In her short
stories, Flannery O’Connor brings her characters to a moment of epiphany when
it is no longer possible for them to return to the old ways of life.The proud
are humbled, the ignorant are enlightened, and the hypocritical are forced to
recognize that the discrepancy between their smug surface and its hollow
spirituality is the proof of their inadequacy in the eyes of God. For
O’Connor, this epiphanal moment can only be achieved by violence and
destruction: “In my own stories I have found that violence is strangely capable
of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment
of grace…. We hear many complaints about the prevalence of violence in
modern fiction, and it is always assumed that this violence is a bad thing and
meant to be an end in itself. With the serious writer, violence is never
an end in itself. It is the extreme situation that best reveals what we
are essentially” (“On Her Own Work”).
In the three stories
we read (“A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” “Good Country People,” “Everything That
Rises Must Converge”), can you find any “moments of epiphany” which are
produced in extreme violent situations? How do these violent situations
“reveal” the hidden message of God? What mysterious transformations have the
characters undergone when they are shocked into an awareness of their smug
ignorance? Write an essay of 250-300 words.
40 comments:
英美一 410502010 陳宇新
In Everything That Rises Must Converge, Julien’s mother is still stuck in the past when the whites were superior than other races. Funny thing is that the world has changed; the society wants equality and justice. Julien has reminded her multiple times about the facts and tell her not to do things that are racist. However, Julien’s mother can’t get out of her own bubble and face what is going on in reality. In which her stubbornness leads to the tragic ending: Julien’s mother wants to give the black boy on the bus a penny, which is considered a racist gesture, and the boy’s mother is so outraged by it that she shouts and swings at Julien’s mother direction; it causes Julien’s mother to fall on the sidewalk with an expressionless look on her face. In my opinion, I find it is because the mind and thought of Julien’s mother is still stuck in the past, when she has everything, so she is absolutely beyond dismayed by the fact a black woman, a lower race (in her opinion), dares to touch her and put her to the ground; this, in her mind, an offended behavior also hits her back to her childhood that she keeps asking for her nanny and grandpa. It is not long after that she falls to the ground because of the stroke with her son wailing aside, guiltily and sorrowfully, asking for help, but getting no response from others.
410502008 英美一 丘力龍
In “good country people”, the hidden message of god reveals when Pointer removes Hulga's leg and setting it out of her reach. Hulga eventually realized that she was not as smart as she thought. In the story, Hulga used to be an arrogant girl for she was highly-educated. She always considers herself to be the intellectual superior of all those around her. However, she made a wrong decision for trusting the bible salesman, Pointer to be a “simple” country person. She tried to seduce him, but it turned out that she was outwitted by him. At last, Pointer took away her glasses and her artificial leg. It is her own decisions that brought about the outcome. What’s more, Hulga claims that she is an atheist, and despises all the people in her town. Nevertheless, when she was tricked by Pointer, she hissed, “ You’re a Christian ”, this implies that she still believe in gods, but pretended to be a nihilistic atheist. Ironically, Pointer not only overturns her concept of a Christian and a country person, but also strips Hulga of her intellectual superiority.
In“ everything that rises must converge”, Julian’s mother was a bigot and keep racial prejudice in her minds. She receives the epiphany when she was punched by a black women in her face when she attempted to give that little negro a penny. She used to live in the past, and think highly of herself. So when she learned the reality that time has changed everything, she had a stroke. His son, Julian, is an embittered recent college graduate that lives with his mother. He felt extremely ashamed of her mom’s discrimination against the black people, and always took an indifference attitude toward her. His epiphany came when her mother collapsed. He found out that he can merely rely on his mother and how vital her mother was for him.
In“ A good man is hard to find”, the grandmother always judges others with moral superiority for calling herself a lady. the epiphany came when the grandmother said to the misfit, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children！” Only at this moment did she try to treat others with equality and abandoned her sense of superiority among others. She tried to prevent the misfit from killing her, and constantly cried to the god for forgiveness. Furthermore, she is not really a pious Christian at all, but when she was facing her own death, she prayed to the god. Nonetheless, her hypocritical attitude couldn’t prevent her from being killed by the misfit.
410502030 英美一 呂冠葦
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”,when the old lady recognized The Misfit,it means the disaster begin.She kept telling religious beliefs to The Misfit.The old lady tried to use Jesus to persuaded The Misfit not to kill her.After all the family members were died,she realized and said“Why you are one of my babies.You are one of my children."At last,The Misfit still killed her.The story express the different point of when will Jesus reborn to save people between the new Bible and old Bible.People said it will happen on the day the end of the world.One said because the world will be damaged,so we can do everything we want.Eat, drink,and be merry.One said we don’t know when will the day comes,so we should be careful and feel scared every day.In“Good Country People”,the only thing Hulga received was people’s rejection.Hulga thinks that country people are good people.That’s why she trusted the Bible salesman and give him the prosthesis that represents her spirit.At last, the man lied to her and took away the prosthesis."It was like losing her own life and finding it again,miraculously,in his."this can show how much Hulga likes the man.In“Everything That Rises Must Converge Meaning”,nobody is perfect and all wrong.People’s behavior depend on the education and life experiences.Julian’s mother may endure black’s rudeness but she couldn’t forgive Julian.At last, she lay painfully on the street.“The tide of the darkness seemed to sweep him back to her, postponing from moment to moment his entry into the world of guilt and sorrow.”this can show Julian was regret.In the world,there is no one who has qualification to judge people.Only Jesus can,because he had achieved the highest degree of the morality.Everyone has faults.Having made some faults,that means you lose the qualification of judging people.
