Grandmother’s Conflicts

Grandmother’s Conflicts: O'Connor Literary Genius?
By: Ida Matilda Wright
ENG125: Introduction to Literature (PTH1634F)
Instructor: Melissa Carr
September 1, 2016

 
Prompt 3
Most often, literary works have both internal conflict (individual v. self) and external conflict (individual v. individual, society, nature, or technology). Additionally, one can often find that a character's internal conflict is linked to an external one. Choose a text in which both an internal and external conflict are evident to you. How does the external conflict illuminate the internal one? What meaningful parallels or incongruencies do you observe when comparing the two, and what is the significance within the context of the story?
Introduction
A family vacation, who hasn’t faced this emotional roller coaster. When planning the outing, there is, most always, a debate on where to go, what to bring, or which route to take. The activity of getting started is a draining whirlwind of planning, packing, and organizing seating and luggage in the vehicle. Flannery O’Connor captures this routine wonderfully in her short story A Good Man is Hard to Find. The author skillfully uses literary techniques to guide the reader through the character’s development. One who reads this story will recognize devices such as foreshadowing, flashbacks, language, imagery, and irony to introduce this typical Southern grandmother’s internal and external conflicts.
While reading the story A Good Man is Hard to Find, a person is taken on a winding journey of family relationship, different personalities, on interesting comparisons of the generational gap. Remembering that this story was written in the early 1950’s, the audience needs to recognize things such as racism, hypocrisy, and flaws in the human nature that are not openly excepted in today’s society. Though Grandmother was a “righteous woman,” O’Connor uses her talent as a writer to convey that Grandmother has both good and evil in her character. This is a trait that is found in many of O’Connor’s characters such as Hulga in her short story Good Country People (Clugston, 2014, Chapter 6.6). Flannery O’Connor parallels the character or morals of humanity not being all good or bad. Like Grandmother, O’Connor creates individuals in her stories that have the opportunities to change. Each character must choose for themselves. Flannery O’Connor’s short stories incorporate characters who face both internal and external conflicts in their lives. Grandmother in the story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, is no exception (O'Connor, 1953, 1954). Grandmother’s conflicts are created by the flaws in her nature as well as her religious beliefs.
Foreshadowing
“Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. 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, 1953, 1954, Direct Quote) Reading the article is a tool that Grandmother attempts to use to get the vacation she wanted. The article did not get the resolution that she wanted when arguing with her son.
Grandmother bringing a basket with Pitty Sing plants a seed in the reader’s mind that there is a significate reason for the cat in the story line (Courtright, 2013). This action also shows that Grandmother has a deceptive side to her personality. The thought of her precious cat being alone during her absence or the disapproval from her son over having the cat along is an internal conflict that Grandmother seems to make effortlessly. She uses the self-righteousness and her conflicts to guide the reader from event to event in the story (HOOTEN, 2008, paraphrase).
Flashbacks and Language
Flashbacks are evident in the description of Grandmother’s past relationships conflicts. In the story of Mr. Edgar Atkins Teagarden (Katz, 1974). the way Grandmother speaks shows that she is both a hypocrite and a racist. She says that a “nigger” ate the watermelon that Edgar Teagarden had left for Grandmother. She also uses words to show her true self-such as “pickaninny”, “every-ting”, and uses the name of “Jesus” when she thinks it benefits her needs. Statements like these show that she has an external conflict between herself and the changing mindset of society regarding race.
Grandmother’s reactions to the killing of her family show the heart of a hypocrite. She shows no remorse for those killed except for her son. When she realizes that her son is dead, she questions the very religious ethics that she was so proud to have society believe that she has (Brady, 1996). However, even after the other two female members of her family were killed, she still tells the Misfit that he would not shoot a woman. The two conflicts here were an internal conflict about saving her life over the lives of her family, and an external conflict between herself and the Misfit. Grandmother’s choices in both show her weakness of character.
Imagery and Irony
Imagery and Irony are powerful concepts of Grandmother’s story and her character. O’Connor uses these techniques so the reader can paint a picture of who Grandmother was. These theories are seen through though-out the story. The very first sentence that paints a picture of an old woman who has an external conflict about a journey. She doesn’t want to go (Trinity University, 2004). The last sentence of the story says that the Misfit saw no pleasure in killing Grandmother. This statement shows that Grandmother was finally able to reach the Misfit with her last action of labeling him her child.
While imagery of the scenes by the road, Red Sam’s, and the dirt road show us many things about Grandmother; irony is a major factor in the developing the character of the grandmother to the reader. The newspaper article not only reflects a foreshadowing. The fact that Grandmother used this story to get her way, and then she has the encounter that leads to her biggest internal and external conflict. The fact that she seems to count her religion and ethics to be her two strongest personality traits is balanced by who the Misfit is. He was not “a good” in the definition that Grandmother understood. However, he had a knowledge of her religion and had once been a gospel singer. This irony leads to the conversation that is the climax of the story.
Conclusion
You will find that Flannery O’Connor has captured many of the literary devices that make a story come to life. Through foreshowing, flashbacks, language, and irony, Flannery O’Connor has created a masterpiece that shows both the good and the bad in the Grandmother’s character through the way she resolved the conflicts in her life.



 
References
Courtright, N. (2013, April 17). A Good Man Is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor (Analysis
& Interpretation) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uN80z-yfjxE
Clugston, R. W. (2014). Journey into Literature (2 nd ed.). http://dx.doi.org/Isbn-13:978-1-
63178-154-7
HOOTEN, J. (2008). Individualism in O’Connor’s A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND. The
Explicator. Summer, 66(4), 197. Retrieved from http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=1&sid...
Katz, C. (1974, March). Flannery O'Connor's Rage of Vision. American Literature, 46(1), 54.
Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=5&sid...
Leigh, D. . (2013, September 1). SUFFERING AND THE SACRED IN FLANNERY
O'Connor, F. (Ed.). (1953). A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Flannery O'Connor: Collected Works
(pp. 137-153). Retrieved from http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/goodman.html
O'CONNOR’S SHORT STORIES. Retrieved from
http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxylibrary.ashford.edu/eds/detail/detail?vid=11&sid...
Trinity University. (2004). Flannery O'Connor. Language and Literature , 29(n.a.), 1-27.
Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid...