The Ambiguity Of Flannery O Connor s Short Stories

The ambiguity of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories somewhat adds to the mystery of her characters and sometimes it can take away from them because as readers it is hard to feel any attachment to these rather ominous characters. It gives the chance for the reader to use their imagination but at the same time manages to anger some that prefer the endings to be set in stone. For example in â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† the story is tied up in a neat little bow, but it still manages to leave the reader asking questions. In this essay I will explore the language and symbolism the author used in order to try and clarify the questions left at the end of this story. â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† is a story about a family, the feature character is an old women, the grandmother, just like many of O’Connor’s stories. The family is going on a road trip to Florida and the grandmother attempts to divert the trip to Tennessee instead of the origina l destination. She warns her son Bailey of an escaped convict, The Misfit, telling him, â€Å"The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida† (1). The road trip gets diverted with the grandmother requesting they go see a house from her memory. Unbeknownst to the other travelers the grandmother had hidden her cat in the backseat of the car. The cat jumps out and causes a car wreck, which leads the family into a run-in with The Misfit and his crew. The grandmother recognizes The Misfit, eventually leading to the murder of herShow MoreRelatedAmbiguity in OConnor1203 Words   |  5 PagesAmbiguity in ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find In most short stories ambiguity is used to some extent. The level of ambiguity in each story varies, however the importance and value of that vagueness does not. Ambiguity often leads to elevating the thought put into reading the text, as well as numerous interpretations. In Flannery O Connor s short story, ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find , the ambiguous theme causes both deeper thought and different opinions about the text. Through the charactersRead MoreThe Grotesque Pursue Of Goodness2189 Words   |  9 Pages290 5 May 2016 The Grotesque Pursue of Goodness in A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor â€Å"The great advantage of being a Southern writer is that we don’t have to go anywhere to look for manners; bad or good, we’ve got them in abundance. We in the South live in a society that is rich in contradiction, rich in irony, rich in contrast, and particularly rich in its speech† (Flannery O’Connor). Mary Flannery O’Connor was born in 1925 in a Catholic family in the south of the United States,