He didn’t,” The Misfit said. “I wish I had been there,” he said, hitting the ground with his fist. “It isn't right I wasn’t there because if I had been there, I would have known.” (O’Connor 525). The grandmother, in contrast to the misfit, refuses to accept responsibility for her actions, which led to her being by the side of the road with a gun pointed at her head. In contrast, the grandmother never admits to deceiving her grandchildren with a false treasure narrative to persuade them to travel down a dirt road in search of the old plantation she remembers, which was in a different state. Though she recognizes that she is on the wrong dirt road and in the wrong state, she does not accept her mistakes, unlike the misfit, and continues down the road in vain. Neither the grandmother nor Hulga shows any signs of introspection throughout the two short stories. 

In "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and "Good Country People," Flannery O'Connor presents deterministic views of "good men." They are both set in rural sections of America, and they both deal with surprises and duplicity among "good men". Such scenarios require the concept of surprise plot twists and the cultivation of misleading "good" men. Both "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and "Good Country People" employ similar literary elements such as places, characters, and symbols to convey the same message. As the reader progresses through both stories, they feel as though they are halfway through when a plot twist takes them by surprise.