The Corinthian The Corinthian
Volume 5 Article 7
2003
Orthodoxy and Allusions in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" Orthodoxy and Allusions in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"
Conley Greer
Georgia College & State University
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: Vol. 5 ,
Article 7.
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Orthodoxy and Allusions in
"A
Good
Man Is
Hard
to
Find"
Conley
Greer
The
ending
of
Flannery
O'Connor's
"A
Good
Man
Is
Hard
to
Find"
finds an entire family
murdered
and a self-centered grand-
mother
reduced
to
a slumping pile
of
flesh
on
the
side
of
a Georgia
dirt
road.
The
grandmother's
last act
of
touching
the
Misfit
and
the
subsequent
grace afforded her because
of
that
act
is
the
source
of
much
analysis and debate.
There
has been little,
if
any,
debate
on
O'Connor's
sources for
the
moral
background
of
the
story:
the
Bible. I
"A
Good
Man
Is
Hard
to
Find"
resounds with
the
Christian
orthodoxy
that
guided
O'Connor's
personal life.
The
confrontation
between
the
grandmother
and
the
Misfit may provide
the
moment
of
grace,
but
the
Biblical allusions
throughout
the
story
certainly merit just
as
much
analysis. Flannery
O'Connor
uses
scriptural allusions
throughout
"A
Good
Man
Is
Hard
to
Find"
to
invoke her
orthodox
critique
of
a society seething
with
nominal
Christians
not
fulfilling
the
requirements
of
the
Bible.
By
examin-
ing
these allusions,
O'Connor's
message becomes
much
clearer.
O'Connor
foreshadows a tragic ending early in the story
through
her description
of
the reasoning behind the grandmother's
attire for the trip:
"In
case
on
an accident, anyone seeing her dead
on
the highway would know at once she was a lady" (361).
O'Connor
has the family pass
"a
large
cotton
field with
five
or
six
graves fenced
in the middle
of
it" ( 361) to increase the sense
of
impending doom.
The
grandmother informs the family that the graves belonged
to
a
plantation family.
When
asked the whereabouts
of
the plantation, she
replies,
"Gone
With the Wind" (361).
The
immediate reference
of
the reply
is
Margaret Mitchell's novel and the blockbuster movie
of
the same title. Traditionally, scholars tie this reply strictly in the influ-
ence that secular society has over the grandmother. David Piwinski,
however, reveals the potential for a more pointed allusion in the
grandmother's statement. There
is
an anagogical,
or
spiritual, mean-
ing underlying the phrase
"gone
with
the
wind" that binds the grand-
mother's foreshadowed death
witl1
O'Connor's
orthodoxy.
Most
scholars agree
that
the
graveyard scene clearly fore-
s
hadow
s
the
family's demise. Critics usually
interpret
this scene
as
50
Orth
odoxy and Allusions
in
"A
Good Man Is Hard to Find"
one
of
many
supporting
the
grandmother's
love
of
all
things secular
an
d her
stubborn
desire
to
live in the antebellum past.
Thomas
Hi
ll
Schaub
supports
this traditional interpretation
and
"argues
that
t
hi
s allusion
to
'the
official
handbook
of
antebellum myths' marks
the
grandmother
as
'one
who
is
attracted
to
and
would
gladly
return
to
the
mythic
past"'
( qtd. in Piwinski 73). However,
Piw
inski also
notes
that
O'Connor
was using the
Old
Testament,
specifically
the
book
of
Psalms2,
to
enrich the reference
to
Margaret
Mitchell's novel. Piwinski, in reference
to
the
traditional interpreta-
tion, introduces
the
concept
of
an
Old
Testament allusion in the
gra
ndmother's
reply
to
John
Wesley:
[W
]
hat
these
and
al
l
other
explicators
of
this scene have
failed
to
note
is
that
the original source
of
the
phrase
"gone
with
the
wind"
is
a passage from
the
Book
of
Psalms
and
that
the
grandmother's
unwitting allusion
to
the
biblical
passage
not
only augments the story's complex
of
ironic
foreshadowing
but
also supports
O'Connor
's own
com
ments
on
the
anagogical dimension
of
the
grandmother's
death.
(73)
The reference
to
Mitchell's novel
is
only
half
of
this very
important
allusion;
the
message
that
the
world
and
its things are
not
eternal
makes
up
the
other
half.
The
reference
to
Psalms completes the
allusion
and
supports
O'Connor's
orthodoxy: eternal life
is
only
possible
through
death.
The
grandmother's
reply
of
"gone
with the
wind"
originates
in
Psalms 103:
15-17:
"As for a man, his days are
as
grass:
as
a
flower
of
the
field, so
he
florisheth.