410502036 英美一 蔡欣庭
In "A Good Man Is Hard To Find",the moment of epiphany took place when grandma was about to be killed by Misfit. Before this moment, the grandma is such an uppity person that she considers herself is superior to the others by the actions of her being a "lady" and often judges others. Although she judges the lack of goodness in people in the world, she, is not a devout Christian at all. When her family were killed by guns, what she does was pleading Misfit to pray for god. The grandma always believed people with the kind heart will abandon to kill them. However, people didn’t always have the great heart, time has changed. It was too late when she realized. Because of her upbringing, she was a racism. And after a string of violent case happened, she finally understood and mistook Misfit as her son. When the grandma tells the Misfit that he is one of her own children is the moment when she finally realizes that they are both human beings, and she has found the ability to see others with compassion and understanding.
In “Good Country People”, Hulga’s epiphany appears when Pointer stole her leg and ran away. The moment of epiphany happened when Hulga was discarded by the Bible man, Manley Pointer. She was a high-educated woman with an artificial leg. In contrast her educated degree, the people around her were seems to be normal. She thinks she is superior than all the others. She always ignored them, including her mother. What’s more is she underrated him as a “good country people”. After realizing his true purpose, her confidence was broken into pieces. In the end, she just sat there and gazed him disappeared.
In “Everything That Rises Must Converge”, Julian and his mother shows some generation conflicts. The moment of epiphany occurred to when Julian’s mother was knocked by the black women to the ground, both Julian and his mother come to realizing the reality. Because of her arrogant attitude about the black and her background. Julian’s mother lives in her own ideal tradition world, and didn’t know the world has changed. She still lives in the old South, with strict social codes of conduct that determined the behavior of both whites and blacks. With her upbringing, she had strictly racism, that could have explained about her rude behavior-giving a penny to black kid. Then, the reality-the black women hit her-made her stroke, it was a giant bomb for such a woman who refused to accept reality. Eventually, her consciousness still stayed in her old days instead of the reality.And, for Julian, he is a well-educated person and seems to have some conscious about the real world. His epiphany came when he realized that his mother was getting crazy and dying. He did not stop his constant cruelty toward his mother until her stroke which made him found out his own evil actions for treated his mother like that. He found his ignorance when his mother stroke on the street. He realized the lesson he gave to his mother was silly and childish, and suddenly knew that how important his mother was.
410302073 英美三 陳郁菁
Flanner O' Connor, herself, said "I suppose the reasons for the use of so much violence in modern fiction will differ with each writer who uses it, but in my own stories I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace" ("On Her Own Work" 108).
At the end of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the grandmother has an epiphany before she is immediately shot and killed by the Misfit. As follows from pp.433: His voice seemed about to crack and the grandmother's head cleared for an instant. She saw the man's face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, "Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!" She reached out and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest. In the meantime, grandmother is standing on the truest and deepest senses of the word. Additionally, we could see the specific religious symbol like “grandmother with her legs crossed under her like a child’s and her face smiling up at the cloudless sky” in the last paragraph of the story.
O’Connor shows the reader that God is using his own power to transform the grandmother into a sort of epiphany. Her epiphany is God’s gift, both to her and (if he will accept it) to the Misfit as well.
410408025 英美二 陳彥宇
From the three representative works of Flannery O’ Connor, we could find she frequently put elements of epiphany on the protagonists to let them have awareness, or suddenly shocked by the great impulse.
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” the old lady was always indulged in the past, and not willing to go through Georgia, owing to her bigotry. Full of arrogance, the lady and her family often humiliated the opposite values, and even mocked the nigger. When they encountered the Misfit, who seemed to be a great country person and ultimately killed the lady’s entire family. The Misfit was caught into dilemma and lost the meaning of life. In comparison, the old lady was selfish and ignorant. Watching her family was heavily attacked by the Misfit, the woman did not protect them but only pray for herself. When the grandmother was close to death, she touched the Misfit’s shoulder and murmured; thereafter, the lady realized that everyone was born in equal and her conceit was destructed at the moment of epiphany.
In “Good Country People” Hulga was a high-educated but disabled woman, who was unhappy and brought an indifferent attitude towards everything. From the passages, Hulga despised counter-arguments, looked down upon others, and did not believe in gods. Ironically, Hulga began with her relationship until she met the Bible seller, who appeared to be amiable. The seller treated Hulga gently and intended to look inside of the wooden leg. In the end of the work, Hulga was deceived into the seller’s sweet words for her leg was put far away and never returned. Knowing that she was trapped, Hulga noticed that her pride and lack of self-defense had totally destroyed her life and everyone was not simple as she thought.
In” A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, we can first depict the personality of grandma according to some details. Grandma likes to treat herself as a” lady”, living in the past best south. She always thought her conscience is more superior than others, and was good at manipulation. When grandma finally succeeded in misleading her family to the house which is not in Georgia but in Tennessee, an car accident happened. After that, she met Misfit, the serial killer, who later killed all her family. Grandma still thought she could transform Misfit and try to impose her moral code on him thus he could spare her; yet, he didn’t. The event happened beyond her predictions, breaking the identity of herself in the past and giving her redemption at the moment of violence. She finally recognized her hypocrisy, dishonest, and selfishness which she performed before.
