The Violence and the Grace

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The Violence and the Grace

The main theme in the book A Good Man Is Hard to Find is salvation through faith. t d!ells on ho! the righteous can gain redemption by "ust accepting #hrist and placing faith in him no matter the gravity of their !rongdoing. $hen the old !oman touches The %isfit& referring to him as one of his o!n children' she is cleansed off her sins !hich included racism' telling lies and even egocentricity. t is her selflessness !hich really depicts ho! contrite she !as about her !rongdoing and totally accepts #hrist as her Savior. t is therefore this act !hich (ualifies her as a )good man* !ho is hard to find hence this story. n all the three literary pieces' the main theme is also seen to be deep faith and understated perspicacity. n %adison +ones*s A Good Mans Predicament' he points out that every character depicted in ,*#onnor*s !ork is fla!ed in some !ay. The children for e-ample are rude and even insult their grandmother. Her grandmother is also selfish and uses the children to her personal gains. The characteri.ation of the children therefore as a mark of innocence therefore fails as they prove to be very abusive to their grandmother. The %isfit is also a fla!ed character because he depicts so many contrasting attributes in "ust one person that !ere very conflicting such as a heartless murderer and even gospel singer according to grandmother. n A Good Man Is Hard to Find, ,*#onnor seeks to s!ay those that have not fully converted to the #hristian faith because her being a staunch #hristian' she believed that everyone ought to seriously take up redemption in #hrist in their lives. She establishes that #hrist !as no longer the priority of many people in this generation and this !as ,* #onnor*s main concern. She !as very concerned !ith people*s values and the !ay the youths especially gre! in their faith. The %isfit on the other hand re"ects #hrist and the old !oman casts doubt over the

The Violence and the Grace

validity of his raison dtre which is to kill for pleasure. That sthe reason as to !hy she concludes that there is no real pleasure in life. The misfit shot her and her family despite her belief in Southern hospitality. Her confrontation !ith the %isfit is not helped much by the fact that she is a believer in God as nothing happens in her favor. n most of ,*#onnor*s !orks' the main characters finally find some sought of redemption in !hatsoever difficulty they face. She has used e-treme moral characteri.ations !hich sometimes come under criticism #hristians but in the end the message of salvation and triumph comes to out clearly. /n e-ample is %artha Stephens in The Question of Flanner O' onnor !here she thinks that ,*#onnor refuses to capture any good or beauty and dignity in human life on earth. She also strongly detests her vie! of humans as being ugly in all manners and the human form being distinctly unpleasant. She sees that ,*#onnor only sees !orth of respect in renouncing any kind of pleasure' achievement and !orldly involvement. %artha Stephen thinks that most of ,*#onnor*s !ork is rather dreadful and although she has a sense of humor sometimes. She claimed that the South gave her images for her characters and most of them !ere identified !ith their physical appearances as !ell as race. This does not auger !ell !ith her critics !ho thought that she !as being too "udgmental on the !ay she portrays her characters in her !ork. Sometimes the main characters !ere even pre"udiced !ith racial "argon !hich gave a tinge of dislike for the author for a particular race of people. n as much as the author*s Southern upbringing largely influenced her thoughts on people' since she !as primarily !riting about #hristian values' %artha Stephen thinks she should have avoided such pre"udice as much as possible. n the South there !as a more frustrated middle class than any!here in the country !hich !ell depicts in ,* #onnor*s !ork.

