The Holy Contradictions of Flannery O'Connor's
A Good Man is Hard To Find
The realm of literature is littered with the works of fine authors who instead of relaying their messages blatantly, gave responsibility to the reader to in turn decipher the morale and the myth of the story. Logan Pearsall Smith once expressed his love for the literary prodigies by stating, "What I like in a good author is not what he says, but what he whispers." When he was quoted for saying this he was referring to authors such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, and of course Flannery O'Connor, the southern catholic raised woman who revolutionized literature with her religious messages poignant in her works. O'Connor used imagery including controversial issues such as prejudice, superficiality of manners, and gods position in a world of sin to assist her in her goal to wow the world into religious shape.
Ernest Hemingway in Milan, 1918
Matti
English: Robie Macauley with Flannery O'Connor at ...But what came with her astounding works was a barrage of harmful critiques aimed at her "problematic" issues in her stories and her supposed contradictory manner in which she wrote of things.
In A Good man is Hard to Find, O'Connor utilizes the grandmother, who is one of the main characters, to be viewed as prejudice as well as racist. The old bitty holds a class system in her mental filing cabinet according to race and religion. When the family is driving to Florida, the grandmother gleefully picks fun at what she calls a "pickaninny" along the roadside. A word that was considered as crass as "nigger" today, referred to African Americans. Because the African child is wearing no pants she then states, "Little niggers in the country don't have things like we do." The grandmother proceeds to sit in the back with the children, who are...