In” Good Country People”, the protagonist Joy, had her leg lose in a hunting accident at her 10 ten years old, desired a sense of belonging; yet, she was unable to get acceptance from her mother, and the outside world. Despite of the accident made her lose one of her legs, she was self-sustaining, never giving up herself. She had taken a PhD in philosophy which removed the shame of her disability; however, her mother couldn’t confront the transformation of her daughter during the accident, continuing seeing her as a cripple, pathetic little girl who didn’t has a “normal” life. This was the main reason that Joy changed her name into Hulga. Refusing to call her daughter Hulga is to refuse to accept her daughter. As no one truly understand her, she didn’t believe in anything, even god was no exception. Hulga had remained cynical and contemptuous of most people and things, until she met a Bible salesman and fell in love with him. Unpredictable, the boy stole her leg, saying” you ain’t so smart. I been belvieving in nothing ever since I was born.” As a result, we knew she was destiny to be destroyed by her atheist and arrogance.
410402039 英美二 陳雋哲
The unnamed grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” was absorbed in the past and considered herself morally more distinguished than others because of she was a “lady,” and she freely and frequently put judgment on others. She claimed that her conscience was a guiding force in her life, such as when she told Bailey that her conscience would not allow her to take the children to Florida which Misfit was in. She criticized the children's mother for not traveling to a place that would allow the children to “be broad,” and she compared the mother's face to a cabbage, which meant she lacked knowledge. She blamed John Wesley for not having more respect for his home state, Georgia. She also took any advantage to judge the lack of good people in the world. During all this, she proudly wore her carefully selected dress and hat to confirm her identity as a “lady”. The grandmother never turned her perspective on herself to persist her own dishonesty, hypocrisy, and selfishness. When the Misfit systematically murdered the family, the grandmother never asked him to spare her children or grandchildren. However, she begged for her own life because she couldn’t imagine the Misfit wanting to kill a lady. She seemed that he would recognize and respect her morality, as though it had meant something to him despite his brutality. Only when the grandmother was facing death did she understand where she had gone wrong in her life. Without being superior, she realized that she had her own flaws. When she told the Misfit that he was “one of (her) own children,” she sensed the importance of compassion and respect in the moment of epiphany.
英美四 410202075 李家欣
Flannery O’Conner usually brings the characters epiphany or revelation by experiencing violent events, and we can see the writing style within these three stories: “A Good Man Is Hard to Fine,” “Good Country People,” and “Everything That Rises Must Converge.” The epiphany occurred at the end of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” after the Misfit revealed his story. The grandmother tried to say anything she could think to save her own life, but after knowing the Misfit’s story, she unexpectedly reached out to comfort him. The grandmother herself experienced the epiphany, and represented as the instruments of God’s grace at the same time. God transformed the grandmother and sort of the Misfit as well through the grandmother’s behavior. In another story, “Good Country People,” Hulga, the protagonist’s epiphany was being betrayed by the Bible Salesman. Hulga’s high education made her lack of faith in God. Her feeling of intellectual superiority was destroyed by her decision of believing in the man. Her wooden leg had shaped her as a character, but since the Bible Salesman took off her leg, she became vulnerable and finally hard to shape herself again after being abandoned without her wooden leg. And the last the story, “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” the epiphany was to Julian Chestny. He prided himself on being a saint-like person, and disgusted at his mother’s discrimination against black individual. He thought himself was not a racist and willing to befriending with black people, but actually all his behaviors were fooling himself and what he really attempted was to infuriate his mother. He was waiting for a chance to “teach his mother a lesson” and to humiliating her, and near the end his mother was hit by a black woman and had a stroke. His mother staggered away from him and died, until then he realized his mother was hurt more serious than he thought. The epiphany revealed to Julian the nature evil in his heart. By giving her characters cruel and violent experience, O’Conner successfully reveal the hidden message of God and enlighten the characters.
410502012 陳姿蓉
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, we can know grandma’s personality through the story. First, she is hypocrite, keep talking something about God to claim her faith, but just said one thing and do another. Second, she is a racist, keep longing for the old day which slavery were put into practice. Third, she wants everyone to know that she is noble, a lady. Fourth, she is a great talker, always wants to control people. The tragic began after she recognized the Misfit. The moment of epiphany came when the grandmother said to the misfit, “Why you’re one of my babies, you’re one of my own children！”. At the time, she learned that they are all the same, all human beings. Only before her dead, she finally knew how to treat people equally.
In “Good Country People”, Hulga is a handicapped, feeling unhappy about everything. She claim that she is an atheist and believed in nothing, but actually she still believe in something. She was well- educated and thought herself smart, and despised everyone include her mother. She believed she seduced the boy successfully, but she had not. The moment of epiphany took place when the boy took away Hulga’s leg and refused to give it back to her. At the moment she found out that she was not as smart as she thought, and the boy were not the good people she thought he would be, but it’s too late.
In “Everything That Rises Must Converge”, the story talked about the conflict views of human rights between two generations. Julian’s mother was a racist, who still trapped in the old time, keep claiming her noble heritage. Julian is a well- educated man who can’t find work. He relied on his mother, but never be thankful to her. The moment of epiphany comes when his mother being hit to the ground by the black woman and have a stroke. She realized the fact that the world had changed, people who in different race can wear as same as her, even they can touch her. After the stroke, her mind traced back to her childhood, and finally fall by the side walk. It was at that time Julian found that how important was his mother, he can’t live without her, but the only thing he can do was watching her falling to the ground.