For
the wind passeth over it,
and it
is
gone;
and
the place
thereof
shall
know
it
not
more.
But
the mercy
of
the
Lord
is
from everlasting
to
everlasting
upon
them
that fear him,
and
his righteousness
unto
children's children"
( KJV)
3
•
The
theme
of
the
passage clearly states
the
inherent
tem-
poral
nature
of
man's
earthly existence by comparing
human
life
to
~he
life
of
a wildflower. Piwinski explains: "Metaphorically describ-
'.ng
the ephemerality
of
human
existence, this passage likens
and
individual's physical life
to
that
of
a flower:
it
is
short-lived and,
once
touched
by
the
wind
of
death, it vanishes forever"
(74)
.
There
is
no
hope
of
earthly eternal life. This interpretation
is
consis-
tent with theological
thought
today.
The
New
King James Personal
Study Bible offers a similar explanation
of
verses 15-17:
"Our
life
is
51
The Corinthian: The Journal
of
Student Research at GC&SU
transitory,
but
by the mercy
of
the
Lord
we may participate in
the
enduring
kingdom
of
God"
(860).
For
the Psalmist, righteousness
was
obtained
through
the
rights and rituals
of
the Mosaic Law.
As
a Christian,
O'Connor
recognized
God's
new covenant with
humankind
through
Jesus Christ.
Both
subscribe
to
the
same
premise:
God's
kingdom,
not
human
physical life,
is
eternal, and
human
beings should be focused
on
pleasing
God.
In
this context,
the
allusion
to
Psalm
103
has a
prominent
role
in
the remainder
of
the
story: it establishes its spiritual background.
The
grandmother's
role
as
a central figure in
the
story takes
on
a greater spiritual significance with the allusion
to
Psalm 103.
O'Connor
presents the
grandmother
as
completely secular until her
confrontation with
the
Misfit. Any
mention
of
Christianity by the
grandmother
prior
to
the
end
of
the story
would
appear
to
be quite
a paradox;
her
actions
and
dialogue until the accident reek
of
secu-
lar humanism.
The
grandmother's
unknowing biblical allusion
is
just that: it
is
an ironic statement from a secularly obsessed sinner
who
unknowingly comments
on
the Christian
concept
of
eternal
life. David Piwinski elaborates
on
the significance
of
the
grand-
mother's
allusion
to
the
rest
of
the story:
"Her
allusion
to
the
Psalms passage allows
her
readers
to
view the
grandmother's
death
from its
proper
anagogical perspective by evoking
the
central para-
dox
of
Christian doctrine: only
through
death can
one
hope
to
gain
eternal life" (74).
O'Connor
has the
grandmother
face, in
O'Connor's
opinion, the
most
significant event in life
that
a
Christian can encounter: death.
In
this context,
"A
Good
Man
Is
Hard
to
Find"
may
end
grotesquely,
but
the allusion
to
Psalm
103
foreshadows hope in the sense that the
grandmother
will have an
opportunity
to
experience eternal life
when
she comes face
to
face
with death.
O'Connor
uses the
grandmother's
"gone
with the. wind"
allusion to establish Christian
orthodoxy
as
the
framework for the
remainder
of
the story. Prior
to
the
mention
of
the
town
of
Timothy, the places and towns
mentioned
in
the
story were real,
factual places; Timothy, Georgia, however, does
not
exist.
O'Connor
introduces the fictitious
town
as
a reference
to
the
bibli-
cal books
of
the same name.
The
books
of
1
and
2
Timothy
in the
New
Testament deal explicitly with Christian orthodoxy. Hallman
B.
Bryant explains:
52
Or
thodo
xy
and Allusions
in
"A
Good Man Is Hard to Find"
The
allusion here
is
not
geographical
but
Biblical,
and
the
Timothy
alluded
to
is
almost certainly
the
book
in the
New
Testament which bears the same name.
Usually referred
to
as
the Pastoral Letters,
this gospel
purports
to
be letters from
Paul addressed
to
his disciples and
through
them
to
the
Christian
community
at
large.
More
than
any
other
writing in
the
New
Testament, the letters
to
Timothy
are
concerned
with
Christian orthodoxy. (
303)
It is an accepted teaching in Christian orthodoxy that the first epistle
of Paul
to
Timothy
focused
on
the behavior required and leadership
ne
eded
to
convey
the
Christian message:
Paul's first
letter
to
Timothy
was designed
to
give
the
church
clear directions for
establishing
the
kind
of
leadership and
decorum
that
would
most
effectively establish
the
truth
of
God
in the gospel. This was
done
by focusing
on
love rather than speculation,
salvation rather
than
squabbling, and
true
rather than false leadership.
