“A Good Man is Hard to Find” Comparing Flannery...

â€Å"A Good Man is Hard to Find†: Comparing Flannery O’Connor’s Literary Technique to Grotesque Medieval Literature Upon initially reading Flannery O’Connor’s work, one would have no problem recognizing her use of shocking, violent, or despairing themes. It may not be as easy, however, to completely accept or understand her style. According to Patrick Galloway, one must be â€Å"initiated to her trademarks when reading any of her two novels or thirty-two short stories (1).In many of her works, she paradoxically uses styles that are grotesque and brutal to illustrate themes of grace and self-actualization. As O’Connor herself says, â€Å"I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to†¦show more content†¦in Enjolras 14).Therefore, despite the violence and death, O’Connor does the grandmother a favor by allowing her a moment of self-understanding and grace (Galloway 3-4). Author Anthony Di Renzo notes the effectiveness of O’Connor’s use of thematic revelation.Rather than opposing one another, good and evil instead exist as â€Å"equally odd, equally absurd, and equally shocking† (122).The good and evil ironically converge to relay the message of grace, common throughout her works. O’Connor wanted her stories â€Å"to reach the unbelieving reader,† and the shocking aspect of the grotesque was the most effective way to reach him/her (Hawkins 28-29). In â€Å"A Good Man,† even the physical appearance of the characters contributes to this grotesque reality.In Flannery O’Connor’s Characters, Laurence Enjolras analyzes the fictitious personalities O’Connor has created.His chapter entitled â€Å"Physical Portrait: The Ugly Human Body† looks specifically at characters in â€Å"A Good Man† (5). Enjolras emphasizes that O’Connor does not present glamorous, idealized characters.Instead, she depicts the â€Å"ordinary† human being, notwithstanding flaws or deformity