Good vs Evil and Finding Grace in Spontaneous Situation Kaylee Mansell College

In her short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor narrates the journey of a complex family and the encounters they face while traveling. While there are many aspects of the story that make it notorious in literature, one concept that stands out among the rest is the many symbolic elements within the characters which help contribute to the overall theme. As a result of O’Connor’s writing style, each character serves a purpose to represent a larger thematic element which displays structure and composition within the story. Therefore, each character and scene serves a specific purpose that allow for a deeper underlying mean than the title conveys. Flannery O'Connor's “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” elaborates on the battle between good and evil in order to display the struggle of finding grace in spontaneous situations.

To begin with, a character that can not go unrecognized due to her manipulativeness and high maintenance persona is the central character of the plot, the unnamed grandmother. Serving as the protagonist, the grandmother is a dynamic character that largely contributes to the internal battle between distinguishing the line between good and evil. From the first pages of the novel, it is evidential the...