Throughout
the letter Paul
sought
to
encourage family
love
and
respect
among
the believers.
(Hughes
and
Laney
632
-3)
Paul
is
advising
and
encouraging
Timothy
on
the traits needed
to
live
a Christian life
and
be a
good
leader
of
the church. However,
Paul also expresses some concerns and warns
Timoth
y
of
certain
behaviors
that
are dangerous
to
the Christian lifestyle. Bry
ant
notes
that
"the
concerns expressed by Paul in his letter
to
Timoth
y are
very germane
to
the
concerns expressed by Flannery
O'Connor
"
(303
).
O'Connor
brings these concerns
about
modern
society
to
life
through
her
representation
of
the family in
"A
Good
Man
Is
Hard
to
Find."
O'
Connor's
concern with society dominates the persona
li
-
ties
and
plot
of
"A
Good
Man
Is
Hard
to
Find."
O'Connor
pr
es-
ents a dysfunctional family
of
six hopelessly consumed with a
ll
things worldly.
There
is
no
a
pparent
structure
or
family hierarchy
pre
se
nt
in
th
e family and with
th
e exception
ofJohn
Wesl
ey
's name,
53
Orthodoxy and Allusions
in
"A
Good Man Is Hard to
Find"
reprehensible behavior.
There
is
an overwhelming sense
that
the
family
does
not
have a definitive authority figure present.
As
a
result, the family
as
a whole
is
completely dysfunctional.
The
grandmother living with
the
family only adds confusion
to
an
already chaotic situation. Fike
comments
that, "Bailey's family
appears
to
be
doing
the
right
thing:
'If
a widow has children
or
grandchildren, let
them
first learn the religious
duty
to
their
own
family
and
make some
return
to
their parents ... ' (1
Timothy
5.4).
Allowing
the
grandmother
to
live with
them
is
their duty, while
their behavior meets the letter
of
Paul's suggestion it nearly empty
of
the love
that
should
undergird
it, which he stresses in 1
Timothy
1.5" (Fike).
4
The
insincerity
of
Bailey's actions
and
his apparent
disregard for
Orthodox
Christian teachings potentially stem form
his
childhood. Bailey
would
only be following the example set for
him
as
a child.
O'Connor
places
that
example in the backseat
of
the car in
the
form
of
the grandmother.
The
grandmother's
promise to the Misfit that
"If
you would
pray,
Jesus
would
help
you"
catches the reader completely
off
guard
(369).
At
no
time prior
to
the confrontation with the Misfit
is
there
any
indication
that
the
grandmother
is
a Christian.
In
that
regard,
Bailey
may have been a bad father,
but
the grandmother
is
some-
thing far worse in
O'Connor's
eyes: a nominal Christian
who
knew
the
truth
but
did
not
practice it. Hallman Bryant points
out
that
the grandmother fails badly in her role
as
a Christian woman
and
widow.
Paul advises:
"In
like manner women also in decent apparel:
adorning themselves with modesty and sobriety,
not
with plaited
hair,
or
gold,
or
pearls,
or
costly attire"
(1
Timothy 2.9-11).
The
grandmother does
not
adhere
to
the Christian expectation at
all.
Bryant comments
on
Paul's advice
to
women
(and thus the grand-
mother):
"The
instruction seems
to
bear
most
directly
on
the grand-
mother,
who
is
vain
about
her
Old
South
Heritage and certainly
conscious
of
her social standing and what
is
required to be a lady.
This
is
best
brought
out
in her careful selection
of
attire for the trip"
(303-4).
Her
focus prior
to
the confrontation with the Misfit was
on maintaining a secular image
as
a "lady" instead
of
pleasing God.
Bryant further condemns the grandmother by stating:
"The
grand-
mother's inability
to
'learn in quietness'
is
tragically the cause
of
the
deaths
of
the entire family" ( 304).
Her
shortcomings
as
a woman
are
only matched by her irresponsible behavior
as
a widow.
55
The Corinthian: The Journal
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Paul defines a traditional Christian widow
as
a
woman
who
will
"trust
God
and
continue in supplications
and
prayers
night
and
day"
and
warns
that
"she that liveth in pleasures,
is
dead
while she
is
living" (1
Timothy
5.5-6).
The
grandmother
prays
when
she
is
finally
confronted
with a gun.
Matthew
Fike comments:
"The
grandmother
is
not
godly, prayerful,
or
trustworthy like the positive
widows he [Paul] mentions" (Fike).
