Page 15 - Middle Georgia State University - Knighted 2019

The Transformed Archetype in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
Sarah Istambouli

Many people have preconceived notions of what constitutes good and evil. Nearly every
children’s story contains a villain and a hero or heroine that, more often than not, lives up to the
expectations of the eager onlooker to save the day. It is not hard to believe, then, that these
preconceived ideas may fill the forefront of the mind when venturing to explore a new story.
However, what happens when the appearances of good and evil take an unexpected turn and the
belief system is suddenly jolted and challenged? Flannery O’Connor achieves this effect in her
short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” where things are not always what they seem.

The intention and drive behind O’Connor’s unique writing style stems from strong
influences of Southern culture and her Catholic upbringing (Whitt 6). O’Connor’s “meaning of
life [was] centered . . . [around] Redemption by Christ,” which she did not feel was “particularly
easy to . . . [convey] in fiction” (O’Connor, Mystery 32). For this reason, O’Connor resorts to
tactics that jolt her readers. She states, “When you can assume that your audience holds the same
beliefs you do, you can relax a little . . . [but when they hold different beliefs] you have to make
your vision apparent by shock—to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you
draw large and startling figures” (O’Connor, Mystery 34). Thus, her stories frequently consist of
characters who find themselves in precarious and often violent situations that lead to
transformation, death, or, as in the case of the grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,”
sometimes both.

In this short story, O’Connor demonstrates the dualistic natures of the two main
characters. The grandmother, the protagonist, can easily be viewed as the inherently good
character, as it pertains to the archetypal model, yet, as the story will reveal, she will

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