O’Connor is known for bringing spiritual insight in extreme situations through distorted or grotesque characters. Not only is spiritual insight prominent, there often seems to be some kind of lesson behind her stories. Faulkner in his writings focuses on local social history, but his writings also consist of some form of life lessons. “problems of the human heart in conflict with itself…alone can make a good writing because only that is worth writing about” (Faulkner). Find similarities between O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Faulkner’s “Barn Burning”. Include textual evidence in your answer.
Clayton Poffenberger
Even though O’Connor’s work of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” focuses on spiritual insight through grotesque characters to teach a lesson where as Faulkner focuses on local and social history in “Barn Burning”, these traits are not inclusive to a single story alone. In fact, these two short stories share both characteristics of O’Connor and Faulkner. O’Connor’s key characteristic of her stories is the display of spiritual insight through grotesque characters. The grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is considered grotesque for the irony the results from her double personality. The grandmother likes to categorize herself as a true religious Southern lady. However, in the life or death situation with the Misfit, the grandmother suddenly sheds her false outer shell to reveal her true identity during her encounter with the Misfit revealing the lesson of facades in society. The grandmother is able to gain spiritual insight in this situation because of her moment of grace when she discover discovers unconditional love which she gives to the Misfit after she states the Misfit is “one of [her] own babies” (455). The spiritual insight in “Barn Burning” occurs after Sarty runs away from his family when he warns Mr. de Spain of his father’s plan is able to become who he wants to be and does not have to “look back” at the influences imposed upon him by his father again revealing the importance of one’s true identity (510). Faulkner focuses on local and social history and conflicts of the heart with a special emphasis on family in the South. O’Connor addresses this when the grandmother includes the Misfit as one of her sons but due to his conflict with his own parents, he ends up shooting her. Faulkner addresses family ties in “Barn Burning” during the first trial when Sarty recognizes that his father “aims for me to lie… and [Sarty] will have to do it” (499). However, Sarty ends up breaking this tie when he warns Mr. de Spain of his father plan to burn the barn because it went against his morals, revealing he conflict in his heart between his family and his morals and teaching the lesson to do your own will without the pressures of others. Even though O’Connor and Faulkner have different focus points in their stories, they still tie to each other through the themes of Southern literature which they both employ.
ReplyDeleteLife lessons are seen in both O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and Faulkner's "Barn Burning"; O'Connor shows these lessons through distortion and spiritual revelation, while Faulkner shows them in his stories dealing with social history. In both of these stories, grotesque characters acknowledge the moral dilemma between right and wrong. The Misfit in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" shows that he can differentiate between right and wrong in his thoughts on killing the family. When the grandmother asks if he would "...shoot a lady..." (O'Connor 451), he replies with "'I would hate to have to" (451); however, he feels that he needs to because he is worried about her turning him in. He tries to kill the family as quickly as possible, so as to avoid inflicting torture on them. Also, at the end of the story, he shows that he doesn't enjoy killing when he says, "'It's no real pleasure in life" (455). He knows what he is doing is wrong, but he can't help it. Similarly, in "Barn Burning", Sarty goes against the loyalty for his family to do what he feels is right, which is preventing his father from burning Major de Spain's barn. Sarty has to disconnect himself from his father's power to come to his own terms of right and wrong. By choosing the right decision, Sarty ends on a more positive note since "He did not look back" (Faulkner 510). Both of these characters demonstrate understanding of right and wrong; however, the Misfit chooses the wrong, and Sarty chooses the right. As a result, Sarty feels at peace with his choice, while the Misfit still feels conflicted.
ReplyDeleteOne similarity between O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” is the criticism of selfishness. Both stories contain a character whose demise is brought about due to his or her self-centeredness and inconsideration for others. These characters are the grandmother and Abner Snopes, respectively. In O’Connor’s story, the grandmother’s extreme paranoia of an encounter with “The Misfit” ironically occurs because of her selfishness. She forces her son, Bailey, to go down a country road to see an old plantation, but after a car accident, the family is found by the Misfit. O’Connor describes the grandmother’s scheme, “She knew that Bailey would not be willing to lose any time looking at an old house, but the more she talked about it, the more she wanted to see it once again and find out if the little twin arbors were still standing” (448). The Misfit kills the grandmother and her family, and their destruction was all because of her selfish plan. This point is also reflected upon in “Barn Burning.” Abner Snopes, the father of a large southern family, damages the carpet of Major de Spain, but cannot pay him for it. Instead, Snopes decides to burn down de Spain’s barn, as demonstrated when he tells his son to “‘Go to the barn and get that can of oil we were oiling the wagon with’” (508). Snopes does not even consider the effect this crime will have on his family or the de Spains, and he is punished for it with death. As Clayton stated in the prompt, both O’Connor and Faulkner include life lessons in their stories, and both of these stories criticize selfishness in authority figures.
