Southern Grotesque

Southern Grotesque writing style is described as using supernatural, ironic, or unusual events to guide the plot. In the story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor, I believe use irony as a main component in her story along with stock characters that can be racist and self righteous, but you have some compassion for them. Such as the grandma who is definitely a racist with her comments about the small boy in the doorway of a shack. June Starr notices he had no pants and the grandma said, “Little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do.” She is also a very manipulative woman, using what she knows about her family, their likes and dislikes to get what she wants. She suggested that they stop by her old childhood so she could reminisce. She makes up a story about a secret panel, knowing that it would entice the children into bugging their father until he finally gave in and goes to the old plantation. She didn’t always win. In the beginning of the story she tried to manipulate the family into going to Tennessee instead of Florida by saying there was the possibility of running into the Misfit who was supposedly heading that to Florida. This moment was ironic. In the Southern Grotesque style of literature, these characters that have the negative qualities but they can also bring out empathy from the reader. You feel some empathy for the grandmother because of how the family treated her. It’s like they just tolerated her, didn’t really seem to enjoy her company. Her son Bailey never seemed to talk to her unless she spoke to him. Bailey’s wife never said anything and the grandchildren were disrespectful. When the grandmother complained about going to Florida, John Wesley said, “If you don’t want to go to Florida, why dontcha just stay home?” Another one of the ironic moments in the story was when the grandmother showed such concerned about her appearance. They would know she was a lady if she was found on the road side dead by the way she was dressed. The Misfit character was a grotesque character, in a more twisted way. How calm and mater of fact he was when he ordered the two men to kill the family was a bit unnerving. In the end the grandmother change her strategy in saving her life. In the beginning she was encouraging everyone to pray and in her last moments she bribed the misfit with money. This is could be an example of a type of secular grotesques. Throwing away God and resorting to anything to say your life.