Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" is a tragi-comedy. Discuss.

There are certainly elements of O'Connor's story that are comedic.  For example, the grandchildren are so exceedingly awful to their grandmother that their behavior is somewhat funny in how terrible it is: they have smart mouths and are unbelievably rude to her and to Red Sammy's wife when the family stops to eat.  The grandmother, herself, is sort of a strangely comedic figure as well in her complete lack of self-awareness.  She goes on and on about the old days and how much better things used to be then, but she is, simultaneously, completely unaware of her own racism.  It's not laugh out loud funny; it's more like shaking-your-head-because-its-difficult-to-believe funny.  The irony, too, of her insistence that Red Sammy is a "good man," although he is physically gross and despite the fact that he demeans and degrades his wife is also shake-your-head comedic. 


 Further, even though we really aren't supposed to like the grandmother or her son's terrible family, being shot in the woods is a death most of us wouldn't wish on people even as irritating as they.  Their deaths, therefore, are also tragic, especially because they are the result of the grandmother's big mouth (when she identifies the Misfit).

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