Flannery O'Connor, author of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" says, "There is something .
in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands .
that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored," (Fitzgerald 48). In her Short sstory .
"A Good Man is Hard to Find", O'Connor uses an array of literary techniques to portray an array .
of meanings. Howeve, it is through O'Connor's use of anagoge in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" .
where her religious message can be seen. That is to say, though human beings are flawed; they .
are sinners, but there is always an opportunity for redemption.
To understand O'Connor's anagogical level, which is a level of a Divine life or spiritual.
life in which one participates in, it helps to know a bit of her background (Fitzgerald 111). .
O'Connor is a Catholic writer from the South. She says about her beliefs, "I see from the .
standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. This means that for me the meaning of life is centered in our.
Redemption by Christ and what I see in the world I see in its relation to that," (Barnet et al. 297).
This is incorporated in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" where the seven characters (the Misfit,.
Grandmother, Bailey, John Wesley, June Star, the wife, and the baby) have their chance at .
redemption.
In the beginning of the story the author shows the family's feelins toward the.
grandmother's actions when she tries to convince them not to go to Florida. Bailey, her only son,.
does not look up from his readin when the grand mother shows him an article about the .
infamous Misfit, in which Bailey is showing a lack of respect for his mother. When she turns to.
the wife to say something "the children's mother didn't seem to hear her." Again, the.
grandmother is being ignored. However, the chldren do hear her. John Wesley, an eight-year-.
old boy, mouths off, Ifyou don't want to go to Florida why dontcha stay at home?" The boy .
