Hard To Find Symbolism

"She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life (O’Connor 153)." This quote is just one of the many that shows how Flannery O’Connor can use dialogue to make you feel hatred, love or sympathy for the characters in her stories. O’Connor is a talented writer who is the author of a lot of short stories. This story in particular is A Good Man is Hard to Find. As seen in many Flannery O’Connor stories, they contain a lot of themes and literary elements. In this one story alone there were five themes and even more elements. The themes that were in this story are: good versus evil, religion, manipulation, family, society and class. Also, a few of the elements are foreshadowing,
Symbolism was found many times throughout the story. The first time I came around symbolism was when the family was talking about Toomsboro. Toomsboro sounds a lot like tomb so that symbolizes the eventual fate the family will soon meet. The next symbolism I found was when The Misfit’s car was going down the road towards the disoriented family. The car was described as “big black battered hearse-like automobile (145).” The reason that this is symbolism is because a hearse is what carries coffins to funerals. The Misfit’s car represents the intimate death that the family will soon meet. Lastly, the final symbolism is the cloudless, sunless sky. Most people would think that a day with no clouds would be a beautiful, happy day filled with fun; however, this family in the story thought that but it turned out to be their worst day. Usually when a murder takes place it happens at night when it is dark and no one is around. This murder happened on a beautiful day, but the main reason I brought up this is because when The Misfit shot the Grandmother, she feel back looking up towards the beautiful sky with a smile on her face. This symbol represents that the Grandmother found inner peace with herself.
All in all I thoroughly enjoyed this short story. Flannery O’Connor is spectacular at using foreshadowing, irony, and symbolism in all her stories and many more literary elements. These stuck out to me the most in the story because they represent such big moments that are happening and going to happen. The story taught me that no matter how hard one tries to reason with someone it will probably not turn out good. I believe that to be a strong moral and I never would have been able to realize it without the use of the literary elements in