It's time to read some more literature. As I consider what to assign you to read, I try to think about which stories appeal to me and then sift through to find the ones that I think might appeal to you. O'Connor is one of my top 10 favorite authors, and top 2 American authors. I'm not going to tell you, at this point, why I like her so as not to influence your opinion of her, her stories, and her writing abilities. What follows are some links--one is a critical essay that outlines some of the elements common to O'Connor's fiction. The other is a short story.
For your reading log, I'd like for you to write a 150-200 word, well-developed paragraph in which you either agree with the critic and the issues he raises in his essay or disagree with him. Use "A Good Man is Hard to Find" as support for your paragraph.
http://www.cyberpat.com/essays/flan.html Critical Essay
http://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/goodman.html "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
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6 comments:
Michelle Pierce
M-W 9 ENC1102
C. McGuire
I disagree with the critique done by Patrick Galloway in 1996. The author Flannery O'Connor was however before her time in my opinion. The critique was over dramatic. This type of situation in the essay “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” although in the ends breaks one of the Ten Commandments is typical in today’s society. One should not kill, but it happens. The Grandmother in the story was correct, there was a killer on the loose and her family should had listened to her and gone to Tennessee instead of Florida. Flannery O’Connor does not give details as to where everyone is shot and how bloody it was. She leaves it up to ones imagination. Most people, who can, pray before they are going to die. I was surprised to find that Patrick Galloway wrote this in 1996. His critique seemed somewhat declared as an old fashioned point of view. I did have a problem with the use of the n word. The n word is not necessary in any situation.
I agree with Patrick galloways critique,however, I did enjoy the essay "A Good Man Is hard to Find". Many of the characters are very self centered and disrespectful, such as the grandmother and the children, even the father seems pretty much only self concerned. At the end I see what Galloway is talking about whenthe grandmother is about to die and that is coincidently the only time when she seems less self absorbed and good natured. It appears that O'Conner wants the reader to see that if the family was not so self involved then they would not have been in that predicament and would not have been killed. I liked how there was foreshadowing and that O'Conner gives the reader hints about the end throughout the story. She also leaves alot of the details up to the imagination mainly when the misfit and his cronies kill the family. O'Conner in my opinion pieces everything together very well and creates the characters to go along with the point she is trying to make in the story.
I also agree with the critique done by Patrick Galloway. I did not care for the story by Flannery O'Connor. I kind of expected the family to run into the "Misfit" on that road or in the house that they were going to visit. I thought that the family was very rude to each other. The children had no respect for their grandmother. The father was very rude to his mother and the daughter in law seemed very quiet. It bothered me that the “misfit” decided to kill the family. I was hoping that the grandmother would somehow get him to realize he was wrong and that he would just leave them there. The grandmother kept stressing how she didn’t want to go to Florida, like the child said, she should have stayed home, then she would have been safe and the family would have also because they would have never of went down that road if it hadn’t been for the grandmother telling the story of the house with the secret rooms and the children getting all excited and basically making their father take them there. It’s ironic that after going down the road, the grandmother realized the house was in Tennessee.
I did not agree with Mr Galloway's critique at all. I enjoyed this story. I found the critique a bit like listening to a whining child. I found the family in this story very cold and unattached in this story "A Good Man is Hard To Find".
They lived under the same roof and shared meals, but lacked the compassion and love you normally feel toward your family. They simply were strangers sharing a home. Only when they are in trouble and realize that They are going to die by the hand of the Misfit and his cronies do they show any love for one another at all. The Misfit represents to me all the family members combined. The grandmother really got to the misfit and that is why he shot her. Even while she was praying, it still semmed selfish to me. She still was only thinking of herself. In the end, the haughty attitude of the family is what killed them. They thought they were untouchable and found out they were not!
I disagree with the critique done by Patrick Galloway in 1996. The critique was way over dramatic, and rude. The situation of killing and also family's not being families, but being strangers under the same roof in the essay “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
Was horrible but is found everywhere in today's society. At the end I see what Galloway is talking about when the grandmother is about to die, this is where she is selfless and concerned. Flannery O’Connor really leaves the very small and graphic details to the reader and I like that. I don’t want to read something that is full of intense blood and guts. I do have a Problem with the n word. my problems is how our society has grown to learn the wrong meaning of words such as this word. I liked the story but it is also something I would never have picked out on my own to read.
I do not agree with Patrick Galloway's critique. I have to agree with the others, his critique was very dramatic, rude, and also reminded me of a whining child. Although, the family from the story " A Good Man Is Hard To Find" is very self-centered. They do not show one bit of love, compassion, or caring towards one another.It seems to me they have a very cold life. The children seem like spoiled brats, who have no manners what so ever. The dad even seems rude and self-centered as well. I was not surprised that the family ended up running into the "Misfit." To me it seems as if they walked into that one themselves. Each one of them knew the "Misfit" was somewhere close to Florida, but the dad was hell-bent on going anyway. The grandmother was so caught up in her own self, as well as her longing to go to Tennessee, even until the very last moment of the story. The men took her family into the woods, she heard gun shots, but never really cried out or anything. She was too busy pleading for her own life. I did enjoy the story, after reading this story, I felt depressed and even a little angry. I had to remind myself, it is just a story.
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