analysis on A Good Man Hard to Find

One of the finest American modernist writers, Flannery O'Connor was probably the best known author of Southern Gothic stories. Her works fit the scheme of the Southern Gothic literature, which, unlike the Romantic Gothic literature that utilizes the supernatural, focuses on the sublime and grotesque found in reality. In her stories, the sublime is represented by the spiritual side of life, while the grotesque is symbolized by technique, material progress and disintegration of values; however, in O'Connor's three stories - "A Good Man is Hard to Find", "A View of the Woods" and "Revelation" - those two aspects are mixed with each other.

The protagonists of "A Good Man is Hard to Find" are a family - a grandmother, parents and children. However, they are not described realistically: their shapes and behaviours are somewhat distorted, causing the effect of almost cartoon-like quality; they are more types than characters. Their descriptions, especially the description of a mother, are s...