A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories by Flannery O’Connor

Part Two: “Flannery O’Connor’s Good Characters”

A common theme throughout Flannery O’Connor’s stories is that people are not always what they seem. Most people like to believe that no matter how wicked a person may seem, everyone has at least a little good within them, even if you have to dig deep down to find it and bring it to the surface. The tendency is to make excuses for a person’s bad or violent behavior – they’re having a bad day, or they had an unfortunate upbringing, or they are simply misunderstood and need some love and compassion. O’Connor’s  stories, on the other hand, often present the exact opposite view– that no matter how good a person appears on the outside, there is at least a little evil lying below the surface; it’s just a matter of the right circumstances occurring to reveal it. Continue reading “Flannery O’Connor: Seeing the Bad in the Good (Part Two)” →