ReplyDeleteBoth O'Connor and Faulkner are widely recognized as authors that place special emphasis on characters, rather than plot structure. Generally, the characters in their works are of unique construction, with the intent of making a statement about some element of society. They may even be considered controversial, although O'Connor is more prominent in this regard through her technique of distortion. Faulkner tends to use his characters to highlight social issues/history rather, without the religious focus that is found in O'Connor's writing. "Barn Burning" is a perfect example of Faulkner's style, with Abner Snopes representing a malicious, bitter, but insightful product of society. On one level, we look at Snopes as an antisocial figure; an example of an individual who looks to destroy the basic foundations in society: life, religion, individualism, property. Yet at the same time, he represents a character with remarkable social analytical skills; he satirizes the very foundations mentioned above. His actions, while violent and lashing, are the result of the conflict, internally and externally, that is his social condition. He is stuck in a cycle of labor, chained by his social status to a property less life of misery and discontent. He understands this condition and rather than accepting it, he violently resists it, for there is little else he CAN do to "resolve" these emotions. As Benjamin DeMott writes in The Bedford Introduction to Literature, Perspectives on Faulkner, "Ab...has managed...to make sense of his world, to arrive at a vision of the relations between labor, money, and the beautiful." Ab stands as a perfect example of the purpose of Faulkner's characters in his writing--to address social issues. On the other hand, O'Connor focuses her criticism more on the spiritual aspects of Southern life, instead of local issues WITHIN Southern culture as does Faulkner. However, she does rely heavily on the internal and third-person omniscient as a means to addressing such themes, much like Faulkner. In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" this is prominent through her characterizations of the Grandmother and the Misfit. Both these characters are representations of how appearances belie true character; this is a stab at the hypocrisy of Southern spirituality. The Grandmother, who appears to be a perfect Southern Christian lady, is in reality in conflict with the very values she professes. At the same time, the Misfit, who appears in normal contact to be a perfectly decent man, quickly shows himself as a cold, calloused criminal when the Grandmother recognizes him as the Misfit. In addition, the Misfit shows that violent crimes do occur in the Bible Belt South during this era. Perhaps this is also a sucker punch at the "religious" South. Clearly, Faulkner and O'Connor use their characters to address specific issues in these short stories.
ReplyDelete"A Good Man is Hard To Find" and "The Barn Burning" are two completely different works. O'Connor and Faulkner, the two respective authors, differ greatly in their motivations and dogmas and it bleeds throuhg into their work heavily. However, both stories share similiar themes and scenarios. In each story, the narrator loses their fAamily to the sound of gunshots. In "a Good Man Is Hard To Find", the grandmother is forcewd to listen as her family is shot one byt one, and in Faulkner's "The Barn Burning", Sartoris listens to the ominous two gunshots that may have claimed either his father or his faather's ewnemy's life. Both stories also share a theme of prideful downfall. In "A Good Man Is Hard To Find", the grandmother's fatal flaw is her pride in her southern heritage, without which they may have avoided the entire encounter with the misfit. In "The Barn Burning", Sartoris' father is too proud to allow two women to outdo him in front of a man of power, thus driving him to threaten to burn down Mayer's house. "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" and "The Barn Burning" are two well-acclaimed works of fiction by to infamously clever writers. Each of these stories has a completely distinct message, but O'Connor and Faulkner also seem to have shared similiar ideas about how to bring that message to clarity.
ReplyDeleteO'Connor and Faulkner are two very different writers, however they are similar in their morals of life. Each story written by Faulkner or O'Connor gives their readers life lessons. In O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard To Find", the grotesque character is the grandmother. The grandmother represents selfishness in the story. The grandmother goes on the trip with her family to Florida, however she's afraid she'll run into the Misfit and she says to June Star, "Yes and what would you do if this fellow, The Misfit, caught you?" (445). The grandmother originally wanted to go to east Tennessee to avoid the Misfit, however after a car accident, the Misfit turns up. The story began with a family going on a trip to Florida and ended with them all losing their lives by the Misfit all because of the grandmother's selfishness. In Faulkner's "Barn Burning", Abner Snopes is accused of burning down Mr. Harris' barn and Sarty is almost forced to lie for his father in court. If Abner Snopes was not selfish and admitted his crime his family would not have to leave the county. Sarty is approached by his father and he says, You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain't going to have any blood to stick to you" (501). Sarty is then forced to lie for his father about burning the barn and also for the de Spain's rug and barn. Both Snopes and the grandmother in the two stories are selfish characters who sacrifice their family to save themselves. Life lessons are brought out in these two stories about selfishness and O'Connor and Faulkner use spiritual insight and social history.
