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Example research essay topic: Good Man Is Hard Flannery Oconnor - 1,411 words

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Mrs. Flannery Oconnor Carlos Luna Mrs. Radar Intro to Literature March 17, 2001 Is a Good Revelation Hard to Find? Flannery Oconnor's views on society and life are forever imprinted through her work; she paints a vivid picture of ignorant southern middle class families. In A Good Man is Hard to Find, OConnor presents the reader with a southern family going on a road trip with their self-centered grandmother. Complications arise when the family has a deadly encounter with an escaped killer.

Similar characteristics can be seen in another one of Oconnor's short stories called Revelation. Set mainly in a doctors waiting room, the main character, Mrs. Turpin, is an over weight self-involved middle class southern woman, who has to come to grips with her own status with God. Both characters have similar qualities but are completely unique in there own way.

First of all, the grandmother and Mrs. Turpin are both extremely self involved people, but in different ways. An example of this can easily been seen in the grandmothers unwillingness to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Baileys mind (381). She is not at all concerned with what the family wants or what they have planned. All she wants is to get her own way.

She is constantly dropping little remarks about how lovely Tennessee is and how the children should respect there native land. The grandmother goes to great lengths to get her way, even using her own grandchildren against there father by fabricating a story about a secret panel that had silver hidden in it. The craftiness of her lie leads the family to there own doom, but yet the grandmother still is only concerned with herself. She is a prime example of egoistic mind. Mrs. Turpin on the other hand uses sutler techniques to expose her self-centered ness.

While sitting in the waiting room, Mrs. Turpin starts to categorize everyone by social classes. On the Bottom of the heap were most colored people, not the kind she would have been if she had been one, but most of them; then next to them not above, just away from were the white-trash; then above them were the homeowners, and above them the home-and-land owners, to which she and Clad belonged. (409). She believes herself to be a good woman with a great heart and everyone else is just trash.

This high concept of herself can be seen through out the story. While bringing water to her black workers, she tries to convince herself that she is a good woman by convincing them of her goodness and kind heart. But of course it would not matter what they said, because Mrs. Turpin already feels that black people are inferior to her. Idiots! Mrs.

Turpin growled to herself. You could never say anything intelligent to a nigger. (419). Mrs. Turpin refuses to listen to anyone because she is already set on her own ideas. She is self-centered. Second of all, both the grandmother and Mrs.

Turpin have no real honor. Even while her own son and grandchildren are being dragged off and shot, the grandmother cannot help but think about bargaining for her own life. Jesus! the old lady cried. Youve got good blood!

I know you wouldnt shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people! Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady. Ill give you all the money Ive got! (391). By pleading with a killer for her own life and not the welfare of her family, the grandmother exposes her true lady like qualities, in that: she has none.

Denying ones fate is something that know one can do, but the grand mother tries desperately and shamefully in vain. Mrs. Turpin, on the other hand, shows her lack of virtuous beliefs in her own way. By taking the time through out her day to point out others short comings, she is displaying to the reader that she is self-centered and has no real honor. Mrs.

Turpin believes in only herself and that she is a good person, but even that perception of herself is a farce. Her heart rose. He had not made her a nigger or white-trash or ugly! He had given her a little bit of everything (413). Telling ones self that he or she is better then anyone else is a shameful act, and is not a modest gesture my any means. Unfortunately she cannot even recognize her own faults.

Mrs. Turpin even takes time to shouts at God himself. A final surge of fury shook her and she roared, Who do you think you are? (420). This act alone is enough to be considered a shameful person. She does not care about anyone else and she does not believe that anyone else is as good as her. Mrs.

Turpin is a disgraceful human being. Finally both women find redemption in the end. The Grandmother at one point is finally alone, facing the Misfit. Her head clears for an instant and she realizes, even in her limited way, that she is responsible for the man before her. She saw the mans face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, Why youre one of my babies. Youre one of my own children! (391).

And at this point, she does the right thing, she finally makes the correct gesture. The grandmother realizes that what she wants is not important anymore, her mind is clear and she finally feels an emotion that is not selfish. She feels sorry for The Misfit. She excepts and tries to comfort him as if he were her own child, leading him to shoot her, and send her back to God. While faced with the words of Mary Grace, Mrs. Turpin tries desperately to shake her enviable fate.

She goes to the pig pen, where her rage of denial seems to increase. She shouts at God asking for answers that she really doesnt want to hear. And then it comes to her, a vision of her own mortality and duties on this earth. Until the sun slipped finally behind the tree line, Mrs. Turpin remained there with her gaze bent to them as if she were absorbing some abysmal life-giving knowledge (420). This vision demolishes Ruby's earlier neat ranking of people, and its concluding sentence, which could have quotation marks around virtues, completes her education by telling her that no one deserves grace and that we receive it only because of Gods mysterious mercy (Coulthard 428).

Mrs. Turpin is now aware that she is no better then the rest world and this is the first step toward to a new way of life. The grandmother and Mrs. Turpin have many qualities in common but are completely unique in there own way. Even though the grandmother is a narrow minded manipulative woman, the reader is left with a feeling of sorry for her at the end. The same impact can be seen with Mrs.

Turpin. She is a superficial self-absorbed woman, but she finds salvation at the end and the reader is left with the sense that she will be better. Through car rides and waiting room brawls, OConnor takes the reader to the heart of close minded people and gives them no other chose but to sympathize with them, leaving the reader only to question there own moral standards. Works Cited OConnor, Flannery. Revelation.

The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 5 th ed. Boston: St.

Martins, 1999. 407 - 420. OConnor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 5 th ed.

Boston: St. Martins, 1999. 381 - 392. Coulthard, A. R... On the Visionary Ending of Revelation. ' American Literature (1983). Rpt.

in The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 5 th ed. Boston: St. Martins, 1999. 427 - 428. OConnor, Flannery.

Revelation. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 5 th ed.

Boston: St. Martins, 1999. 407 - 420. OConnor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed.

Michael Meyer. 5 th ed. Boston: St. Martins, 1999. 381 - 392. Coulthard, A. R... On the Visionary Ending of Revelation. ' American Literature (1983).

Rpt. in The Bedford Introduction to Literature. Ed. Michael Meyer. 5 th ed. Boston: St.

Martins, 1999. 427 - 428.


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