A Good Man By Flannery O Connor - 1059 Words

Picture this: three children, two parents, a grandmother, and a cat walk into a barbecue joint. This sounds like the beginning of a hilarious joke; however, it is the start of a devastating family vacation. Written by Flannery O Connor in 1953, â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† portrays wrongful humor and violence through the use of symbolism and imagery. Looking closely at the story one can see the grandmother’s dress, the six gravestones, and the woods, just to name a few, all symbolize and foreshadow the families inevitable end. In the very beginning of the story, the family is getting ready for vacation when the grandmother reads a newspaper article about an escaped convict headed towards the same destination as them, Florida. She†¦show more content†¦Her underlying southern manners play a huge roll when the family stops for barbecue and when they run into The Misfit. Red Sam and The Misfit are alike in many ways. They both put on a front, trying to sh ow they are proper southern gentlemen. However, neither one came from a proper wealthy family. Based off of the grandmother’s beliefs, they would not be true gentlemen. While talking to Red Sammy, owner of Red Sammy’s Famous Barbecue, the grandmother tells him, he is a good man and that he should not trust anyone coming in his restaurant and casually brings up The Misfit once again. This is when Sammy says, â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find.† The grandmother brings up an interesting story about an old house with a secret panel. This excites the children and they beg to go see it. Bailey, the father, turns the car around to go in search of it. While on their way down the gravel road to see the house with the secret panel, the family passes six gravestones. Each gravestone is marked for one of the six members riding in the vehicle, overall this represents the family is close to their untimely death. Some people could even argue that the house with the secr et panel represents The Misfit himself. He stops when the family wrecks the car and acts like a southern gentleman on the exterior, but on the inside he is a ruthless killer. In other words, underneath his â€Å"secret panel† or Southern generosity lies a vicious monster. As they wind and twist down the road