ReplyDeletein a "Good Man is Hard to Find" the grandmother is selfish and childish. She wants to have her way no matter what. "she wanted to visit... Tennessee and she was siezing at every chance to change Bailey's mind" (445), but she doesn't want to miss anything and so goes with them to Florida.
ReplyDeleteSnopes is also childish and vindictive. If things don't go his way then he'll make people regret it. He can't talk things out like a civilized person and violence is just a means to an end for him; like when he hit Sartoris, "his father struck him...but without heat"(501) to make Saroris understand that he was powerless. The only way he handles things is through force. he burns down the things of people who make him angry and also him destroying the carpet. both instances what he does is thoughtless and in the moment not really considering the consequences like a child.
the grandmother sees herself as a lady. Sartoris sees his father as a courageous war veteran. both view are revised before the end.
I agree with kelsey that both O'Connor and Faulkner attempt to teach their readers "life lessons. However, I do not think they have similar morals or similar motives behind their lessons. For example in "A Good Man is Hard to Find," O'Connor uses the grandmother's character to show the vanity and superiority complex of many christians. The grandmother is selfish, she " didn't want to go to florida, because she would prefer to go to visit her relations. She is also vain, because must look her best incase she dies on the side of the road. The Grandmother is also a racist. This is shown through her calling a "negro child," a "cute little pickaninny!" Despite these major sins, the grandmother thinks she is the ideal christian because she prays, and looks like a lady. O'Connor uses this extreme exaggeration to show the corruption in many false christians. In contrast, Faulker has little to no religious motives. His character tend to focus more on the problems of the southern social standards. For example, Sarty has inherited his mother innocence and morals, but his father's forces him to be true to his family. This challenges not only the law, but also his conscious. Faulkner's stories center around ideals such as self-evaluation, not religious morals. Although both author write about similar characters, living in the south, their religious backgrounds alter the meanings of their stories, and as a result their lessons.
ReplyDeleteOn the surface, it may appear that O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” take different approaches in order to teach a lesson. In O’Connor’s work, the characters are distorted and grotesque to emphasize the lesson. On the other hand, Faulkner uses social history to get his lesson across. However, in both stories the downfall of the protagonist is brought about through selfishness and pride. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the grandmother dooms her family through her selfishness, and every tragic event that occurs in the story is caused by her inconsideration. The visit to the old plantation was her idea, the car accident was caused by the cat she smuggled in the car against the will of her son Bailey, and the whole incident with the Misfit was brought about by her inconsideration. This idea of selfishness and pride being the demise of a family is also the main lesson in “Barn Burning”. Abner Snopes dooms his family with his selfish pride, thinking that he is superior to everyone else in the story. He tells his son, “Don’t you know all they wanted was a chance to get at me because they knew I had them beat? Eh?” (501). This same pride would lead to his death. The overall lesson of the two authors goes back to the idea of a selfishly proud member of a family bringing about their demise due to their inconsideration. The selfish family member represents an authoritative figure and the family represents society.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Josh, Grant, and Kelsey in that William Faulkner and Flannery O’Conner are two completely different style writings. Faulkner is more of a story teller whose stories are clear and fairly concise, while O’Conner has a more morbid and opaque style. In “Barn Burning”, the flatness of the characters made it an easier and less suspenseful read for the audience. Sarty is a young boy who is “crouching, small for his age, small and wiry like his father, in patched and faded jeans even too small for him, with straight, uncombed, brown hair and eyes gray and wild as storm scud,” (Faulkner) and is taking the role of an adult trying to have influence and exist during a time of his fathers height in hubris. Although a scenario like this could have and probably did happen, it does not delve into the human psyche and bring about the dark side of our sub consciousness. Yes, revenge is in everybody and pyrotechnics have a place in everyone’s heart, but it is not an intangible realness like O’Conner stirs up in “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” The sick desire to make one beg for one’s life while knowing the twisted fate that will befall them in inevitable, is in a whole different genre than a historical fable with a lesson to be learned in the end. While many people talk about the selfishness of the grandmother in the story, I think the mental anguish between characters in the most important and revealing aspects of the story. Each author of each story seems to have a certain theme or question that they ask and in the same sweep somewhat answer. For Faulkner “do the means justify and end?” and for O’Connor “do desperate times call for desperate measures?”
