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O'Connor, Flannery.: a Good Man Is Hard to Find"

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O'Connor, Flannery.: a Good Man Is Hard to Find"
According to Shakespere, "All the world 's a stage, And all the men and women merely players". Some people, in their daily lives, do more intentional acting, or decieveing, than others. The terms "Friday Muslim" or "Sunday Christian" have been coined to describe people who appear to be devout to their religion when they attend their weekly religious gathering, but otherwise do not display any moral connections to it. These people put more importance on appearing as a good and richous person rather than actually thinkning, speaking, and acting according to the religious documents they claim to follow. Living this sort of life proved to be fatal for the Grandmother in Flannery O 'Connor 's A Good Man Is Hard to Find. The Grandmother 's religious hypocracy caused her to corrupt the thoughts of her grandchildren, manipulate events onto a negative path, and ultimately cause the death of her and her family. Studies done by the National Child Study indicate that children 's views are larely shaped by "caregiver/child interactions throught childhood"("Measuring"). John Wesley and June Star 's mother and father seem to be very passive and quiet with thier views. In comparison, the Grandmother is outspoken, opinionated, and presents herself as a religiously knowledgable, and there for trustworthy, person. The children seem to have picked up on her racist views as their normally argumentitive resopnses are absent when she makes condesending comments about an ovbiously poor "Negro child standing in the door of a shack"(O 'connor) they pass on their trip. The impression of the grandmother 's views into the children is also aparent when, rather than being appalled at her racist story about a suitor bringing her watermelon, "this story tickled John Wesley 's funny bone and he giggled and giggled"(O 'connor). Also, June Star shows signs of the same materialistic shelfishness of the Grandmother when she states that she "wouldn 't marry a man that just brought her a watermelon


Cited: "Measuring Racial/Ethnic Discrimination and Racism From a Developmental Perspective Workshop ." The National Children 's Study 24 June 2004 12 Oct 2008 <http://www.nationalchildrensstudy.gov/research/workshops/Pages/measuring-racism062004.aspx>. O 'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." 12 Oct 2008 <http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/goodman.html>.
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