Grace, Evil, & Guilt: Analysis of Flannery O'Connor’s ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’. The short story ‘A Good man is Hard to Find’ is a skillfully written piece that subtly approaches the complexities of human nature and depicts how emotions can change quickly. As a student who has never read or even heard of an O’Connor story before she got to her English 1302 class, I can say my experience has been pleasant so far. Flannery O’Connor’s style of writing does not go unnoticed, in fact her writing has given her many opportunities in her lifetime. Mary Flannery O’Connor was born in 1925 in Savannah, Georgia. She moved a few times but eventually settled in Milledgeville, Georgia, when her father was diagnosed with lupus. When O’Connor was a young…show more content… Compared to the grandmother, he may even seem less evil to the consciousness in his actions. Although these two characters display their intentions differently, they both can be considered evil in a sense. Whether it be knowingly or unknowingly, anyone can be considered evil. This makes the grandmother and the misfit both great candidates for the theme of evil. Like the past two themes mentioned, guilt is simply the icing on the cake. The story ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ highlights the fact that everyone is guilty of something. Whether it be lying, like the grandmother, or homicide, like The Misfit; every single person is guilty of something. Many people have their own interpretation of guilt. According to a journal from The University of Nebraska, guilt has several definitions, the most common one refers to factual culpability for a crime; this aspect of guilt versus innocence is determined through a system of laws in most cultures and is judged in courtrooms (Zahn-Waxler et al., 2001). al.
