English

Meghna Patel
Professor Ricketts
ENG-111-10
7th Feb 2013
Compare and Contrast of “A good man is hard to find” and “Everything that rises must converge”
The small conflicts are usually resolved without awful result, but sometimes they are not. A good example of that would be the two stories written by Flannery O 'Connor: "A good man is hard to find" and "Everything that rises must converge". The two short stories have different plots at first glance; however they do have many similar traits. With close observation one could say that, the characters in the stories that failed to get a feel for to their environment and the outside world have at the end of the day caused the death of their loved ones.
Flannery O’Connor’s stories often feature characters that are similar in many aspects, facing different situations. The Grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Julian’s Mother in “Everything that Rises Must Converge” are similar in a number of ways. Both the women remain nameless in the stories; the grandmother is referred to throughout as “grandmother” or “the old lady”. Both the characters are old females belonging to an earlier generation of the American South. Both are depicted as belonging to families that were once prominent in the South but are now living in reduced circumstances. The grandmother recalls the plantation houses of her youth and Julian’s mother recalls the palatial mansions of her ancestors. The grandmother and Julian’s mother are both living in the past; their social attitudes have not caught up with the changing times. Both the grandmother and Julian’s mother’s attitude toward African-Americans is a mixture of condescendence and opposition. The grandmother, seeing an African-American child refers to him as a “cute little pickaninny”. Julian’s mother too refers to a four year old African-American boy as “cute” and tries to give him a penny in what she seems to regard as an obligation of her superior lineage and race. The overtly hostile side of the grandmother’s racism comes to fore when she tells a funny story about a “nigger boy” stealing her watermelon. Julian’s mother too is hostile toward African-Americans in general, she expresses the view that African-Americans were better off enslaved, expresses relief when she finds no African-Americans on the bus when she gets on and glares at her son in anger when he sits beside an African-American man. The grandmother dies with her legs crossed in a childlike manner and her face “smiling up at the cloudless sky”. Julian’s mother too reverts to her childhood, calling for her African-American nanny.
Sometimes two characters in a story are depicted as being polar opposites in some aspects and the story becomes a complete effect in depicting the interactions of characters entirely opposite to one another. The grandmother and The Misfit from “A Good Man is Hard to Find” are examples of such completely opposite characters. Some of the differences between the grandmother and The Misfit are the obvious differences of sex, age and class. The grandmother is well dressed while The Misfit is not wearing a shirt. The grandmother is used to controlling people by clever manipulation and trick; She has her own way in the issue of leaving her cat behind against the direction of her son by hiding the cat in her valise. The Misfit on the other hand does not require any detail in having in own way. He uses violence and animal force to make everyone do what he wishes them to do. The Misfit and the grandmother are both also different in the way they react at the chance to receive God’s grace and make exchange. Through recognizing The Misfit as her own son, the grandmother embraces God’s grace, dropping her proper pretentions and recognizing her connection to all individual of God while The Misfit spurns God’s grace and kills her.
Flannery O’Connor’s stories are based upon the theme of God’s grace and the redemption of sinners. However the arrival of grace is presented in a manner quite unlike any of the more traditional Christian tales.

Work Cited
O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” O’Connor, Flannery. Collected Works – Flannery O’Connor. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1988. 137-154.
O’Connor, Flannery. “Everything that Rises Must Converge.” O’Connor, Flannery. Collected works – Flannery O’Connor. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 1988.

Cited: O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” O’Connor, Flannery. Collected Works – Flannery O’Connor. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1988. 137-154. O’Connor, Flannery. “Everything that Rises Must Converge.” O’Connor, Flannery. Collected works – Flannery O’Connor. Ann Arbor, MI: The University of Michigan Press, 1988.