英美一 410502006 李宛容
Flannery O’Connor’s works always awake us before we meet eternal damnation. Like Hulga in Good Country People, she was highly educated, she looked down on her mother, Mrs. Freeman and her daughters. She is an atheist and she thought that she was smarter than those country people, but in the end, she lost to the people that she called him “good country people.” I think that Hulga is so arrogant, she thought that she was smarter than those country people because she was highly educated, she thought those country people were so ignorance. In the end of the story, the salesman who called Bible using one sentence to awoke her. He said “you ain’t so smart.” This sentence awoke Hugla a lot, she knew that not everyone was as simple as she thought, so she said “Some can’t be that simple” to herself in the end of the story. Like the grandmother in Good People Is Hard to Find, she still bathed in the past, bathed in the era of white supremacy. She wants to look as a lady even she is dead. She knew her fault and got the redemption when The Misfit killed all her family. Flannery O’Connor awake us before we meet eternal damnation. I think that she wanted us to know that God doesn’t necessarily give us redemption in the good time, maybe he lets us knowing our fault and lets us getting redemption when we are in the great suffering. Not only angle is the messenger of the god, the devil may also be the messenger of the god.
410502002英美一 林怡汶
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, there are some places implicated the Bailey family would be punish in the end of the story. First, the grandmother wore the white cotton gloves when they go to the Florida. She wanted to show her social states and also wanted people viewed her as a lady when she was died. Second were Mr.Bailey’s son and his daughter. The way that they talk to their grandmother was rude and unpolite. Third, when the grandmother saw the little black boy wearing without any clothes, she laughed at him and said he was a pickaninny. It shows her racial discrimination. Fourth, the grandmother exaggerated that their car had been turned over twice but actually once. She also said that she has believed to the god but her belief only on mouth not in her heart. Six, when the Bailey family asked help from the misfit, they didn”t found out the car of the misfit was a big black battered hearselike automobile, which is used to transform the dead bodies. Finally, when the grandmother was already to been killed by the misfit, her head all at once has being cleared, she suddenly realized what she has done before was wrong, she can’t showed off her social states: she can’t discriminate the little black boy. It was a moment of grace, she was not praying for the misfit to forgive her, in contrast, she forgave the misfit, and said he was her son too. In conclusion, these places point out that they were too arrogant to themselves so they finally would be punish by the god
410502044 葉綺 英美系大一
In the story of ‘’A Good Man Is Hard To Find,’’ the person who accepted the moment of grace is grandmother. She had been a lady in the north before. Therefore, she still had strong racial discrimination on black man in this new generation. Due to her personality of wanting to control everyone to fulfill her desire and considering her conscience which was more superior than other people, these reasons all resulted in the tragic ending. The author believed that she only could use violent, destructive and strong ways to let the characters understand their mistakes and sillies. And through this process, they could accept the moment of grace from the god truly. After all her families was killed because of her cheat, she realized her faults ultimately. Then she knew that everyone was equal, so she said to the misfit, “Why you are one of my babies. You are one of my own children!” Although she still cried to the god for his forgiveness and she was even an atheist before, she couldn’t escape from the destiny to die.
And in the story of ‘’Everything That Rises Must Converge’’, the Julian’s mother also has superiority and racial discrimination on black man. After she was hit by the black woman because she wanted to give the black children a penny, she had a stroke. Then she receives the epiphany from the gods. However, due to ignoring her children’s feelings constantly before, Julian didn’t aware of her stroke. And finally, she died, too.
410502046英美一沈靜汝
In the story “a good man is hard to find”, the last part of the novel is the old lady and Misfit dialogue, she tried to persuade each other to reform, do not kill, and in the background, the other two fugitives are her family one by one into the woods to kill. Misfit 's conversation, which most of the conversation from the old lady' s mouth, is still a superficial cliche, compared to Misfit 's speech sounds more like the result of independent thinking, but even more profound. The old lady first repeated the blind, hypocritical flattery, seeing their loved ones one by one killed, she subconsciously tried to influence each other through the power of religion, but because she had never really made a profound religious thinking, so the mouth out just like “if you pray, Jesus will help you” some so empty cliche. This is the words of Misfit brings a full of nihilistic words, his philosophy of life is evil, but he uttered the words are frank and even can be said to be profound, not the old lady that parrot. At the end of the novel, the family had all been killed, alone in the face of Misfit, the old lady made a strange move - she whispered: “Oh, you are my children, you are my children!” Reach out and touch his shoulder. Misfit jumped back and fired three shots when the chest rushed.
Many readers will think the old lady the last sentence and the action that she strokes for self-help and resorted to the last move, Misfit because she can not stand her nauseating and killed. However, in O'Connor's view, this moment is the old lady's " Moment of Grace ", in the violent strong impact, she suddenly see themselves, but also see their opposite Misfit, she suddenly epiphany, Found herself in nature is not better than the fugitive noble, her former superficial values suddenly replaced by a great love, so she said the only one sincere, Deep, heartfelt words to Misfit: "You are my child, you are my child!" And this moment is also a " Moment of Grace " for Misfit, although the cold nihilist did not To accept the day benefits, but instinctively shot to kill the old lady, but this moment still hit his soul and may change his life. At the end of the novel, the fugitive who had just declared that he had "no pleasure in doing something bad" at this time said to his associates, "Life is not really fun." And the old lady who accepted “Grace Life”, but she surpassed herself in the last moments of her life. When she dies, she is no longer the selfish, vanity, superficial, hypocritical, self-righteous at the beginning of the novel. She "looks like a child" The sky smiled "dead, she should be able to enjoy happiness in paradise.
