A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor - Short Story Summary, Analysis, Review 

Flannery O'Connor Playlist: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-SFTSFjtIDWg.html BOOKMARKS: Publication Info: @0:47 Author Information: @1:06 Summary + Analysis: @3:02

I’m reading O’Connor for the first time for Flannery O’January and I’m so glad I can watch these videos now. So far I have loved every story.

Thank you both for reading the stories and going over them like this! So far y'all have had every story I've been reading in my class and they've helped a ton! Forever grateful!

I feel like everyone knows someone like the Grandmother, has a family member like that, or is unknowingly like the Grandmother. So I'd agree, humans are complicated and it'd be difficult to look at a family member you love and also be like "you're a completely bad person!" I don't have a religious background, so I enjoy hearing you bring those elements in as I would completely miss those interpretations.

Great job! I have to say that -- with the exception of what ultimately happened to the family -- events of this story, the characters, etc. spoke to my experiences growing up. This is on my list of favorite stories as well.

In my English class we are comparing this Story to Where are you going, Where have you been? Joyce Carol Oates- for Bob Dylan- I really enjoyed your thesis- I too didn't think grandma was bad until she pleaded for her life- whole family just murdered and yet she wanted to live? That was my food for thought. Also open mouth insert foot when she blurted out "Your the Misfit!"

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs seems somewhat similar to this short story. Flannery O’Connor helped me with that film. I feel certain someone else has made this observation, but it didn’t occur to me until I listened to your discussion. The Coen Brother’s have a similar feel. Glad I have found your channel!

🌲🌳🎄🌴🎋 This has been my favorite story I've read so far, and y'alls conversation made me love it even more. There's so much more depth to this story than I had originally thought, and I'm so happy to have broadened my understanding of it. Cheers! 🍻

I love this short lit. Wonderful woman

I've read this story a few times over many years, all for school, so it's been a long time. I think for me O'Connor is an author I just can't penetrate fully because that gothic/religious/historical atmosphere isn't familiar. But it was fun to hear you parse it all out.

Thanks so m uch guys, your channel is a treasure trove. I am a Southerner and Flannery O'Connor nut, have read everything she wrote plus anything written about her I can find. Found you guys while looking for some help with 'The Sound and the Fury.' Thanks for the excellent help on that. I really love 'A Good Man' and just a few weeks ago was trying to explain this story and what FO'C was all about to my brother. Not that it proves me right or wrong but I made almost all the same observations to him in recapping it to my poor brother. I really enjoy your insight and the friendly format of give and take. It's almost like a little book club. And I see that you have already done videos of several books that are on my planned reading list. Can't wait to see what you say about those.

Really useful, thank you

Fantastic analysis!

Great video on a great story, thanks for this! Jeez, how I love Flannery O'Connor

Flannery O’Connor reminds me of Dostoevsky. Both of them were trouble souls heavily haunted by Christ.

great book

GREAT discussion! Thank you :) I agree with your ratings. O'Connor is usually writing with a Catholic mind about Southern Protestants (often insane, grotesque, or disfigured protestants who are majorly judgmental of others). I agree somewhat more with Una's catholic interpretation. If you read O'Connor's essays (and other stories), she often talks about (or portrays) characters experiencing revelation with very rude awakenings. She was trying to make clear that redemption is costly and requires suffering. But the stories don't always revolve around salvation; sometimes the characters just face a difficult truth. It's not just about the past, either, I dont think; people of every age delude themselves. In grandma's case, she thinks she's a good person bc she knows how to behave in a mannerly, class-conscious fashion. But is she really a good person? It takes facing death further to answer that question. Both gma amand the shooter have their own revelations, I think; that's common in her stories. I'm always looking for those kinds of short stories, too! :) I recommend The Lame Shall Enter First by Flanner O'Connor, but I'm hoping to get recommendations from your comment section!

Spot on (I'm with Krypto here) and deep analysis, Una, of a seemingly simple, Gothic, and grotesque Southern grit story. Loved it.

Perhaps you guys could do an episode on Teddy by J.D. Salinger? I love what I've watched so far!

Another work by Flannery O'Connor that you might want to consider is Good Country People. It has themes of disability (both physical and moral) and religion. After reading the author's ouevre, I'd rank it in her top 3 or 4 stories.

What was Krypton fav short story? I need a link

A good man is hard to find. Until then, a good threat will do.

Or was she the devil (snake)? And she is saying he is hers (belonging to the devil)?

As a non-religious individual who did not grow up in America. I found it incredibly boring. I find any story that serves as a commentary on Christianity and their denominations just so incredibly dull. I understand that the Bible is part of the Western canon but I don't want to have to research and understand a whole religious group just to "get" the themes in your piece.