UNDER  STAND 1.  Flannery OConnors A Good Man is Hard to Find. mrdoige.com/documents/oconnor_aGoodManIsHardToFind.pdf

SEE ABOVE The website I listed was easier for me to read, but it you type in the title of the story and full text there are other options.

2. The story was first published in 1953 (the beginning of the second half of the 20th century). Consider when you finish reading the story, how did we get here in literature from where we started this semester with “To be or not to be?” ? The story, in many ways, welcomes The Misfit, a serial killer, and in some ways celebrates the anti-hero.

According to the simplest of definitions (research this further):

Anti-hero – a protagonist who is conspicuously lacking in heroic qualities.

NOTE: We have seen anti-hero characteristic in antagonist characters. For example, Fagan and Bill Sikes in Oliver! demonstrate anti-hero/ anti-social characteristics.  But in the example of The Misfit, a murderer, he takes on a greater role as the protagonist.

3.  Questions TO BE ANSWERED

1. What is Flannery OConnor trying to say about the modern American family grandmother, parents and children- in the first half of the story?

2.The grandmother makes a reference to a plantation and alludes to the movie Gone With the Wind as she reflects on better days. What does that say about the grandmother?

3.The Misfit and his henchman drive up to the family in a hearse-like automobile  (symbolical? Foreshadowing?) and he goes on to teach them something? What does this cold-blooded serial killer teach the family?

4.Why does The Misfit begin to allude to Jesus Christ in the final stages of the story? And what does The Misfit mean in his last line to Bobby Lee?

Note: Many of you have been informally writing to me during the week about what you think. ALL of you are welcome to do so! I enjoy reading your insights.

Also note: If the weather permits, this is a great story to read outside, as you watch the masked men and women pass you by.