In the novel, Misfit kill the old lady after his associates said meaningful words -
"She can be a good person" Misfit said. “If someone shoots her every minute.”
This sentence is more like O'Connor borrowed Misfit mouth to tell the reader. Because she believes that violence is often the way to grace.
英美一 趙思婷 410502014
In "A good man is hard to find" The grandmother happened to be a person who lived in her own world, and refuse to accept new generations. She always regard herself as a "lady". In the story, she insist to go to Tennessee, where her old,sweet memories placed. Although her family didn't agree, she eventually use lies to lead her family to Tennessee, which become a deadly trip. At first, she took her cat into the car, and it is the very result of the accident. Tragically, this accident make them met the murderer "Misfit". When the grandmother saw the whole family members get killed one by one, it turns out to be her very moment to change. The epiphany came when the grandmother said to the misfit, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children！”. In the end of the story, Misfit did killed the grandmother, and the she pray to God, hoping to change this bad guy's mind.However, God didn't save her life. Instead, God did save her from her ridiculous thoughts. After listening the grandmother's words, This Misfit kind of have some difference, maybe by killing her, He does get some weird transforms. People tend to get used to what they've got, and forgot its' value, and their mind is also something they don't want to change by others, even it's wrong. Through these violent actions and incidents, people can have a new chance to revise their own value, become a better or wiser human being.
英美一 林劭儒 410502050
In A Good Man is hard to find, the moments of epiphany are produced when the family has all been murdered. Only when grandmother is facing death, in her final moments alone with the Misfit. She understands that she live in the misguided values throughout her life. Besides, after she thrown from the car accident, and hat falls off. Instead of being superior, she drops the broken hat as her self-conception as a lady dissolves. On the other hand, she saw Misfit’s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and murmured, ”You’ re one of my own children!” she shows that she has found the ability to see others with empathy and understanding. In my opinion, it just a reckless piety trying to save herself. Ironically, one that is immediately followed by her death. However, I think at the end of story reveals some hidden message of god. “She would have been a good woman,” The Misfit said to Bobby Lee, “if it had been somebody there to shoot every minute of her life.” These two sentence stands for what grandmother had experienced right before he killed her. Misfit noticed that grandmother was trying to preach the gospel to him, but that it only happened when grandmother was threatened by death. To sum up, many stories end in violence in O’Conner’s story. Because she felt that it frequently took violence to awaken the self-satisfied individual to the shortcoming of life.
許美玲 英美一 410502054
In ‘A Good Man is Hard To Find’ the main character for grandmother, she is a person likes to judge on other people. Also, she thinks she can control everything is in the world, so if something is not happened based on her willing, she will comment and criticize it. The moment of epiphany is when grandmother said “Why you are one of my own babies, You’re one of my own children.” Before her dead, she saw Misfit as her children; it means she thought he is one of a normal people. She didn’t see him as a criminal and keep talking him to pray. Violent situation is when before the murderer get shot. And when her dead, her face smile up at the cloudless sky it means she had a freedom.
In ‘Good Country People’ the main character for Hulga’s, she thinks she is knowledgeable and hyper class. because she has PHD of philosophy, and she didn’t believe of god, she had not good relation with her mother. And she fall in love with selling bible man, Manley. The moment epiphany is when Manley took away Hulga's wooden leg and made her realized that she had been sham by him. Before this situation Hulga’s thinks anyone can’t sham to her. Because she thinks she has a higher education.
In ‘Everything That Rises Must Converge’ the main character for Julian mother. She from an old southern family. She lives modestly and always reminiscing about the family plantation and the political and social influence held by previous generations of the family. The moment of epiphany is when the blacks women she knocks Julian’s mother to the ground with her large purse. Because Julian’s mother gives Carver a penny.
Every moment it happen is a hidden message of god to tell them, that they were not always right.
林劭儒 英美一 410502050
In A Good Man is hard to find, the moments of epiphany are produced when the family has all been murdered. Only when grandmother is facing death, in her final moments alone with the Misfit. She understands that she live in the misguided values throughout her life. Besides, after she thrown from the car accident, and hat falls off. Instead of being superior, she drops the broken hat as her self-conception as a lady dissolves. On the other hand, she saw Misfit’s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and murmured, ”You’ re one of my own children!” she shows that she has found the ability to see others with empathy and understanding. In my opinion, it just a reckless piety trying to save herself. Ironically, one that is immediately followed by her death. However, I think at the end of story reveals some hidden message of god. “She would have been a good woman,” The Misfit said to Bobby Lee, “if it had been somebody there to shoot every minute of her life.” These two sentence stands for what grandmother had experienced right before he killed her. Misfit noticed that grandmother was trying to preach the gospel to him, but that it only happened when grandmother was threatened by death. Many stories end in violence in O’Conner’s story. Because she felt that it frequently took violence to awaken the self-satisfied individual to the shortcoming of life or else they experienced a moment of grace which led to them to reevaluate their past lives.
