Moral Structure

6 Pages 1570 Words

The Moral Structure in
Flannery O’Connor’s
A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Thesis: Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” expresses how people know what is morally and ethically wrong, but in their mind they are right; it just takes something more for them to see the difference.
I. Family interactions
A. Respect needed for parents
B. Grandchildren are mouthy
C. Parents that do not care
D. Mother’s fear of son
E. Both children
F. Little girl
G. Grandmother and Sam.
III. The Misfit
A. Sent to jail and escapes
B. Knows his morals differ
C. Kills the realization
IV. The entire trip
A. Can only go to one place
B. The stop at The Tower
C. The unused road
D. The accident
E. Encountering the Misfit.

The Morals of Life
Throughout life we are all faced with issues that, in one way or another, pertain to morals and ethics. The choices that are made could and should have outside influences. There is no reason to not accept decision making help from friends or family members. Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” expresses how people know what is morally and ethically wrong, but in their mind they are right; it just takes something more for them to see the difference.
In the beginning of Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” there is a total lack of respect within the family unit. This immoral disrespect starts when Bailey will not listen to his mother’s requests to go elsewhere on the family trip. She tries to convince him by showing a newspaper article of a man who has escaped from prison and is headed in the direction Bailey wants to travel (327-328). Bailey did not even look up from his reading (328). Turning to Bailey’s wife the old woman finds the same brick wall of ignorance. The woman’s own grandchildren seem to have no reverence toward her. The little boy, John Wesley, tells her that she could stay home if she doesn’t w...