“A Good Man Is Hard To Find- The Good Old Days”

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is a well – written short story which portrays an old lady who reflects on her life and how life used to be when she was growing up while at the same time pointing out the major differences she sees in her son and her grandchildren. The tone of the grandchildren alone as they speak to their parents or their grandmother is atrocious; they are spoiled, misbehaved and downright mean considering nobody’s feelings but their own. In fact June Star is so selfish and conceded that she reminds me of the character of Verruca in “Charlie and the Chocolate factory” the snot nose little brat who had her father wrapped so tightly around her finger it was disgusting! Particularly irritating in this story was when Red Sam’s wife said to June Star “would you like to come be my little girl?”(O’Connor)  and her sheepish response of “ No I certainly wouldn’t,  I wouldn’t live in a broken-down place like this for a million bucks!”( O’Connor)

 In my opinion this story is most certainly an indication of how self-centered and disrespectful children grow up nowadays as opposed to back in the day when children didn’t dare speak to their elders in loud voices much less with attitude for fear of a good smack!. Another indication of how horrible these children were was toward the end of the story once they got into the car accident “But nobody’s killed June star said with disappointment”(O’Connor)I believe the ending when the family meets the misfit after their accident and ultimately meets their death, we can use that as the literal meaning for the title of the story “A good man is hard to find” but based on the beginning we can see how the narrator was foreshadowing that the reason a good man is hard to find is because of the upbringing nowadays. A main reason for the grandmother’s stories and her nostalgia.