A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Summary, Analysis & Review

[00:00:00]in this in this video we are looking at a good man is hard to find by Flannery O'Connor kind of a tongue twister there and we're gonna look at why it's one of the greatest short stories in American southern literature as well as why her religious background could matter for understanding and interpreting my son is it sounds like the garage is in my house alright guys welcome to the Codex Cantina I am una and I am a good man hmm so I'm like Chris it was published back in 1953 much older that's not and he came out in in the Avon book of modern writing and I think that's interesting because I've never heard of the Avon book but my mom was a Avon lady growing up do you remember that well yeah so anyway Side Story so this title was taken from a blues song written by Eddie green and recorded in 1927 and popularized by the singer Bessie Smith in the song she discovers her lover is cheating on her alright so let's talk about miss Flannery O'Connor I did some research on her because I had not read her work and didn't know really anything about her her and her life is troublesome would you agree with that uh yeah good let's go with that yeah a troublesome soul I may be a troublemaker but I like her better for that her dad had lupus and died when she was very very young and she is eventually diagnosed with lupus she dies of that very young like 40 years old 39 40 years old she dies of lupus which shaped a lot of how she wrote her stories because of her own mortality and that she saw this death of her father very young so she is from the south she's from Savannah Georgia and to kind of quote her I guess of how you have to consume her work because it is so gritty anything that comes out of the south is going to be called grotesque by a northern reader unless it is grotesque in which case it is going to be called realistic I think it says a lot about her that she is writing this for northerners as a southerner and as we know with how impactful we view each other as a society especially back then the North in the South was still very much different lives right the industrial north and still holding on to the some semblance of the south and the southern ways and southern hospitality and the southern ownership of people still is influential I would even say a little bit maybe still today and as a southerner you know I kind of grew up with that she's trying to explain that in a way that someone that didn't grow up with it can understand okay and as your Yankee friend you can help guide me along those paths right sure should I think it's also worth noting some of her Roman Catholic beliefs or at least Catholicism beliefs they come out strongly in this piece as we alluded to early which I think can also come from a Southern tradition as well so let's uh let's jump into this so my thesis for this mr. crypto is that this story is about being and there's a lot of different interpretations you can take allow me to make my thesis and defend it and you jump in where you feel sit fit here okay I think this I think this has to deal with salvation I think this has everything to do with living good and what happens at that moment and allow me to to walk through the story as a combination of a plot as well as a breakdown of how I think the story fits making so scared okay I don't disagree with you but I think that we should tell the reader really quick upfront that there are other ways to view this obviously I think there's three oh yeah there's three and minimum I mean there's probably a whole bunch but I think the three solid ones is mine one of the three solid yes and ever so the story starts off with a grandmother wanting to go to Tennessee instead of Florida and there in Georgia shocking where the author lives right so much authors write about what they know so obviously Flannery O'Connor is going to write about what she knows she's gonna write about her religion she's gonna write about her life she's gonna write about the violence that she sees in the south so I'm gonna do a small nitpick here where some people would say she is selfish or a bad person and I I don't think that you can just throw that out there and I'd be accurate I think we have to kind of nuance it because I think there's times that maybe she's selfish and I think there's times that she's just being self-interested and there's a difference between being selfish and self-interested and why that's important is for a heavy Catholic believer self-interest is not a sin self-interest is allowed and even recognized in the Bible selfishness is the problem okay keep going I'm following all right so there's this quote where she says when they're when they're talking about going to Florida she says I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that loose in it I couldn't answer to my conscience if I did and I think some people would would say that this is a selfish interest but she's not looking out there's no malfeasance in this there's no problem from a societal issue it's okay to say what you want in this and the Bible even says in the pursuit of of legitimate self-interest in the Philippines section let each of you look not only to his own interest but also the interests of others and that's where self-interest matters because you're not as long as you take into consideration other people's interests you're okay but then this is directly contrasted where you get to some more gray area with the cap because Bailey didn't want that cat to go with them right and she's like but I don't wanted to die okay that's fair but she also said she didn't want to be alone and that's when instead of being up for an honest you see a little bit more of the double dealings of her at that point I think you could make an argument for selfish at that point in time how did you take that part I think she's a very complicated character the grandmother I think that when it is self-serving we can see that's very apparent but when she's being selfish it's harder to recognize and I think it really only comes abundantly clear in the end scene with the misfit let's walk through this a little bit some of the symbolism in the story you see you're putting on white gloves she wears the the white violets in her hat all symbols of kind of purity cleanliness and then she judges the the woman's dress saying that she doesn't look like a lady right there's a little bit of foreshadowing there where people wouldn't recognize her a lady if she were dead in the ditch on the side of the road yeah dark dark dark so they're in the south and then they pass I think a black kid on the side of the road yeah and she talks about like well he probably doesn't have any pants boy I'd picture I paint a picture of that boy and I think that's kind of pulling out this it's a southern issue and she's coming on at the tail end right but she's still number still not at civil the civil rights movement hasn't happened exactly yet and you see her kind of dehumanized this boy a little bit I think you're starting to see a little bit more of that