"A Good Man is Hard to Find" and " Good Country People".
Flannery O" Conner expresses his writing through many diverse elements and ideas. The two short stories " A Good Man is Hard to Find" and "Good Country People" have similar meanings that are portrayed in situations that are different. The characters, the titles, the diction, for example, all relate to each other in both of the two stories. These points given contribute to the overall meaning that O" Conner is trying to portray. .
By the plot of the stories that O" Conner wrote, tells the reader that she has a strong background of religion. She seemed a very devoted Catholic and obviously expressed that in both stories. In " Good Country People" the "bible salesman" is a large character in the story. Irony is expressed many times. "You ain't so smart. I been believing in nothing ever since I was born." (142) You would think that being a bible salesman meant that he believe in what the bible teaches. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find" the Misfit plays a similar role to that of the bible salesman. He expresses a similar lack of religion in the story too. "Jesus thrown everything off balance."(330). Both of these characters act as the bad guys in the stories and express their unreligious selves. This in turn is were the author adds her upbringings of religion in the story. .
The entire stories seem to be portrayed in an ironic sense. Every idea used gives an ironic meaning making the stories more interesting. The titles are the easiest form of irony that is noticed. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is ironic with the plot because it is so true in the sense that the bad guy even suggests and agrees with the grandmother that it is hard to find a good man. The grandmother repeatedly expressed her view that she .
Healey 2.
knew the Misfit was a good man. The Misfit proves that good men are hard to find, because he ends up killing the innocent family, and he knows he did wrong but did it out of spit.