Analysis of "a Good Man Is Hard to Find"

Erica Lynch

October 24, 2005

English 113(03)

Research Project #1

“A Good Man Is Hard To Find”

Flannery O’Connor

Jackson Jeen Alves. “Good Man”. Racism Examples. Retrieved 20 October 2005.

Summary

In this short story “A Good Man Is A Hard to Find” there is a lot of racism going on in it. The grandmother is racist because she is a Southern white old woman who does not like as she called them “Negros.” The grandmother is very much stuck in the old days and will not look at what is going on in life and how it has changed since she was growing up. The grandmother does not like any black people no matter what, whether they have done anything wrong to her or not. She does not want her children and grandchildren having anything to do with them either.

This old woman was so racist that even when she rode by black people she even started talking bad about them and not knowing anything about these people. She wants to raise her grandchildren to be the same way because she does not believe in equal treatment at all. She thinks that black people should not be treated as equal as well as white Americans in life. In today’s world, many people would call her a “red neck” because that is what most people refer to people such as her.

Analysis

In this story you find that O’Conner is a very racist person and is does not have pretty much any realism towards life and the changes that go on as time goes by. There were many changes that went on during the time this story was written but she was as you call it “stuck in the old days.”

The grandmother is a racist and cold-hearted person. She is one that does not care whether she hurts anyone’s feelings or not. The grandmother’s attitude towards other races is very noticeable in the story. She thinks just like that of white Southerners that was back in the “old days” when there was segregation and all going on in the United States. During the time, the story was taken place there were many changes going on in society as a whole. During this change, black Americans were no longer slaves to the white people and no longer were owned by the whites. In addition, they were beginning to fight for equal rights because they were just as much of an American as the whites were during this time.

There are several racist remarks and comments made in the story that reflected that the grandmother was racist. First on the way to their trip to Florida, they drive by a little black child playing outside of his parents shack. She looks out the window and states: “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!”In addition, “wouldn’t that make a picture, now?” The word pickaninny was very much used back in slavery, which was another term for slaves in a numbers as if they were little animals running around doing things. The grandmother is well aware that slavery is no longer going on but she does not care because she still uses the words for black Americans from slavery time.

The most terrible and interrupting thing about the phrase she said is because pickaninny spelled like that as she refers to is something that is little or no value so in other words she is referring to the child as little or no value. The grandmother would rather to refer to the black children this way instead of thinking of them being just as equal as she is. She thinks that black Americans should not have as many rights as the white Americans like herself. She does not think that black Americans should receive just as much respect as the white southern Americans like herself. She does not care about any other race and she is actually excited that these black Americans that she see as they are on their way to Florida is very poor because it is like she says they have what they deserve and more.

The grandmother is very happy that the child is very poor