Analysis of “A Good Man is Hard to Find”

-All essays must contain the primary source AND three to five scholarly secondary sources from the library’s Galileo collection. (https://www.galileo.usg.edu/)
-All essays must use at least ONE of the secondary sources provided by the instructor.
-All essays must contain internal citations and a corresponding Works Cited page in MLA format.
-All essays should be 1000-1500 words – not including the Works Cited page or title.

Select ONE of the topics below for an essay using scholarly, secondary sources to build your argument. You must use at least one of the sources provided by the instructor.

1. Analyze the use of place names in “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Not only should you geographically locate the places on a Georgia map, but explain how their names connect to their function in the story. The one place you won’t find on a map is Timothy which is a reference to I Timothy in the Bible. Explain how that Biblical source influences the story.

2. Analyze Southern stereotypes in the story; the language, the characters, perhaps even the violence. Does O’Connor present a realistic portrait of a certain element of the South in the 1950s?

3. O’Connor has stated that her stories always deal with conversion, changes in a character, and, more specifically, the action of grace on a character who is unwilling to receive it. Write an essay which compares how “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Greenleaf” deal with sin, grace, and redemption by analyzing their themes, settings, and characterizations. (Remember this will be a compare and contrast essay and should use a block or alternating method of organization.)

Suggested Sources
You must use at least ONE of these in your essay, but you are allowed to use more. All other sources must come from the GSU library.

Bryant, Hallman. “Reading the Map in ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.'” Studies in Short Fiction, no. 18, 1981, pp. 301-107.

Fike, Matthew. “The Timothy Allusion in ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.'” Renascence, vol, 42, no 4, pp. 311-322.

Bonney, William. “The Moral Structure of Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Studies in Short Fiction , vol 27, no 3, summer 1990, 347-357. Click here for full text

Gleeson-White, Sarah. “A Peculiarly Southern Form of Ugliness: Eudora Welty, Carson McCullers, and Flannery O’Connor.” Southern Literary Journal vol. 36, no. 1, fall 2003, pp. 46-57. Click here for full text

Ochshorn, Kathleen G. “A Cloak of Grace: Contradictions in ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find.'” Studies in American Fiction vol. 18, no. 1, spring 1990, 113-117. Click here for full text

(provided links for all these sources in the file upload)