英美四 410202074 賴祖兒
In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” O’Connor presents the grandmother’s epiphany before she dies produced by the means of The Misfit’s violence. For the grandmother’s almost whole life, she was born in a rather wealthy family as a “lady,” and she just lives her life thoroughly as a “lady” without knowing how other different people live their lives and their struggles. For example, she couldn’t understand the little black boy’s background and struggles when passing by him and even calls him “cute little pickaninny (424),” commenting “Wouldn’t that make a picture, now? (424).” The grandmother, as a white woman, possesses a privilege of race superiority and fortune, and thus wouldn’t understand or feel sorry for this little boy and his people. During the drive of the family, we can see the grandmother is a stubborn, self-centered elitist. She insists on going to east Tennessee for vacation instead of Florida, and hides a cat secretly in the car. She wears dress and a hat with flowers to ensure that people would know she is a “lady.” She comments that the continent of Europe should be responsible for the problems existing in the world to Red Sammy Butts, saying that she’s such a different person from The Misfit, which points out that she considers herself a good woman who has no connection with the problems either in her family or in the world. However, when encountering The Misfit and her imminent death, she suddenly understands the connection between the evil and herself. She suddenly understands she’s not that pure and innocent. Facing the violence and the possible destruction makes her get out of the way she used to think and act, realizing how ridiculous and ignorant she once was. O’Connor uses the means of violence and destruction to force the ignorant but ridiculously proud characters to realize their absurdity and hubris they’ve acted all the way.
英美一池有容410502022
In ‘’A Good Man is Hard to Find ‘’, the grandmother still lived in her good old days. She belittled black people as if they were still the slaves in the plantation. And she dressed up to show that she was a lady. During the conversation between Misfit and the grandmother, she wanted to purify Misfit from committing terrible crimes but only by saying shallow thing like ‘’ if you would pray, Jesus would help you.’’ Grandmother lacked deeper point of view on religion, Misfit, and even herself. So she brought herself to the end. Fortunately, she woke up from her superficiality. Compared to the hollow words she said to Misfit before, her last words conveyed a kind of benevolence on a criminal. Even she still died from three shots in the chest; the moment she finally liberate from her bias made she died with a smile. In ‘’ Good Country People’’, Hulga once was a rational, arrogant, straightforward woman. She could keep a clear mind while she got her first kiss from the Bible salesman; dealing with the man’s remorse and turned it into a deeper understanding of life in her imagination. Also, she just told the Bible salesman ‘’ I don’t want one.’’ But something in her gradually changed, Hulga immersed in the Bible salesman’s coaxing and touches. She even started to think that she would elope with him. However, the romantic fantasy was soon destroyed by the Bible salesman’s real purpose. All he wanted was Hulga’s artificial leg, and he was a con man. The moment of epiphany made her realize that she was not smart as she considered. Even she took the Ph.D. in philosophy, despising the country and country people, and regarding herself more outstanding than others. She still was deceived by a ‘’good country people’’, and couldn’t do anything but sitting there, letting the man ran away. In ‘’Everything That Rises Must Converge’’, Julian’s mother also had the contempt for black people, and Julian despised her for being such backward, and unlike modern mainstream, treating everyone equally. Every time Julian’s mother said something devalued them, he resented her, wanting her to shut up, or doing something like going near to the black people to irritate her. Julian definitely not truly care about racial discrimination, he was a hypocrite. When his mother slapped by the huge woman instead of worrying, he was glad to see his mother learn her lesson. After finding his mother was something wrong by the hit, he then realized what he had done was going too far and mean, and being guilty and sorrow. All three story are talking about one thing, redemption. The three main characters all have some flaws in their personality, which lead them to a tragic ending. But also thank to the tragedy, they can see more clear, get rid of the old, narrow perspective, and become better people.
英美一 沈棣文 410502042
In A Good Man is Hard to Find, the grandmother is originally an arrogant, self-centered woman who tried to make herself a “lady”. During the trip with her family, they encountered the Misfit, an escaped criminal whom the family was initially trying to avoid by going to Tennessee instead of Florida. The Misfit took out her family member one by one. During the event, the grandmother constantly told the Misfit that he is a good man in order to convince the man not to shoot her. However, the reason the grandmother is always trying to tell different people that they are “a good man” is that those specific men has similar moral values to her. The truth is, the Misfit holds different moral values to the grandmother, and consequently, the Misfit shot her dead even though the grandmother tried to convincing him. Before her death, even with the negative aspects of herself, she received grace from God. On the other hand, the Misfit accidentally benefited from his killing of the grandmother. After murdering the grandmother, he suddenly felt that there is no better in killing. Which implies that there is still a chance for him change, thus indirectly granted him grace. In the text, we could found out the author’s attempt to use violence to produce and convey the moments of epiphany it to readers. For example, the killing of the grandmother’s family members forces her to take measures to ensure her own safety, and at last, the grandmother and the Misfit both realized something and altered their moral values. O’Connor is also well known for the implementation of Catholicism into her works. For instance, both of the main character acquired “grace” at the end of the text. Receiving grace, which by the author means is the opportunity to rise into heaven, is clearly a Christian thought. O’Connor accompanied violence with the idea of acquiring grace in order to make the readers “percept” the message that she wanted to convey. Quoted from one of her lecture, “Belief, in my own case anyway, is the engine that makes perception operate.” was a certification of her writing method.