The
lack
of
spirituality in the
grandmother
is
evidenced by
O'Connor's
presentation
of
her
family.
The
grandmother
does
not
provide
the
spiritual example required
of
an older widow,
and
the result
is
plainly evident in
the
apathy
of
her
son
and
disrespectful behavior
of
her
grandchildren.
It
takes
an
absolute tragedy
to
awaken the
grandmother
from her spiritual
coma. Hallman Bryant explains the significance
of
the events after
the
grandmother
identifies
the
Misfit:
It
is
generally agreed
that
in
the
traumatic
moments
that
follow in which the
grandmother
witnesses
the
deaths
of
her
family
and
anticipates
her
own
she does learn a lesson she has
not
heeded
previously during her life. This lesson
is
the central message which Paul attempts
to
convey
to
Christians
through
Timothy
and
that
is,
"There
is
one
God
and
one
mediator between
God
and
men,
the
Lord
Jesus Christ,
who
gave himself
to
mankind"
(1 Tim. 2.5).
(304)5
The
grandmother's
moment
of
grace
and
appointment
with
God
comes at the hands
of
The
Misfit.
The
Misfit has an entire family
murdered
with seemingly very little remorse.
O'Connor
judges the
murdered
family according
to
the
Pauline guidelines
of
Christian
behavior in
the
Pastoral Epistles. Recent scholarship by Fike sug-
gests
that
O'Connor
uses the same
book
of
Timothy
as
inspiration
for creating
The
Misfit.
Paul opens the
book
of
Timothy
with a warning
about
teachers
of
false laws
and
doctrines. Paul reminds
Timothy
that
the
law was designed for the sinners and ungodly
of
the
world:
"Knowing this,
that
the law
is
not
made for
the
just man,
but
for
the unjust
and
disobedient, for the ungodly
and
for sinners, for the
wicked
and
defiled, for the murderers
of
fathers
and
murderers
of
mothers, for manslayers" (1
Timothy
1.9).
The
Misfit embodies
th
e
type
of
individual
who
necessitates
"the
law."
Robert
Woodward
56
Orthodoxy and Allusions in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"
notes
that
The
Misfit "commits every act Paul names
and
becomes
the epitome
of
the
Godless
man
in a Godless society" ( qtd. in
Fike).
The
Misfit has absolutely
no
regard for morality.
If
any-
thing, his description
of
himself
and
subsequent murderous actions
make
him anti-moral.
While
most
O'Connor
scholarship
on
biblical allusion focus-
es
on
the first
book
of
Timothy,
Matthew
Fike argues
that
Paul's
sec
ond letter
to
Timothy
merits equal attention. Fike pays tribute
to
O'Connor's
genius
and
eye for detail by referencing an allusion
to the second
book
of
Timothy.
In
regard
to
what makes a moral,
enduring Christian, Paul states:
No
one
serving
as
a soldier gets involved in
civilian affairs- he wants
to
please his
commanding
officer. Similarly,
if
anyone
completes
as
an athlete,
he
does
not
receive
the
victor's
crown
unless he competes
according
to
the
rules.
The
hardworking
farmer
should
be
the
first
to
receive a share
of
the
crops.
(NIV
2
Timothy
2.4-6)
6
Fike
cites Luke
Johnson
to
explain the relevance
of
the passage:
"T
hese references
to
soldier, athlete,
and
farmer 'are
all
stock exam -
pies
of
moral exertion in Hellenistic moral teaching"' ( qtd. in Fike).
The Misfit, by his
own
account, claims he had been
"a
gospel
si
nger," a
member
of
the
"armed
service,"
and
had even "plowed
~other
Earth"
(368).
The
Misfit
is
not
an athlete
but
had
"been
Ill a tornado, seen a
man
burnt
alive
once,"
and "even seen a
wo
man flogged"
(368).
Fike elaborates
on
the comparison
between Paul's
mora
l example
and
the Misfit's background:
Like Paul's moral exemplars,
The
Misfit has
been a soldier
and
a farmer,
but
instead
of
the
athlete's purposeful exertion,
The
Mifit
stresses
death,
destruction,
and
violence [ ... ].
The
Misfit falls
short
of
the athlete's morality,
or
he plays by
no
one's
rules except his own.
In his view, physical contact
is
for
torture,
and
being a religious singer
is
no
more
meritorious
or
memorable than seeing a
woman
flogged. (Fike)
57
The Corinthian: The Journal
of
Student Research at GC&SU
The
Misfit
is
the type
of
deplorable, immoral individual required to
afford the
grandmother
her
moment
of
grace.
