Literary Analysis of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"

Metaphors, foreshadowing, allusions and graphic description are all key roles in the understanding, and over all comprehension of the written word. We are faced to paint our own pictures and conjure a conclusion from many stories that have been written. The same applies to the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor.

"A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a metaphor in itself. It depicts a family that is wrapped up in the materialistic world and the journey that are about to embark on is a journey of life that will bring them closer to God. The reason for saying this is that the in the beginning of the story the Grandmother is so into what she wants. She goes on to say “The children have been to Florida before,” the old lady said. You all ought to take them somewhere else for a change so they would see different parts of the world and be broad. They never have been to east Tennessee”(pg. 455). She wanted to go somewhere that would benefit her. The grandmother wanted for the family to go and see their roots. But no one listened to her because they were selfish just as the grandmother was. You can see how this journey may be like the road life as they drove up and down the road with the hills being heaven and the lows being hell. The road to hell is long, gnarled and twisted; could Bailey's family be on the road to hell? “The grandmother recalled the times when there were no paved roads and thirty miles was a day's journey. “The dirt road was hilly and there were sudden washes in it and sharp curves on dangerous embankments. All at once they would be on a hill, looking down over the blue tops of trees for miles around, then the next minute, they would be in a red depression with the dust-coated trees looking down on them”(pg. 460) further illustrates that this story directly represents one of the roads of life. Throughout the story we learned that they are all sinners. The daughter June Starr showed how she was selfish and mean when she told Red...