410502034 英美一蕭昀偉
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, things goes weird when the grandmother recognizes the Misfit. In most of Flanner O’Connor’s stories, there’s must be someone evil and must reveal an ignorant, arrogant person’s constantly bad behavior.In the story, Grandma is that kind of old lady who especially focus on the superficial outward appearance.The grandmother's epiphany is---she told Misfit that he was her own child. She still thought she was a lady and her concept stayed in the past South.Before she died, her face smiling up at the cloudless sky. It means she had a freedom. The grace came to the grandmother called Misfit “one of my own children,” which showed her realization of finding herself equaled to others and the abilities of compassion and sympathy. Yet this epiphany followed by her immediate death.
In“Good Country People,”The epiphany was that Hulga watched the Bible salesman run off with her stolen leg and leave her behind the loft. Hulga had earned a PhD in philosophy, which made her an atheist and lack of faith in God.Here was an irony that she was cheated by a person who she considered him simple, good, and not as smart as her. As the Bible salesman took away her wooden led, he also removed her confidence, intelligent, and protection, then made her vulnerable. Causing Hulga to think of her hubris and get redemption for new life.
In “Everything That Rises Must Converge”, the main characters, Julian and his mother both have epiphany. Julian’s mother has a prejudice in racial equality. She thinks black people are at lower class. That is the reason why she does not want Julian to sit beside the black people. Her epiphany appears after she gives the penny to the black kid. She finally realizes although her intention is good, other people may be misunderstand it, and it attacks her seriously. Thus, she becomes unconscious. This is also the moment of Julian’s epiphany. He tries to use any ways to make his mom angry. However, at the end of the story, after his mother is attacked by the case, and faint, he suddenly realizes she is important to him. For Julian’s mother, her tradition world collapsed when she was punched by the black woman, and her stroke becomes the final grace of her life. For Julian, he found his ignorance when his mother stroke on the street. He realized the lesson he gave to his mother was silly and childish, and he suddenly knew how important of his mother. This become a lesson to him.
英美一 李欣璉 410502016
In the story A Good Man Is Hard to Find, the grandmother is a hypocrite full of hubris. At the first part of the story, she tries to persuade her son to go to east Tennessee for vacation instead of Florida. She said: “……I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did.” The grandmother is very manipulative. In order to get her own will fulfilled, she wages this psywar against her son, accusing him of not being considerate enough. Although the grandmother likes to paint herself in the best possible light, we can see that she is actually a cruel person without much sympathy for others. When she sees a black child standing in the door of a shack without britches on, she says: ‘’He probably didn’t have any. Little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do. If I could paint, I’d paint that picture.’’ I would venture into saying that she is a white supremacist who deems black people as lesser beings and can’t relate to the hardship of other people. The grandmother is also very judgmental. ‘’People are certainly not nice like they used to be.’’ Her words indicate that younger generation nowadays is not as good as her morally. The grandmother can only see other people’s shortcoming and be blind to her own. In a way, she lives in her own ivory tower without knowing or admitting it. This grandmother is dishonest when her own foolishness has caused the tragic car accident which later leads to the death of the whole household. ‘’The grandmother decided that she would not mention that the house was in Tennessee.’’ She’s very noisy and likes to exaggerate things. ‘’We turned over twice!’’ She lies about the times the car turns, and is corrected by The Misfit. When she confronts The Misfit, she pleads for her own life without the lives of her other family members.
Her moment of epiphany takes shape when all the family members have shed blood and she knows she will be the next one to die since all her pleading with The Misfit so far has been either unsuccessful or ignored. In this extreme violence, she comes upon the epiphany. When she says to the misfit ‘’Why you’re one of my babies. You are one of my own children!’’, she is likely prompted by the epiphany. The hidden message of the God is revealed to her through the most unexpected ways drenched with grisly manners. After losing all her families, she faces her own death alone. It is during this tug-of-war between life and death that opens her mind into another stage of enlightenment. People often see things differently when they know that death is near and sometimes it gives them this epiphany that teaches them a belated lesson. Facing death, the grandmother ditches her manipulative approaches. She becomes sympathetic toward The Misfit, feeling the unjust he has suffered and tries to console him when she says to him that he’s one of her children. When she decides to forego the struggle of trying to prolong her life, in a symbolic way, she detaches herself from her own hypocrisy, prejudice, and dishonest.
W10502401 英美二 金佳蓉
In Flannery O’Connor’s story we can find some “moments of epiphany”. In “a good man is hard to find” is the moment that the grandmother faces death in front of the killer, in “good country people” is the moment that Pointer disappear with Hulga’s artificial leg, and in “everything that rises must converge” is Julian finds his mother’s death. Here I just take “a good man is hard to find” as an example to illustrate it. In this story, the grandmother is someone who just lives in her own moral code and considers herself morally superior to others by virtue of herself being a “lady”. And she never realizes her own hypocrisy, dishonesty, and selfishness. Even when Misfit systematically murders the family, the grandmother never once begs him to spare her children or grandchildren, she only cares about herself. Only when the grandmother is facing death in her final moments alone with the Misfit, she tells Misfit that he is “one of her own children”, does she understand what she has done wrong. Instead of being superior, she realizes, she is flawed like everyone else in the world. She is experiencing the “moment of epiphany”, she realizes that she is in some way responsible for Misfit's present condition and has found the ability to see others with sympathy and understanding. The moment of epiphany is immediately followed by death. And the author also conveys the hidden message of God by describing the grandmother’s dead body as "become as a little child" a biblical suggestion given to those who would obtain redemption.
