In "A Good Man is Hard to Find" one literary device O'Connor uses is irony. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find" the grandmother talks to everyone about "The Misfit" who is killing people. It's ironic that she just happened to think of this house and make her family search for it, only to get frightened that she had remembered the wrong state, kick open the basket that the cat was in, the cat would attack her son, he would freak out, the car would roll, and then "The Misfit" would be the first person to come upon them.
In "The Lame Shall Enter First", O'Connor always employs irony. In this story, Sheppard wants to take Johnson under his wing because he feels that no one recognizes his potential or treats him well. The irony is that Sheppard is often quoted as making rude remarks about his son being "not bright enough to be damaged much" (pg. 387 between 195 and 200) and that he is lazy and ungrateful. Obviously the son is not lazy, stupid or ungrateful because he spends his free time trying to make money by selling seeds. Also, Johnson is more of the rude one who purposely says and does things to upset Sheppard and Johnson. Another example of irony, or at least something to notice is that Sheppard lectures Norton on not being nice to other people and although Sheppard is willing to help all other needy people, he can't even be nice to his own son, be ignores him on night after the picture show because he doesn't want to lose Johnson's trust, instead he settles for crushing his son.
After reading both of these stories, my personal opinion is that they are semi interesting with all the twists and turns but there are too many pointless details you have to weed through to actually get to the interesting parts. If it were a T.V. show ... I would have changed to something else by the first or second commercial break.
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6 comments:
I like how you decided to look into the irony of both stories. Typically I am inclined to pick ONE story and stick with it. By choosing the author we are given insight to not only her works, but her particular style of writing as well. Nice work connecting irony in both of O' Connor's pieces.
I loved the analogy about how if it was a tv show you would have changed the channel. I would have done the same. They took a few pages to get good and even when they did get interesting I just wanted to know what was going on but I felt confused with all the extra story that had nothing to do with the main idea of the story. It was good that you looked into the irony of them. I never think to do things like that until later when I'm asked to.
I would have to say it seems like we all had trouble getting through these stories the last few days. But, I would have to say you seem to get the most out of it. I would have to agree with Jess's response to your entry, if it was a TV I would have also changed the channel. I found it extremely difficult to get through them all and actually felt like when I was done that I actually understood what I had just read. Why can we sometimes get through a story and really enjoy it and get lots of out it and then their are other stories that we can never fully understand what exactly we had just read?
I totally have to agree about the "switching channels" part of your analysis(?). I read the "good man" one in high school and really had no interest in re-reading it here. The foreshadowing is too much and some of the actions of the mother and father are not really realistic. I mean who leads their kids off into woods with killers, especially the mom who had heard the shots and saw The Misfit wearing her husband's shirt?! I mean come on...
Flannery O'Connor is good at using irony in her writing and you are right, both of these stories show a lot of irony. I agree that they are kind of long and strung out, especially the second story.
Courtney,
Lots of good remarks here - both in your blog and in others' responses. It seems many of you are interested/frustrated with O'Connor's use (or overuse?) of details...something we can definitley talk about in our next class.
In this response, I was must struck with this comment you made about "The Lame..": " Another example of irony, or at least something to notice is that Sheppard lectures Norton on not being nice to other people and although Sheppard is willing to help all other needy people, he can't even be nice to his own son." What a great insight! In this story, I think it's easy to get caught up in the character of Rufus Johnson and completely miss how short-sighted Sheppard is. It makes me wonder if Sheppard should be blamed for his son's actions...
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