Symbolism in A Good Man is Hard to Find and Araby Essay

Symbolism In the short story, â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find†, by Flannery OConnor, every object including the characters are symbols. The Grandmother for example is the one and only dynamic character, represents all of us who have had to feel grief or needed to ask for forgiveness. As Flannery OConnor has suggested, the story is a spiritual journey because of the Grandmothers quandaries. In the beginning of the story the Grandmother is obsessed with everything worldly and superficial. She cares only about how others perceive her, â€Å"Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the†¦show more content†¦He acts like a mirror. He lets whatever the Grandmother says bounce right off him. He never really agrees with her or disagrees, and in the end he is the one who kills her. His second to last line, â€Å"She would of been a good woman,† The Misfit said, â€Å"if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life,†(OConner 425). might be the way OConner felt about most of us alive, or how she felt that God must feel about us. The third, and final stage of the Grandmother is the moment of recovery. She finally sees The Misfit for who he really is, a person just like her. He is not someone who was made by his social class. He is a simple human being just like her. At this point she sees herself in relation to everyone else. S he finally realizes that her class does not make her. Society makes the class, and she just fits into it. She shows this by claiming that The Misfit could be one of her own beloved children. For the longest time in her life, she reasoned with the final judger, and her redemption all add up to the spiritual plight that we all must take in life. Everyone may not all be Christians, but the journey of spirituality applies to everyone. We all must travel it at some point. We all know it, and that makes this story common to us all. I think that â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find† is written partially in order to â€Å"convert† people who have not yet fully accepted the Christian faith. O’Conner, herself obviously being a strong believer in Christianity,Show MoreRelatedGrowing Up in Dublin in The Dubliners Essay3039 Words   |  13 Pagesthe last book is called The Dead. To answer this question I am going to use three of the short stories from Dubliners; An Encounter, Araby and Eveline. I have chosen these three stories as they are near the start of the book and thus detail young peoples lives in Dublin, a feature of the book I can, as a teenager, identify with. ARABY This is the first of these stories and there are several elements within that hint at the dull lifestyle experienced by the youngRead More Analyses of Short Stories Essay examples4756 Words   |  20 Pagesthat Goodman Brown and his wife, Faith’s names symbolize that they are good, religious people and that Goodman is making up everyone being evil in his head. I found an essay by Alexa Carlson that described the symbolism in light vs. dark, forest vs. town, nature vs. human, and fantasy vs. reality. In her paper, Essay #1: Young Goodman Brown, she states that â€Å"†¦fantasy vs. reality are employed to reinforce the idea that good and evil have been set up as strict categories into which no one, notRead MoreHow to Read Lit Like a Prof Notes3608 Words   |  15 PagesYou: Acts of Communion a. Whenever people eat or drink together, it’s communion b. Not usually religious c. An act of sharing and peace d. A failed meal carries negative connotations 3. Nice to Eat You: Acts of Vampires a. Literal Vampirism: Nasty old man, attractive but evil, violates a young woman, leaves his mark, takes her innocence b. Sexual implications—a trait of 19th century literature to address sex indirectly c. Symbolic Vampirism: selfishness, exploitation, refusal to respect the autonomyRead MoreANALIZ TEXT INTERPRETATION AND ANALYSIS28843 Words   |  116 Pagesresolved is one within the protagonist’s psyche or personality. External conflict may reflect a basic opposition between man and nature (such as in Jack London’s famous short story â€Å"To Build a Fire† or Ernest Hemingway’s â€Å"The Old Man and the Sea†) or between man and society (as in Richard Wright’s â€Å"The Man Who Was Almost a Man†). It may also take the form of an opposition between man and man (between the protagonist and a human adversary, the antagonist), as, for example, in most detective fiction. Internal