Good Man Is Hard To Find Essays - A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Good Man Is Hard To Find Essays - A Good Man Is Hard To Find Good Man Is Hard To Find Flannery OConnor A Good Man Is Hard To Find A Southern American novelist and short story writer, Miss O Connors career spanned the 1950s and early 60s, a time when the South was dominated by Protestant Christians. OConnor was born and raised Catholic. She was a fundamentalist and a Christian moralist whose powerful apocalyptic fiction is focused in the South. Flannery OConnor was born March 25, 1925, in Savannah, Georgia. O Connor grew up on a farm with her parents Regina and Edward O Connor. At the age of five, she taught a chicken to walk backwards. OConnor attended Georgia State College for women, now Georgia College, in Milledgeville, majoring in sociology. She had showed a gift for satirical writing, as well as cartooning since she was a child. By the end of her undergraduate education, OConnor knew that writing was her true passion. She spent two years at the prestigious School for Writers at the State University of Iowa on scholarship, receiving a masters degree of fine arts in 1947 (Candee 318). In 1950, she had a near fatal attack of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a chronic inflammatory connective tissue disorder. that causes periods of joint pain and fatigue, and can attack the hearts, lungs, and kidneys. Her father died of the disease when she was fifteen (Blythe 49). OConnor would have to walk with crutches for the rest of her life. By her death at the age of 39, Flannery OConnor won a prominent place in modern American literature. She was an anomaly among post-World War II writers, a Roman Catholic from the BibleBelt South, whose stated purpose was to reveal the mystery of Gods grace in everyday life. Aware that few readers shared her faith, OConnor chose to depict salvation through shocking, often violent action upon characters who were spiritually or physically grotesque (Ryiley 334). Flannery OConnors significance as a writer is her original use of religion. Like no other short story writer, she dramatizes religious themes in her fiction stories. She is established as one of the most gifted and original fiction writers of the 20th century. Everything That Rise must converge, and Revelation won first prize in the O. Henry awards for short stories. The Life You Save May Be Your Own and A Circle in the Fire won second prize in the O. Henry awards. The Complete Stories of Flannery OConnor won the National Book Award in 1971 (Bloom 145-146). O Connors work is inspired by the sense of the mystery of human nature. She tends to use good vs. evil and death to shock and startle her readers into an awareness of the theological truth of faith, the fall, the redemption, and the judgment (Riley 367). Some critics describe her writing as harsh and negative while people in the religious community wanted a happier communication of the faith. OConnor described her characters as poor afflicted in both mind and body, with little or at best a distorted sense of spiritual purpose(Harris & Fitzerald 336). OConnor claims she understood the universe created by God as good and evil. In a letter to a friend, she complained about a review that called her short story collection, A Good Man is hard To Find, brutal and sarcastic. The stories are hard, she wrote. But they are hard because there is nothing harder or less sentimental than Christian realism(qtd. In Harris & Fitzerald 336). OConnor likes to focus on the rough, often ugly memories of t he place she knew best, the rural South. She saw her world as sacrament, brushed with grace, twisted, beaten, but still straining toward her belief in God. The settings of her stories and novels are either Georgia or Tennessee, often backwoods or rural areas. She gives her characters a southern accent because this is the area she knows best. O Connor uses common symbols, such as sunsets that resemble blood drenched Eucharistic host, preening peacocks that represent Christs transfiguration, and the trees themselves writhe in spiritual agony (Bloom 49). Some critics say that she is trying to convert her readers, whom she assumes are non-believers. The story A Good Man is Hard To Find begins with a family planing to

5 Life Lessons You Can Learn from Martin Luther King, Jr.

5 Life Lessons You Can Learn from Martin Luther King, Jr. There is so much we can all learn from Martin Luther King, Jr, and not just on the day off we get once a year to commemorate his life! But it might not have occurred to you to adapt some of his deep wisdom to your own life and career. Here are 5 powerful lessons from Dr. King that could help you live better, do better, and go further.1. Ask why.And more importantly, ask â€Å"why not?† If someone tells you something is impossible, ask this very important question to figure out why they are so convinced, and whether you might be able to offer a solution no one else had seen. When looking for answers to some of the biggest questions of a generation, Dr. King turned to other sources for inspiration. This  teaches us the answers to our problems will often come from unexpected corners, and how important it is to learn from other people and other cultures as much as we can.2. You can’t change change.Change is constant. Dr. King was initially hesitant to join in the 1963 Mar ch on Washington, but he adapted to the evolving movement and ended up leading one of the most moving and effective platforms for social change. Be adaptable. Realize that change is inevitable. All you can control is what you do in the face of it.3. Find where you can give, not just receive.Dr. King once said, â€Å"Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’† In stressful times, it becomes very difficult to focus on anyone but ourselves. But this is a moral requirement, and increasingly more so in our interconnected, fast-paced world. When you’re in a rut, focus on helping people- you’ll be surprised at what a difference that can make.4. Tune out the critics.As long as you’ve chosen a path that’s good and a cause that you are passionate about, and as long as you’re pursuing both with integrity, honesty, and concern for others, then you’ll need to tune out the haters now and then . People will always be critical. Rejection will always happen, particularly in the course of a career. But if you know you’re doing the right thing, you should keep doing it.5. Leave a legacy.Think about what sort of mark you want to leave on the world. Is the work you’re doing going to make a difference to the next generation? Even if you can’t make an impact on the same scale as Dr. King, you can figure out ways to leave your workplace, industry, etc., a little better off for your having been there.