Key themes
- Grace arriving violently — the moment of crisis as revelation
- Southern grotesque and the distorted mirror it holds
- Evil that knows what it is — and the innocence that doesn't
About this book
Dark, funny, grace-haunted stories of the American South; unsettling and unforgettable.
Published in 1955, A Good Man Is Hard to Find is O'Connor's first story collection and the one that established her reputation. She died of lupus in 1964 at 39. Her complete works fill two volumes and include fiction in which violence is consistently presented as a form of grace.
Discussion questions
- The Misfit says a good man is hard to find but also that 'she would have been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.' What is O'Connor saying about the relationship between grace and extremity?
- The grandmother is presented as irritating, vain and self-deceived. How does O'Connor build sympathy for her nonetheless — and does her final gesture earn it?
- O'Connor was a devout Catholic writing for what she called a 'hostile audience.' How does her religious framework function in stories that contain so much violence and grotesquerie?
- The stories are often described as 'Southern Gothic.' What does this label mean — and what does the Southern setting add to O'Connor's theological themes?
- O'Connor's characters are frequently racists, hypocrites and fools. Does she ask us to sympathise with them — and if so, how?
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