Scholars such
as
Bryant, Fike,
and
Piwinski remain ever vigi-
lant in
hoping
to
extract deeper meanings from
the
work
of
Flannery
O'Connor.
Although their respective interpretations may
differ slightly, their opinions
all
seem
to
converge
upon
one
particu-
lar point: whether alluding
to
the
book
of
Psalms
or
the
books
of
Timothy,
O'Connor
remains constant in critiquing society from a
Christian perspective.
Her
ingenious transformation
of
ancient
scriptures
into
a
modern
application
is
worthy
of
the
scholarship
afforded
"A
Good
Man
Is
Hard
to
Find."
O'Connor
wanted
the
meanings
of
her
stories to
"go
on
expanding for
the
reader
th
e
more
he thinks
about
it" (
qtd
. in Fike).
The
Biblical allusions
ensure
that
"A
Good
Man
is
Hard
to
Find" will always offer the
expandability
that
O'Connor
desired.
Notes
1
For
the
sake
of
scholarly accuracy and discussion, I wi
ll
cite
verses from
the
Douay Rheims version
of
The
Holy
Bible unless
otherwise noted.
Although
the scholars cited
throughout
this work
each use a traditionally Protestant translation in their analysis
of
O'Connor's
writing, there were only two Bibles authorized for
Catholic Mass at the time
of
O'Connor's
writing:
The
Douay
Rheims Version
and
The
Confraternity Edition.
The
Douay
Rheims version was the Catholic standard for Mass until mid-1960.
The
Confraternity Edition was unavailable
to
the
public until the
late 19SO's
and
even then scarcely used. Possession
of
any Bible
not
based
on
the Latin Vulgate, such
as
the King James Version,
prior
to
Pope Pius XII's letter
of
Divina Afflante Spiritu in
1943
authorizing
the
use
of
non-Vulgate texts for biblical translation
would have been considered heretical
and
in contrast with
O'Connor's
orthodoxy.
The
late availability
and
unpopularity
of
the
Confraternity Bible leads
to
the reasonable
presumption
that
O'Connor
was familiar with
and
used a Douay Rheims version.
2Piwinski references Psalm
103
of
the
King James Version
Bible in analyzing the
"Gone
With the
Wind"
allusion. Psalm
103
appears
as
Psalm
102
in the Douay Rheims version
of
the Bible.
3
The
King James Version illustrates
the
allusion literally with
its diction.
The
Douay Rheims version
of
Psalm 102:
15-17
reads:
58
Orthodoxy
and
Allusions in "A Good Man
Is
Hard
to
Find"
"man's days are
as
grass,
as
the
flower
of
the field so shall he flour-
is
h. For
the
spirit shall pass in him,
and
he shall
not
be:
and
he
sha
ll
know his place
no
more.
But
the mercy
of
the
Lord
is
from
eternity
and
unto
eternity
upon
them
that
fear him:
And
his justice
unto children's children"
4
Fike cites
the
Harper
Study Bible.
5
Bryant cites
the
New
International Version
of
the
Bible.
6
The
diction
of
the
NIV
clarifies
Johnson's
analysis.
Works
Cited
Bry
ant,
Hallman
B.
"Reading
the Map in
'A
Good
Man
is
Hard
to
Find."'
Studies
in
Short Fiction. 18.3
(1981):301-07
.
Fike
, Matthew.
"The
Timothy
Allusion in
'A
Good
Man
is
Hard
to
Find."'
Renascence.
2000.
EBSCOHost. 18 Nov.
2002
<http://search.epnet.com/direct.asp?an=4202820&db=aph>.
The
Holy Bible Douay Rheims
Version.
Rockford, Illinois: Tan Books,
1971.
Hughes,
Robert
B.
and
Laney, J. Carl. Tyndale Concise Bible
Commentary.
Wheaton,
IL: Tyndale, 1990.
Ne
w
King
James Personal Study Bible. Nashville:
Thomas
Nelson,
1995.
T
he
NIV/KJV
Parallel Bible.
Grand
Rapids, Michigan: Zondevan,
1985.
O'Connor,
Flannery.
"A
Good
Man
Is
Hard
to
Find." 1955. Rpt.
in
The
Norton Introduction
to
Literature. Ed. Jerome Beaty
and
J.
Paul
Hunter.
New York:
Norton,
1998.
359-71.
Piwinski, David
J.
"Gone With the Wind in Flannery
O'Connor's
'A
Good
Man
Is
Hard
to Find': An Anagogical Biblical
Allusion."
English Language
Notes.
2001. EBSCOHost. 21
Nov.
2002
<http://search.epnet.com/direct/asp?an=
4709527&db=aph>
.
59