Amateur analysis The Drastic Changes of Character Grandmother in Flannery O’Conner’s Short Story A Good Man Is Hard To Find

TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1  Background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  1

1.2  Statements of problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

1.3  Scope of the problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .1

CHAPTER II THE ANALYSIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2-4

2.1  The description of grandmother’s drastic change of opinion about the misfit . . . . . . . . 2-3

2.2  Grandmother’s definition of a good man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  . . . . . . . . . .4

CLOSING

  

CHAPTER I

1.1 BACKGROUND

As we live the one and only life we have we will encounter various things in life that we have never expected before but everything keep come and left even without any seeking for permission until we finally reach the ultimate point where we may start to giving the judge over something in particular whether a place, a phenomenon, or a someone we have shared the experience in life with or might be shared a single conversation with.

Based on the elaboration above, the researcher is interested in analyzing the judge gave by the character grandmother over other characters in the short story A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O’Connor. How the author’s perception of a good man is successfully portrayed on grandmother’s act of labeling and comparing one character and other character and eventually decided to call them a good man or not.

1.2 STATEMENTS OF THE PROBLEM

Based on the research background above, the researcher formulates the two problems as follows

1.      How does the author describe grandmother’s drastic changes of opinion about the misfit in the short story

2.      How is the grandmother’s definition of a good man

1.3 THE SCOPE OF PROBLEM

The problem that being discussed in the Flannery O’Conner’s A Good Man Is Hard To Find is focusing on Grandmother’s Drastic Change Of Opinion About The Misfit. How one opinion may drastically changing and become completely different from what it was before caused by the series of event gone through by the grandmother.

  

CHAPTER II

2.1 GRANDMOTHER’S DRASTIC CHANGES OF OPINION ABOUT THE MISFIT

As in the beginning, the grandmother insist to not going to Florida and trying so hard to change the decision of his son, Bailey, to cancel the their destination because she is incredibly terrifying by the danger they might have encounter of aloose criminal she has been reading on the newspaper that very morning. Even if that effort seem to be useless and ended up become one sided conversation because the son is sit still with constant silent.

"Now look here, Bailey," she said, "see here, read this," and she stood with one hand on her thin hip and the other rattling the newspaper at his bald head. "Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn't answer to my conscience if I did."

But everything changes when the grandmother eventually meet the criminal, the misfit, after the unwanted accident they have with their car on the rough and dusty road. One accident that changes the story, that once and for all took the light out of the story, that shocked the readers in the very unpleasant way possible, the death of the family by the misfit.

The absurdity is on the moment before they all get murdered, when the grandmother did everything she could to talk with the misfit, to persuade the criminal to not to kill her because she is a woman and that the misfit is genuinely a good man so there will be some good left on his heart even if he keeps on denying it but the grandmother keeps on reassuring.

"You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you?" the grandmother said and removed a clean handkerchief from her cuff and began to slap at her eyes with it.

The Misfit pointed the toe of his shoe into the ground and made a little hole and then covered it up again. "I would hate to have to," he said.

"Listen," the grandmother almost screamed, "I know you're a good man. You don't look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people!"

"Yes mam," he said, "finest people in the world." When he smiled he showed a row of strong white teeth. "God never made a finer woman than my mother and my daddy's heart was pure gold," he said. The boy with the red sweat shirt had come around behind them and was standing with his gun at his hip. The Misfit squatted down on the ground. "Watch them children, Bobby Lee," he said. "You know they make me nervous." He looked at the six of them huddled together in front of him and he seemed to be embarrassed as if he couldn't think of anything to say. "Ain't a cloud in the sky," he remarked, looking up at it. "Don't see no sun but don't see no cloud neither."

"Yes, it's a beautiful day," said the grandmother. "Listen," she said, "you shouldn't call yourself The 

Misfit because I know you're a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell."

This is completely contrast with what she said in the beginning that the misfit is so cruel so that she did not even dare to go to Florida and keep the argumentation going before they leave the house for the journey. But then when she finally meets the criminal she tend to instantly change her mind about the criminal and about the meaning of a good man.

Weather this is her statement from the heart or whether this is just the surviving skill act as the quick respond to the particular situation which clearly leads to nowhere but the death as the absolute ending.

"Jesus!" the old lady cried. "You've got good blood! I know you wouldn't shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people! Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady. I'll give you all the money I've got!"

At the very last she finally talking about money she has to give to the criminal as if to change with her life so we can tell she is being nice just because she wanted to be safe.

  

2.2  GRANDMOTHER’S DEFINITION OF A GOOD MAN

The readers are invited to think again about the definition a good man that being thrown and questioned all over the places in this story. The grandmother continuously recommended some versions of definition that turns out to be different from the beginning and middle and the end of the story. Start with the nostalgia the grandmother did by comparing her naughty grandchildren with children of her time who were significantly better in terms of how to treat the older individuals with great respect and avoid the usage of rude words and consider to be extremely polite and perform the good attitude unlike her very own grandchildren who repeatedly shouted on her and talk back to every her words.

"If you don't want to go to Florida, why dontcha stay at home?" He and the little girl, June Star, were reading the funny papers on the floor”

Secondly about the Red Sammy, owner of The Tower Red Sammy barbecue, who is telling the story to grandmother about the strangers that fill the gasoline to their cars by themselves yesterday and how he felt so bad consider what he did. By surprise the grandmother call the red Sammy as good man because of that. Her definition of good seems to include easy being fooled and giving poor judgment and naive, less careful sort of actions consider how red Sammy is obviously been tricked by the strangers.

"Two fellers come in here last week," Red Sammy said, "driving a Chrysler. It was a old beat-up car but it was a good one and these boys looked all right to me. Said they worked at the mill and you know I let them fellers charge the gas they bought? Now why did I do that?"

”Because you're a good man!" the grandmother said at once”   

And then the last is about how grandmother call the misfit as good man even if her family is being murdered one by one with the gunshot in the deep forest.

"You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you?" the grandmother said and removed a clean handkerchief from her cuff and began to slap at her eyes with it.

"Yes, it's a beautiful day," said the grandmother. "Listen," she said, "you shouldn't call yourself The Misfit because I know you're a good man at heart. I can just look and tell.”

CLOSING

CONCLUSION

After conducting the analysis, the researcher has finally come to a conclusion that answer the questions like what has been mention above. The researcher found that it is the real impact of the crisis time between life and dead the grandmother had that caused her to finally decided to turn around the her opinion since the very start about how terrifying the misfit is, she did not even want to go and keep pursue her son to change the destination to keep away from the danger that they might face them just because she read the existence of the misfit to be around the place they are going to go to. But then suddenly out of nowhere she call him the misfit as good man in order to get herself alive during her family being murdered.

And the definition of good and good man proposed by grandmother turns out to be the usage of her expression to respond to any events happened to her. When she likes somebody she will call them good and if somebody hurt her feelings that she will call them bad and comparing with the good people back in her time she was young. Finally the good man term is being used when she is about to dead, she is intentionally call the misfit good so that the misfit can release her and let her alive and cancelled the misfit’s plan to murder her.

SUGGESTION

The interpretation of a piece of art is absolutely different between readers consider the differences on experiences and perspective on looking at something. The researcher is fully aware of the mistakes that might be found in this analysis, hopefully the readers may find this analysis useful as references for upcoming research with the sam