AP English Literature and Composition is one of those classes where there is no right or wrong; there are no formulas or set values to which even the most unenthused mathematician can simply “plug and chug.” Literature is the exponent of collaboration, creativity, and communication, values instilled by Academy at the Lakes.
As a first semester project for AP English Literature and Composition, students in groups of four analyzed a short story and shared their analysis as a keynote-style presentation. Instances where the roles are reversed – students teaching other students and even teachers – is a great way to foster growth in public speaking among other soft skills all the while engaging seniors who seem to be halfway out Academy’s front door.
Our group focused on Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” An example of Southern gothic literature, O’Connor explores the sentiments of the pre-civil rights era in rural Georgia. To preface our presentation, we posed two essential questions to our audience: (1) Does being a good person entail decency, nobility, wealth, social position, or piousness? (2) Are sinners those who are simply lost or looking for salvation?
Leading up to our group presentation, we collectively analyzed this short story, examining the work with a fine-tooth comb to exhaust every literary element and rhetorical device. This is the beauty of collaboration: we each were able to share our own, unique perspectives and interpretations about O’Connor’s words. Collaborative efforts go hand-in-hand with a balanced, liberal arts education, for the skills nursed in this environment empower the leaders of tomorrow.
A Critique of the Proposed National Education Policy Reform
"A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor Presentation
1. “A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND”
FLANNERY O’CONNOR
Brian Compton, Eve Lu, Vijay N Prasad, Hannah Szarko
Ms. Zalac
AP English Literature and Composition
16 November 2016
2. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Does being a good person
entail decency, nobility, wealth,
social position, or piousness?
Are sinners those who are
simply lost or looking for
salvation?
3. GENERAL CONTEXT
Setting: rural Georgia,
1940s or 50s, vague spatial
setting, no exact locations
Exact time is unsure;
ambiguous details perhaps
aren’t pertinent to O’Connor
Genre: Southern Gothic
Point of View: third person
limited omniscience
(understand the
grandmother’s thoughts
5. ADVANCEMENTS IN THE AUTOMOBILE
INDUSTRY
Chevrolet introduces
the 1955 V8 engine
Family vacations (road
trips) became
commonplace
Eisenhower’s $101
billion plan for national
highway system
(Gordon)
6. AUTHOR BACKGROUND: 1925 – 1964
Native of Savannah,
Georgia
Father struck with
lupus
O’Connor also died
from lupus
Wise Blood (first
novel) published in
1952, won Rinehart-
Iowa Fiction Award
8. SOUTHERN WOMEN: CHALLENGING SOCIETY’S
NORMS AND SOCIAL POSITION
“Burdensome models
of
femininity” (Gleeson-
White)
“Self-satisfied in their
apparent
virtues” (Gleeson-
White)
Nobility is cordon
9. THE GRANDMOTHER: AN ANALYSIS
Central character
“God chooses the
grandmother to plant the
seed of grace in the
Misfit” (Bethea)
Vanity corrected by death
Three bullets in chest
allude to the Trinity (Father,
Son, Holy Ghost)
Misplaced values à
10. THE MISFIT: AN ANALYSIS
“Prophet gone
wrong” (Bethea)
Should seek divinity
because nothing
tangible on earth suits
his needs
Confesses that had he
been with Jesus at the
time, he wouldn’t have
11. MINOR CHARACTERS
Bailey: father of the household, Pitty Sing (ironic name) is
cat of Baily’s mother à static character
Bailey’s wife: upholds passivity of domestic Southern
housewife à static character
John Wesley, June Star, the Baby: Bailey’s self-centered,
bratty children à static characters
Red Sammy Butts: bar-b-que restaurant operator
Hiram, Bobby Lee: escaped convicts travelling with the
Misfit à static characters
Hold tradition of respecting women (took great care of them being
13. GOOD AND EVIL
“ ‘I wouldn't take my children in
any direction with a criminal like
that aloose in it. I couldn't
answer to my conscience if I
did.’ ”
The Misfit says: “ ‘sooner or
later you're going to forget what
it was you done and just be
punished for it.’ ”
“ ‘She would of been a good
woman if it had been somebody
there to shoot her every minute
of her life.’ ”
14. RELIGION, FAITH, AND SALVATION
“ ‘If you would pray, Jesus
would help you…’ ”
“ ‘I was a gospel singer for
a while. I been most
everything. Been in the arm
service both land and sea,
at home and abroad, been
twict married, been an
undertaker, been with the
railroads, plowed Mother
Earth, been in a tornado,
seen a man burnt alive
15. SOCIETY IN THE 1950S
Grandmother believes in
