Question

In at least 150 words, explain three ways in which Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard To Find,” exemplifies the characteristics of the Southern Gothic movement in American literature.

Answer 1

Southern Gothic is a genre with a mood that combines Southern details, such as small-town life, with terror or suspense. Unlike early gothic literature about vampires and ghosts, Flannery O’Connor and others began writing about the monsters around us in everyday life. A key characteristic of this genre is having deeply flawed characters. In “A Good Man is Hard To Find,” both the grandmother and The Misfit are deeply flawed characters for very different reasons. The Misfit is a murderer who seems to have been created by a failed penal system, while the grandmother seems like a proper lady at first, but turns out to be selfish, a racist, and ultimately gets her whole family killed. It is through these characters that O’Connor explores the theme of good and evil, and whether people are truly capable of change.