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Existence of Irony in a Good Man is Hard to Find

            
             The existence of Irony in "A Good Man is Hard to Find".
             Irony is a used in stories to contradict statements or situations to reveal a reality different from what appears to be true. In Flannery O"Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find", the author uses irony as a main function to tell the story. The Grandmother in the story is the main character in which the author uses irony. The title in itself, grandmothers imperativeness to bring her cat and her insistence on not going to Florida, all illustrate the authors use of irony in the story.
             The title of the story ,"A Good man is hard to find" is ironic in itself. A good man in society is not seen as a killer or a man in prison. The Misfit is not what society would call a good man . He has escaped from prison and has killed his own father. The grandmother speaks of him being a good man many times. " I know you"re a good man . I know you must come from nice people (grandmother 391)." At the beginning of the story the grandmother speaks of the misfit as a criminal whom she would never bring her grandchildren near which contradicts her final opinion. It is ironic that this "good man" ,as the grandmother calls him, ends up killing her family and her. The grandmother uses the term loosely as she also speaks of the owner of Red Sammy as a good man without knowing a thing about him. The title totally contradicts the actions of the story by imposing that the misfit is a good man when he is revealed to be criminal and killer.
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             The first instance of irony was portrayed through the grandmothers pet cat. The grandmother didn"t want to leave her pet cat behind although the family didn"t want the cat to come along and stay in the hotel with them . "She didn"t intend for the cat to be left along alone in the house for three days because she would miss her too much and she was afraid he might brush against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself (author385).


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