noble people of great
statue
Hat symbolizes place in
society as a lady, outfit she
wears dead on the side of
the road
“ ‘In my time children were
more respectful of their
native states and their
parents and everything
18. CARICATURING OR GROTESQUE
“June Star said ‘He reminds
me of a pig’ ” (referring to
Bobby Lee)
“The grandmother raised
her head like a parched old
turkey hen crying for water”
“Young woman in slacks,
whose face was as broad
and innocent as a cabbage
and was tied around with a
green head-kerchief that
19. BLASÉ
Conversational violence
“Highly unladylike…a brutal irony, a slam-
banger humor, and a style of writing as
balefully direct as a death sentence” – Time
magazine (Meyer 276)
20. PLACID
Sense of peacefulness à opposite of
suspense as there is no building
action
Flawless transition of events in time
that makes the systematic murder of
the family abrupt, unanticipated
22. WRITING STYLE: DETACHED
§ Detached
narrator that
depicts plot in a
manner making
the audience
unable to
connect with
the characters
§ Simple syntax
makes the
context clear
24. SITUATIONAL IRONY
Killers long for Southern
tradition
Gentlemen by nature
Respect women and
children
Quietly murder the family
with no thought to morals
25. VERBAL IRONY
“ ‘I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal
like that aloose in it. I couldn't answer to my conscience if I
did’ ” (O’Connor)
“ ‘Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own
children!’ ” (O’Connor)
Vain act of compassion and tenderness à almost a
character reversal (the Grandmother)
26. VERBAL IRONY
“ ‘I know you're a good
man. You don't look a bit
like you have common
blood. I know you must
come from nice people!’
” (O’Connor) à first
interaction with the Misfit.
She takes him for an
honorable man and insists
he is simply looking for
salvation in Jesus through
his actions
Irony is that she
underestimates the power of
evil in the Misfit
She insists she understands
27. VERBAL IRONY
“ ‘In case of an
accident anyone
seeing the dead on the
highway would know at
once that she was a
lady’ ” (O’Connor)
Ironic statement
foreshadowing the
climax of the plot
Highlights
Grandmother’s ideas of
the importance of human
28. VERBAL IRONY: THE GRANDMOTHER
Perceives self as an intelligent, upright, noble
Southern women yet she is racist
She doesn’t actually respect others and she is
a terrible judge of character
Lies about the cat causing the accident à “Do not lie”
Leviticus 19:11
Falsely remembered the plantation was in Tennessee,
not Georgia à not intelligent
Informs children that little black children are not well to
do like Southern country folks à bigot, racist comments
29. RECAP: IRONY
Inability to reconcile with the fact that she
cannot distinguish good men from evil ones
Inability to shut her mouth led to systematic
deaths of family
Reflect on idea that grandmother, although
she resisted the trip in the beginning, was
responsible for family’s doom
30. ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS
Does being a good person
entail decency, nobility, wealth,
social position, or piousness?
Are sinners those who are
simply lost or looking for
salvation?
31. WORKS CITED
Allen, Linda. “What Is the Significance of John Wesley's and June Star's
Names in ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’”- Homework Help - ENotes.com.
Enotes.com. Enotes.com, Web. 08 Nov. 2015.
Bethea, Arthur F. “O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” Explicator 64.4
(2006): 246. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 24 Oct. 2015.
Gleeson-White, Sarah. “A Peculiarly Southern Form Of Ugliness: Eudora
Welty, Carson Mccullers, And Flannery O’Connor.” Southern Literary
Journal 36.1 (2003): 46. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 24 Oct. 2015.
Gordon, Sarah. “Flannery O’Connor (1925 – 1964).” New Georgia
Encyclopedia. 08 June 2015. Web. 09 November 2015.
Meyer, Michael. “Fiction in Depth: A Study of Flannery O'Connor.” Literature
to Go. Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martins, 2011. 276. Print.
O'Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” The University of
Virginia. The University of Virginia, Web. 08 Nov. 2015.
32. BIBLIOGRAPHY
Link, Alex. “Means, Meaning, And Mediated Space In ‘Good Man Is Hard To
Find.’” Southern Quarterly 44.4 (2007): 125. Advanced Placement
Source. Web. 24 Oct. 2015.
Shmoop Editorial Team. “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Shmoop. Shmoop
University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 24 Oct. 2015.
SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 23 Oct. 2015.
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” California: 20th Century Fox, 2008. Enotes.
Gale Cengage Learning. Web. 8 Nov. 2015.