I wasn't in class for the discussion of the Flannery O'Connor stories, but I looked up a few things to get a better picture of Southern Gothic style and particularly the story "A Good Man is Hard To Find". This is one of the most interesting things I found:
"This sickening adherence to just about every stereotype of the old South that the grandmother represents is part of what makes her a grotesque character. In fact, every member of the family is grotesque in some way; the children by their over-the-top rudeness and lack of manners, the father by his intense, simmering anger paired with a bright, happy-looking parrot shirt, the mother by her lack of personality or character—and, of course, the Misfit by his complete lack of regard for anything or anyone. This is not a delightful portrait of the south or a southern family—it is a critique."
I didn't feel that each of the characters was "grotesque" at all. The grandmother and the kids were kind of annoying, and the dad just seemed like he didn't want to go on the road trip in the first place. But I didn't feel like, even after reading it through twice, the story was supposed to be dark and creepy all the way through.To me, it wasn't obvious that they were headed down a bad road. For the most part I was unprepared for the horrifying ending to the story.
Also, a lot of the analysis I read had to do with the religious aspect of the story. The grandmother is a Christian, but she's much more concerned with looking like a Christian than acting like one. She gets a little bit more spiritual when she realizes she's about to die and is talking to the Misfit, but overall she strikes me as one of those people who pretends she's Christian because she was raised that way, and doesn't necessarily live a fully Christian lifestyle.
http://english.tjc.edu/engl2333nbyr/o%27connor.htm
http://supersummary.com/component/content/article/23-plot-summary-of-a-good-man-is-hard-to-find-by-flannery-oconnor?start=4
Here's some more in-depth analysis of the story.
Yeah, I don't feel that the characters in this story were grotesque. I felt that there are people who act just like them in the real world and that O' Conner really did a good job of bringing these characters to life. I especially like the part were 'John Wesley took one[cloud] the shape of a cow and June Star guessed a cow and John Wesley said, no, an automobile, and June Star said he didn't play fair, and they began to slap each other over the grandmother.' That's exactly like something me and my brother would probalbly do. So I really like the charactierization in this story, even if I don't exactly like the characters.
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