complicated character realize she may not be the best person in the world right oh yeah the little boy is definitely a part we were like I was kind of just ambivalent about the grandmother and now she's maybe not a good person I don't know and it's painting this conflict picture which i think is important through the overall theme of the story is that humans are complicated yes we're not all people out in fantasy journeys to destroy evil life is not that something yeah it is not black and white no pun intended this is my favorite character moment with a grandmother when she starts to talk about mr. Teagarden he was a good man he invested in coca-cola early he was wealthy you'd like him again it goes back to that monetary value of ownership of something giving more strength to your family it is okay though it's it's not okay to be greedy it's okay to want to pursue money and wealth as long as you're not harming other people though right and I think you can't harm other people maybe a little bit but but I think that's one of the clear points where people are like see this is Flannery O'Connor saying she's a bad person I think I think it's way more complicated that I don't think she's saying she's greedy here I think she is judging people on wealth she is pursuing money but his in self-interest or is it selfish and I think there's a lot of discussion to be had there right there's not enough of the character in this moment to really just flush that out yeah and I think to that she's trying to give the northern reader what they want a little bit here they they want to hate this character right this is someone you love to hate in the story so next they kind of go to the tower and this for me if we're going with salvation we got to talk about the Last Supper and here's where she's going to have dinner with a bunch of people they passed the Chinaberry tree with this monkey out front that that is I clean at first like there's nothing wrong with it the children are interested but then when they're leaving do you remember in the movie The Shining oh yeah when Jack Nicholson Jack Nicholson sees that beautiful lady and then after he kisses her you know you see the disease coming out from her after they leave the Last Supper you see this this monkey starts picking off the the ticks off of its body it becomes more of that symbol of disease that idea of temptation if you will so I thought those were some kind of interesting points for her to put in there and then now we got to come up to tooms burrow hint tomb in the word tombs burrow not a good sign when you've just passed five five to six graves did you notice that they passed five to six graves I don't think I picked up on that so I think that's what a big key is for me and kind of understanding like no I really do think she was going for this religious discussion here I got a quote from her where she talks about the myths misfit and she says then misfit was a misguided prophet so people talk about him being the devil him being evil and you can go with that interpretation I'm not saying you need to change it but I'm going to take that into consideration where I'm thinking she paints this misfit as a complicated character to I don't think it's as simple as he's good or he always tells the truth so he's better than the this is a very gritty story and when I start to think about this I think what this moment is is first of all when they crash he comes out in a hearse like vehicle he's representing death this is judgement day coming to a allegedly good person right and we start to realize that she's complicated it's not as simple as are you good you're going to heaven or you're bad you're not going to heaven first thing they do is they get out and go in the ditch first right like foreshadowing red flags to just be there pelting you in the face with him passing tombs burro passing these graves sitting in a ditch like these are all symbols about what's going to happen but I think this this final scene is just so beautiful the way they talk about what's it mean to be a good person and the reason why I'm almost in my mind my interpretation is a salvation moment is the guy talks about judgment he says you know why they call me the misfit I call myself the misfit he said because I can't make what all I've done wrong fit what all I've gone through in punishment so this is that idea of does the does the punishment meet the crime or at the same time from like a Salvation standpoint if what you did was that bad how does that compare with like a Salvation were from a Catholic belief standpoint because that's that's the view that Flannery O'Connor has her worldview right yeah I also think there real quick is that the misfit even mentions that he doesn't even know all the crimes that he's done or what he's guilty of and he says this I got a quote for a yes I found out the crime don't matter you can do one thing or you can do another kill a man or take a tire off his car because sooner or later you're going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it now is that the most famous quote no I thought that was the one - that was a good one but let's take what that says right you can kill a man or you can take a tire off his car both bad they're both sins does that mean they both mean you don't get into heaven now compare that with I feel like the way she structured at the beginning here's all of these things of really bad as she greedy is she just self-interested and I think you get to see this really complicated Corie of judgment isn't simple when it comes to good bad evil wrong and I think to me just saying she's bad and he's good because he tells the truth is completely missing this this structure that she set up of showing all these examples of morally and kind of questionable ambiguity of what is good or bad with this narrative of when it comes to dying in salvation matching up the crime with the punishment and such it's hard to do right and and I feel like that's what makes this narrative work in the story and you kind of hear another thing so we go back to the five to six graves and this is the really controversial part where when she looks at him she goes why you're one of my babies you're one of my own children she reached out and touched him on the shoulder The Misfits praying back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest pow pow pow so this is controversial because now people are like did she really see the light was she did she reach salvation at this point in time because afterwards she was in Child's Pose right yeah that's a typical pose that I think a lot of Buddhists were to sit in while while trying to reach enlightenment and there's five or six graves and five shots beforehand was she saved and they're saying that instead of six people dying it was really five because she was saved and went off to the eternal life afterwards because the rest of the family was painted pretty rough too right that the boy kickin the scene and the girl you know this family had a lot of issues and complexity going on that people are arguing okay was this really her being saved