Religion and redemption in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

¶ … Good Man is Hartd to Find by Flannery O'Connor

Passage: "His voice seemed about to crack and the grandmother's head cleared for an instant. She saw the man's face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured. 'Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!' She reached out and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times in the chest"

Good Man is Hard to find focuses on the questions of religion specifically the spirituality and belief in Christianity. The author was a strong believer and through her works she wanted to attempt to bring religion into the lives of the unbelievers. The strength of her beliefs is depicted in her characters especially seen in the character of the grandmother. The grandmother's strong southern heritage and her unchanging beliefs like always being dressed like a lady are a reflection of the author's belief in God. However, that the grandma gets sidetracked in worldly goods is a suggestion of people being led astray and portrays the dysfunctionalism in society. In this context the misfit is seen as the representation of evil and grandma the savior, Christian who attempts to save the people despite themselves. The Grandma represents the Christians of the time of Jesus who did not lend their hand to the poor but only saw their equals as being worthy. Jesus taught against that but Grandma could look only as far as the face, to her the misfit looked like he came from good blood and thus worth saving. Thus, the words 'Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!' represent a religious theme where grandma sees herself as the savior, and the misfit part of her followers. The misfit however, proves himself the symbolism of evil and like Judas kills the grandma. The Misfit chooses evil over good because he saw no miracles; the grandmother claimed to have chosen good, but the choice was hollow, superficial and selfish, for as the Misfit says, if Jesus did do what is claimed of him then there is nothing to do "but throw away everything and follow him.'" Knowing her own failing, she suddenly knows the Misfit for one of her own...a person misguided and hence in need of a helping hand.

2. Gimpel the Fool by Isaac Bashevis Singer

Passage: I wondered over the land, and good people did not neglect me. After many years I became old and white; I heard a great deal, many lies and falsehoods, but the longer I lived the more I understood that there really were no lies. Whatever doesn't really happen is dreamed at night. It happens to one if it doesn't happen to another, tomorrow if not today, or a century hence if not next year"

Isaaac Singers work in context is taken as parable with questions of spirituality and existence common within the works. His themes are Jewish and set in his native Poland. The common question asked in his works, with Gimpel the Fool being no different, is the need for existence and the search for faith. Gimpel is a foolish man who is constantly being tricked by people around him. Yet, he never learns and his activities, then serve to provide a moral lesson to the readers. Gimpel is treated like a fool by his community and seen as a person with no worldly sense. Even his wife treats him with scorn but he keeps his faith. He believes that God has given him this life and the good and bad are his to bear. Yet, when he leaves his village and tells his tales to others he is seen as a worldy man.

The words 'I wondered over the land, and good people did not neglect me... It happens to one if it doesn't happen to another, tomorrow if not today, or a century hence if not next year..." are suggestive of the actual faith he has in people and God. When people trick him and treat him like a fool and lie to him he takes it with a shrug of his shoulders. He believes that there is no such thing as a lie, what is a lie today becomes a truth tomorrow. This belief shows his faith in God. As a person scorned and treated with disdain he realizes that people like to bend the truth and just create imaginary scenarios for their own benefits. But he also realizes through his own life, that these half truths at one time or another are reality for someone in society. There are no words that go unaccepted somewhere, we will see one persons lie becoming another's truth. it's the ultimate acceptance of life through blind faith and allows the fool to become the wise man. Gimpel's acceptance of his own life comes through his realization that he is not irreplaceable and once he dies someone will take his place in all aspects of life. He sees the afterworld as the ultimate reality. For he says later on in the book, 'When the time comes I will go joyfully. Whatever may be there, it will be real, without complication, without ridicule, without deception. God be praised: there even Gimpel cannot be deceived.'

4. A Father by Bharati Mukherjee

Passage: "At twenty-six Babli had found the man of her dreams; whereas at twenty-six Mr. Bhowmick had given up on truth, beauty, and poetry, and exchanged them for two years at Carnegie Tech'

Bharati Mukherjee coming from India as an immigrant tells tales of the Indian society and how the patriarch is the ruler of the family. Her tales are not always of patriarchal abuse rather, the tales are focused on a woman protagonist who attempts to get free of the traditional patriarch rule. Certainly, that's the case in her tale, 'A Father'. The storyline of the tale is of a religious Hindu family that is ruled by the father, however, his vision of the perfect family is torn apart when he learns that his daughter who is of marriageable age has gotten artificial insemination done as she wants a baby but is not ready for a man in her life.

The lines read above are suggestive of the daughter's state of mind where she feels she is ready for marriage and yet, the man she loves is still seeking to make his career in life. Both have in their own way gone against the norm. When Babli, embittered by the men in her life, and after losing hope of ever having the man she loves decides to have a baby alone, she breaks her fathers will. For in a traditional Hindu family the girl accepts the match set up by the father, but here, we read how she chooses her mate, loses him and then goes against her own values to have a child. it's the ultimate rebellion from the conventional ways and undermines the very conception of hindu family values as understood by the traditional Indians, and hence creates a conflict of conventional and modern ways and starts the debate of whether second and third generation immigrants will ever completely follow their own cultures as set forth by their parents.

5. The Gold-Legged Frog by Khamsing Srinawk

Passage: "You sure are lucky,' the words raised his spirits. He smiled a little before repeating expectantly, how was I lucky, how?"

The experiences people have in life are all a matter of perspective. The luck we perceive as good can be seen as bad luck if we have enough vision. The tale told by Khamsing Srinawk is one where various perspectives of life are seen. We read that Nak was a poor farmer who had a hard time making ends meet. He had five children and one day with two of the children he was out looking for frogs. He had already caught enough for the evenings meal but greedy for one last more he dug up the frog. He got the frog but his son got bitten by a snake. Then when he gets home he tries to get his son healed but does not have the time as he has to go out of town as per his chiefs orders. Then when he leaves, he gets the money he went out to get but on his return his son is dead. The irony is that the money he got from the government was for his 5 children and now he has only four.

Any parent would be heartbroken on a child's death but through the neighbors perspective Nak had been lucky. He had gotten the money before the government found out that one of his children was dead. The concepts of life and luck are based on the individual and that is what the author attempts to prove through the relation of the tale. Life is only as tragic as we perceive it for the changing facets create a sure knowledge of existence. The title again is an irony of the state of affairs for the frog for which Nak sacrificed his son was nothing like a 'gold legged frog'.