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Three Common Themes Essay, Research Paper

Three Common Themes

Flannery O=Connor tends to use similar themes in her short stories. There are three common themes in her short stories AEverything That Rises Must Converge@, AGood Country People@ and AA Good Man is Hard to Find”. The transition between the old south and the new is present in each of Flannery O=Connor=s three short stories discussed. Flannery O=Connor also strongly emphasizes the mother-child relationship in her three short stories. Finally in Flannery O=Connor=s work, there is a common theme where there is a form of evil that changes the lives of the main characters in her stories forever. Themes help a story flow and Flannery O Connor choose to use similar themes in each of her short stories. These interpretations fit into how O’Connor chose to write her pieces of work.

The short story AEverything That Rises Must Converge@, by Flannery O=Connor tells the story of Julian, the main character and his thoughts and feelings toward his mother. Julian is a college graduate who has a fair understanding of the world he lives in, and because of this finds difficulty dealing with his mother and her views of the world. The plot of the story revolves around a bus trip that Julian and his mother take. Once a week, Julian=s mother goes to the local Y for her “reducing” class. Julian accompanies her on the bus ride over and back because she is uncomfortable riding alone since the buses have been integrated. The ride is nothing more than a necessary evil to him; it is seen as a time in which he would be “sacrificed to her pleasure.” In Good Country People , by Flannery O Connor, Manley Pointer, a traveling Bible salesman, visits the Cedars, home to Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter Joy, who has renamed herself Hulga to spite her mother. Pointer s visit brings the arrogant, disdainful young woman to a climactic point in her life where she must acknowledge that she isn t as smart as she thought. A Good Man is Hard to Find is about a grandmother, her son and his wife, and their son and daughter arguing about their ultimate destination for a car trip. A brutal killer, the Misfit, is at large. As the result of a side trip urged by the grandmother and the cat she has smuggled along, the car crashes, and the family falls into the killer s hands. As each family member is executed, the killer talks about his history and philosophical and religious beliefs. The grandmother tries to convince the killer to believe in Jesus until she, too, is shot.

The transition between the old south and the new is present in each of Flannery O=Connor=s three short stories discussed. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People,” a change from the old south to the new south is quite evident. O’Connor uses these stories to show the differences between the old and new south and to voice her disapproval as to what the south was becoming. What upset O’Connor about the new south can be shown by carefully examining and interpreting these stories. In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, O’Connor uses many different characters as representatives of different generations in the same family and uses these generations as examples of the change from the old to the new south. O’Connor uses the main character of the grandmother to represent what the south once was. One of the characteristics of the old south that the grandmother displays, is the need to keep herself looking like a lady. For instance, O’Connor writes; Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady. By giving the grandmother the great need to be dressed like a lady, O’Connor makes this character a throwback to a time of white gloves, flowered hats, and women always wearing dresses. Situations like this firmly place the grandmother in a very old south role.

Contrary to the role of the grandmother, O’Connor uses the person she recognizes as the children’s mother to show what the south was becoming; Bailey didn’t look up from his reading so she wheeled around then and faced the children’s mother, a young woman in slacks, whose face was as broad and innocent as a cabbage and was tied around with a green head-kerchief that had two points on the top like rabbit’s ears. The main characteristics of the new south are shown in the dress of the children’s mother. A lady of the old south would never wear slacks and tie her hair up in a head-kerchief and go out in public. Under an old south mentality these actions would be considered very unlady like. O’Connor reveals her own dissatisfaction for this new south character in the way that she describes the children’s mother. First, O’Connor only refers to her as the children’s mother, by not giving this character a name O’Connor shows some amount of contempt for her. Second, O’Connor uses the description of a cabbage and a rabbit when describing the children’s mother. The use of such unflattering terms is another way that O’Connor shows contempt for the new south. Finally, the tone of the language that O’Connor uses when talking about the children’s mother must be examined. For example, the grandmother “wheeled” around to face the children’s mother. The use of the verb “wheeled” connotates a negative meaning in the way that the grandmother looked at the children’s mother. O’Connor makes it sound as if the grandmother could have killed the children’s mother just by turning to face her. The third generation in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is represented by the two children John Wesley and June Star. O’Connor basically characterizes these two children as nothing more than selfish brats. For example, O’Connor writes; When there was nothing

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