and she didn't die or was she just pretending because here's the most famous quote of this piece she would have been a good woman the misfit said if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life and that's the other side of the coin where people are like no no she didn't actually reach salvation she was touching him because she didn't care about her family she was just trying to save herself she was being selfish kind of like maybe some of those earlier points and the piece was because he sprang back because he thought he felt a snake right so that's kind of the controversial part of this story and I think that's what's open to interpretation of her perspective is she you know she was saved oh you're one of my babies but that's her thoughts then there's The Misfits thoughts where he thinks he sees a snake so who do you believe do you believe her or do you believe the misfit in terms of was she saved or not I think is a lot of the debate for this piece my own my only other argument for the side that she is not getting salvation that she is self serving again here is that he has on her son's shirt mm-hmm so she's panicking she's you know a little senile she's gone through the traumatic event she just heard her whole family get murdered and now the misfit sitting in front of her is wearing her her son's shirt and I think that she's trying to convince herself as much as him of their relationship that has been blossomed in this last few minutes and I think that she's trying to she's trying to save herself there's a you know who Robert McKee is no he is a very very fit he's very well known for his writing and writing workshops but he's got this quote and it's put this one in your back pocket because this is very useful but you know how those care you know how characters break at the end or when they're put to the test like do they turn to the dark or do they turn to the good okay he says this is a quote from him he says true character is revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure the greater the pressure the deeper the revelation the truer the choice to the characters essential nature so the idea is at that final moment that that moment of just right before they're gonna die you see who they really are do they turn into a coward do they turn into a hero that's why so many of these movies and writing narratives are structured from a climax standpoint that you know particularly you know the fantasy trope you don't know if the hero is gonna make it until that exact moment when either he becomes the hero and brave or he doesn't right and I think that's that's the debatable part here is okay did she like you said pushy senile was she just trying to save herself or like maybe what other people say she did reach salvation why else would there be five or six Gray's why wouldn't there have been sixth grade why would there have just been six grades earlier if it was instead of five or six I think there's a debate for either side of course yeah very very complicated story and I think that she wrote it in a manner to make us question all of this to show not only the complexity of the story but the complexity of us as people and the difference between northerners and southerners and that we are all all sinful I guess is maybe how she would see it because I think I think that religious aspect look comes back really really heavy here at the end I love it I love it and I want to do more work for her because this is realistic like she said it's some maybe some people will call it grotesque I think this is realistic and important because these are this is fiction right this is so this is an event meant to pull out probably questions about our own selves of who would we be in these situations and are we good people leading up to these moments would we be a good person in that moment I think it's an incredible story so if you didn't know January were looking for the greatest short stories of all time Krypto hears favorite short story is Harrison Bergeron by Kurt Vonnegut so first of all mr. Krypto did this replace Harrison Bergeron as the number one short story in your eyes of all time I have to say sadly no I I think I think that it's going to be difficult to replace just because of the fantasy aspect of the story I like how kooky it is and it's about but we're talking about Harrison Bergeron now right now yes yes yes and for those that good no sorry the this story is about our future and as a social studies teacher I'm trying to help mold the future and make better people and better citizens for our country and I think that that story can encapsulate that better than any other and I like the little help I liked a little bit of fantasy that's added in there to it to give it a little bit of spice and I think this is something to reflect on our past which is equally as important to do as a history teacher and I would give it a solid 9.5 all right is it did it replace signs and symbols as number two or where did it go oh yeah yeah definitely number two okay okay if of all the stories that I picked I would have guessed this one had the greatest chance at replacing Harrison Bergeron yeah because it's it's it's so beautiful it's such an interesting piece and I love how she takes the the gray area of just being like this is what people really are and allowing us to enter into that narrative that that discussion of is she a good person how do we judge this person how do we reflect that upon ourselves beautiful story I'm a 9.5 as well excellent and I think that this speaks right up to us right this is right up our alley where all the religious tones and aspects to the story are very flushed out and create controversy and discussion and this is something that we love to do here on the channel and we started it because of that because of what we saw on the gunslinger we have none of the same aspects and so this is by far an amazing story and something that could be life-changing I think this probably came as close to any other story we've had of being like the ideal story we'd like to cover right yes impromptu didn't plan this but maybe okay so for our viewers out there what stories are like this that have the grit that have the realism the complexity and the religious aspects but that we need to be thinking about and covering and please put those in the comments below because we are looking for those stories so if you have one that's like oh my god you guys would love this please share them in the comments below please please in the meantime yes in the meantime thank you so much for checking out this video if you made it all the way to this point in the end this is what we're all about on this channel is discussing these types of things we think it's important for people to discuss and think and really break down what does literature mean rather than just reading something and checking it off of saying hey I read this okay I think it's really important to say how does this attack me or help me understand society in general so with that guys please consider subscribing if you enjoy that content I am una peace out peace