A Rose & A Man

Essay by HEC564110College, Undergraduate June 2014

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A Rose and a Man

People love reading short stories that have shocking plot twists and unforeseen endings. Generally, when people read stories like these, they focus on the events more than the underlying message the author is trying to get across. If people do take into consideration the theme, they almost certainly never compare the theme to other stories they have read. When reading both "A Rose for Emily" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find", it's easy to get lost in the plot and not consider the themes. This makes finding common themes between the two stories nearly impossible. Upon closer inspection and thought, there is one theme that seems to pop right off the page in both stories: the theme of differences between generations.

With time what's considered disrespectful or not changes from one generation to the next. In the story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find", Flannery O'Connor uses examples to show how time changes what is considered as respectful from the grandmother's generation to her grandchildren's generation.

This is demonstrated in the beginning of the story when the family is on the road traveling through Georgia and her grandson, John Wesley, disrespects the state by calling it a lousy state and wishing they family could "go through Georgia so fast so [they] won't have to look at it much" (O'Connor 430). The grandmother scolds John stating, "In my time children were more respectful to their native states and their parents and everything else" (O'Connor 429). This reveals to the reader that a simple comment like that today wouldn't be considered disrespectful. However, during the grandmother's younger years this would be the ultimate disrespect. This reveals to the reader how time has created a difference about what is...