ReplyDeleteBoth Faulkner and O'Connor use grotesque characters. A grotesque character is one that has either a physical or mental deformity. Beginning with the grandmother, she was a selfish and arrogant person. She brought her family to their death. The grandmother said, "You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you?"(451). She had a blurred vision of herself. She believed herself to be a kind southern lady. When in reality she was rude and conceited. Then the father in "Barn Burning" was abusive. The mental state of an aggressive person, is not stable. Faulkner explains, "...feeling no blow, feeling no shock when his head struck the earth, scrabbling up and leaping again, feeling no blow this time either and tasting no blood, scrabbling up to see the other boy in full flight and himself already leaping into pursuit as his father's hand jerked him back, the harsh, cold voice speaking above him: 'Go get in the wagon.' (500). This is a mental deformity in which the father is compelled to beat the child.
ReplyDeleteEach author has a different way of writing, but each uses a character which has a deformity of some kind.
Faulkner and O'Connor both use grotesque characters to portray a moral or life lesson to the reader in Faulkner's "Barn Burning" and O'Connor's " A Good Man is Hard to Find", but their writing styles are different. Spiritual revelation plays a part in O'Connor's style it does not play a part in Faulkner's style when it comes to the character of Abner, the father in "Barn Burning". Abner is a grotesque character because he is violent and selfish, he burns down a barn, and expects his son, Sarty, to lie for him in court about it. Now, what kind of father would ask his own son to lie for him? All the father had to do was tell the truth in court and take a penalty for himself, instead he did not want to give in to society, he wanted to beat the system and not get caught. But in doing so, he hurts his family and his whole family is banished from the country. Abner uses his son and tells his son, " you got to learn to stick to your own blood or your ain't going to have any blood to stick to you". Abner takes advantage of his young vulnerable son and tries to persuade him in to thinking that lying for family is okay in every case. Abner's selfish behavior ultimately leads to the family's demise and pushes Sarty so far that he leaves his family. Faith and spritual revelation do not play a factor in Faulkner's writing.
ReplyDeleteO'Connor uses the Grotesque character of the Grandmother to show how selfishness leads to the grandmothers own demise. The grandma insisted on taking a dirt road to find an old farm house she remembers, and once down the dirt road she remembers the house was actually in an entirely different state! She doesn't tell anyone this so they continue down the road where the end up getting in a car accident. The car accident was ultimately the grandmother's fault because she told them to go off course to satisfy HER want to see the old farm house. Then the Misfit, a wanted villain, drives by and see's them. the Grandmother then says, oh i know you! "Your the Misfit!" and the Misfit's response was simply, "it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn't of reckernized me" Grandma again, leads to her whole family's death including her own. The Misfit kills off each member of grandma's family systematically and the whole time the grandmother is intent on saving herself by talking to the Misfit and telling him that he, "must come from nice people!" at the end Grandma comes to a enlightened state and realizes her time is up, she wants to be saved and the Misfit gives her the extra push to let her get there. the spiritual revelation is plainly stated when she says, " Why you're one of my babies. Your one of my own children!" she was speaking as God and God was speaking through her to the Misfit. the Misfit then shoots her three times and the story ends with the Misfit realizing the Grandmother had some good in her, and that all of her selfish grotesque ways led to her death and he was just a messenger in a way.
In my question I asked to list similarities between the two stories. Everyone in their answer not only related the two books, but also stated their similar life lessons. I really liked Jeffrey's and Shane's blog because they did both of these really well. I liked Patrisha's blog because she argued against Kelsey, and made it a little more interesting to read. Maura's post was good, fully answering the prompt. Everyone answered the question and often exceeded the question in the prompt.
ReplyDeleteClayton Poffenberger
O' Connor and Faulkner both analyze conflicts. however, they differ in the way they present these issues. with O' Connor, the clashes are external, like between the misfit and the grandmother, or the bible salesman and Hulga. we are not directly informed of the characters' thoughts, but are able to infer them from their actions. The grandmother is selfish because she cares more about the misfit than her son and grandchildren. the bible salesman is godless besause he steals Hulga's false prosthetic and ruins her perception of good and evil. in Faulkner's stories, however, the conflicts are internal, and in "Barn Burning" and many of his other stories, we are giver unrestricted access to the characters' thoughts. With their stream of conscious openly displayed, we see the character's struggle and thought process. in "Barn Burning" we see the plot from Sarty's eyes and mind. His stream of consciousness show his struggle against his father. The southern theme of kinship are apparent, but Sarty's mdetermination to be better than his father proves stronger. The different outcomes if the forms of conflict are also very telling. External conflict, couled with a lack of comprehension of one's own values and beliefs, often ends in tragedy. The character's of O' Connor's stories are forced to violently face their prejudices and work through that conflict before they can move on with their lives. in contrast, Faulkner's characters are very aware of their feelings, and rationalize every decision, whether it be right or wrong, internally before they act upon it. Therefore, faulkner demonstrates that resolving an inner conflict before you make a decision ultimately makes that resolution stronger.
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