The Violence and the Grace

t can therefore be concluded that the key sub"ect in ,*#onnor*s !ork is grace but one should be careful to look through the eyes of the author to reali.e this. n A !ood man is hard to find there is a character that changes from self&centered' an-ious and old to someone that is graceful or even accepting anytime there is a crisis. The grandmother is an arrogant !oman !ho is ot afraid to make kno!n !hat her demands are to anyone. n this case she did not !ant to move to 0lorida but !ould rather go and hook up !ith old friends in Tennessee. She mainly uses the prete-t that the children should see many other places as they had been to 0lorida already in the past. Therefore !e are able to !itness conflicts in ,*#onnor*s !ork !hich then later resolves into redemption or change of heart of several characters. t can be looked at violence that leads to redemption in the end. 1edemption is of a moral nature even though in some cases there is a religious affiliation in some of the cases. Violence in the !ork of as %adison +ones describes is used to reflect on the inner self of the characters in the book. The literature in many of ,*#onnor*s !ork is seen as unbelievably violent and harsh. There is also a sense of horrific in"uries as !ell as complete emotional ruin or breakdo!n of many characters before they are redeemed to ne! beings. This gives them emotional lessons !hich they use in their lives to change and be better people in future /lthough grandmother !ould like to think as respectable and honest but in the real sense' she is a very malicious !oman !hereas the misfit comes out as someone that is respectful and polite. This is a very ironical stance in ,* #onnor !ork given the eventuality of the plot in the book. The misfit also looks beyond superficiality in that he is honest to himself and !hat his abilities are although others are rather "udgmental about others. %aybe another use of irony in the book by ,*#onnor to help create a foil and make contrasting more vivid is that of 2ailey*s

The Violence and the Grace

children !ho come from the middle class and are !ell cared for but in return they are very obstinate and spoilt. n the final scene of A !ood man is hard to find' !hat happens bet!een the grandmother and the %isfit is one of the highlights of ,*#onnor*s literally !ork. t provides a literal !icked truth in that the grandmother is !rapped in a hypocritical and selfish !oman that is condescending and lives in a selfish !orld. The !orld then completely changes for her before she is shot' she is completely shattered. She is completely transformed the moment she utters' 34ou are one of my babies5. This !as her point of redemption and it is at this point that she receives the grace to see clearly !hat the !orld around her looked and meant to her. Her head cleared and even though disillusioned she !as able to have deeper thoughts than she did before and she is able to see the misfit as !ho he really !as before she died. She touched him on the shoulder and the %isfit sprang and shot her three times in the chest. /s long as the %isfit !as alive' no one really cared for him and therefore grandmother easily strikes a chord !ith him and sho!s him ho! he can be saved. /lthough these three critics of ,*#onnor portray her as a one !ith barren and cruel literary author' they do give her some credit for the !ay she brings out the process of redemption even though she goes to e-tremes in trying to make some characters appear bad and inhumane. Her reality is full of so much symbolism and beneath the intricate narrative of cruelty and inhumane description of characters lies dogma and real personal belief. Her !riting is very intrinsically esoteric and it only manifests itself to those !ho have been !ell message 6oriented to it. ,ne has to be careful on ho! they e-tract meaning from her literary !ork. /ll the three critics also agree that she has a brilliant style of !riting !hich has crass didacticism. Her !orks cuts across religious grounds as !ell as pass for creative literary !ork in the manner she achieves

The Violence and the Grace

in describes scenes so vividly in her book. She is therefore able to achieve these t!o fetes easily !hich makes her stand out as she is able to do "ustice to both of these t!o things intended to pass on to the reader. / compelling argument in ,* #onnor*s !ork is that of reali.ing that her literary !ork can be interpreted by differently by different analysts. This is because different people !ith different e-periences !ould tend to bias their vie!s according to !hat they kno! and think about her !ork. She therefore leaves it to the readers to solve the pu..le in literary !ork and sub"ect it to any interpretation they deem fit. She does no do much to investigate !hat the interpretation of her !ork !ould be like but delves into giving more and more e-amples. She uses non&didactic #hristian fiction and fuses it !ith elements of faith and several thematic ingredients in her !riting !hich really in the end achieves the aspect of violence and grace in her books. /s a #atholic many critics thought that some of her !ork goes to far in in as far as being "udgmental is concerned. 1acism also clearly manifests itself although in the end she can be forgiven because it is based ob her upbringing !hich surrounded practices of this vice. Therefore the single most important controlling idea in all the three is the use of violence as a means of making redemption more dramatic and clearer to the reader. ,*#onnor highly achieved this aim in her style of !riting as has been illustrated. She is able to fuse many elements of being violent in order to portray characters as being evil so that in the end !hen they finally )receive the light*' it !ould appear to be more dramatic and therefore make the message more and more alluring to the readers.

The Violence and the Grace