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the grandmother, wearing a dress and a hat, viewed herself as a lady. The concept of “lady” was not only social but also moral superiority to others for her. In fact, she ass totally opposite from what she thought. She hid Pitty Sing in the car stealthily, lied to her grandparents about panel and did not tell her family that she misled her family to the wrong location of the house. Her dishonesty and selfishness caused a tragedy to her family. They stumbled upon fugitives including the misfit after a severe car accident. Then, they killed all of her family members but she only begged for her life. Before she died, she finally knew the hidden message of God by saying “Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children” She eventually realized that when confronting the death, she is not superior to anyone else. They are both human beings and equal to each other.
In “Good Country People,” Hulga is an atheist and has PhD in philosophy. Armed with knowledge, she thought that she could tell the truth from false. Ironically, even though Hulga had high education background, she still couldn’t tell that Manley was actually a swindler. She believed that Manley was a good man because he was a Christian. However, when Manley took the wooden leg away from her and left her alone on the loft, she finally knew the hidden message “Don’t judge a book by its cover.” People tend to see what they believe and often ignore the reality. If Hulga can stay on alert, I think Manley won’t have a chance to get an upper hand of her.
In “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” Julian’s mother couldn’t accept the concept of integration because there used to be strict social codes that determine the behavior of black and white in the older generation. However, things change when Carver’s mother boarded the bus. First, Julian noticed that they have the same taste of hat. It showed that they are in the same social status. Second, when Julian’s mother was knocked down on the ground, she called her father and Caroline, a black nurse, for help. It means Julian’s mother was very close to Caroline and relied on her. Form these two factors, we could see there was no racial division at all.
410502028 英美一 方拓為
From “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, the moment of epiphany is when the grandmother said “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!”. I think that the grandmother had never had the grace, but the Misfit received it from the grandmother instead. Before she died, she kept telling him that he was a good man for making sure that he won’t kill her. The hidden message of God was revealed during the short period when there was only two of them; her last words saved him from his former understanding at some level even though she was still a superficial woman.
From “Good Country People”, the moment of epiphany is when Hulga’s prosthetic leg was stolen in front of her. She had used to be a self-righteous woman until she knew the guy who sold Bible was a freak. She became one-legged, incapable of walking alone. This whole matter returned her from the reality; she finally realized how stupid for her to have imaginations and feelings toward a weird guy like this.
From “Everything That Rises Must Converge”, the moment of epiphany is when Julien’s mother got punched in the face. She was totally out of the loop, having distorted face while stumbling forward. His son didn’t realize that she had a stroke until he saw her face. She got her lesson from this punch, but she and Julien were helpless in the end of the story. This pathetic scene seems to be an appropriate warning for the readers.
410502048 英美一 廖祐德
In” A Good Man Is Hard To Find” the grandmother is extremely arrogant and self-righteous, we can know that from she just wants to go to east Tennessee and have on a navy blue dress with a small white a bunch of violets in order to highlight she is a “lady”. Moreover, she thinks that she is morally superior to others and she is freely and frequently passes judgement on others. Furthermore, she claims that her conscience is a guiding force in her life, such as when she tells Bailey that her conscience wouldn’t allow her to take the children in the same direction as the Misfit. The grandmother never turns her critical eye on herself to inspect her own hypocrisy, dishonesty, and selfishness, such as she takes her cat sneakily and she don’t admit that she doesn’t remember the right location of old mansion.
When the Misfit systematically killed the family, the grandmother never once begs the Misfit to let her children or grandchildren go, she constantly tell the Misfit that he is a good man in order to convince the man not to shoot her. However, she is still be killed.
The moment of epiphany is when the grandmother said “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!”. When she tells the Misfit that he is “one of her own children,” she is showing that she has found the ability to see others with compassion and understanding. This is a moment of realization, that is immediately followed by her death, and she received grace from God by changing her thinking.
410502004 英美一 黃崇睿
In the story ‘’A Good Man Is Hard to Find,’’ the moments of epiphany happened on the grandmother. The grandmother wasn’t respected her in her family, so when they went on a trip, her family do not listen to her any pieces of advice. But even so, she still dressed up meticulously and wanted to change her family’s mind to drive to Tennessee State. The moments of epiphany happened in the end. After they occurred a traffic accident, they encountered the wanted. The grandmother kept talking about theology and religion with the wanted. Hoping used that two things and Jesus to reform them. But they still killed her family. In the end, when her all family were killed, the grandmother finally got the epiphany. She said, “Why you are one of my babies.”“You are one of my children.” She thought she had already forgiven him. But even so, she still got killed. In another story ”Good Country People” the moments of epiphany happened on Hulga. When Pointer removes Hulga’s leg and put it out of her reach, Hulga suddenly knew everything. She was highly-educated, so she was kind of haughty. She alleged she was an atheist, but when the Bible man ran away, she yelled ”You’re a Christian” I think here is the hidden message of God, it represented she still believe in Jesus. In the last story ”Everything That Rises Must Converge,” Julian have a contempt on his mother because her mother was a racist. But when his mother was hit on to the ground by the black woman and have a stroke, he just realized he cannot live without his mother, and her mother realized, too. She found out she always lives in the past. In the end, Julian and his mother all had the moments of epiphany.
TRAN THI THU HUONG- 41020A068 台灣系-大三
Through O’connor’s works, we can find several moments of epiphany when her characters have undergone mysterious transformations that it is no longer for them to return their old ways of life. Coincidentally, these all epiphanal moments are produced in extreme violent situations which contain many profound meanings.
In “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, the moment of epiphany occurs when the grandmother is facing her death. Her characteristic is portrayed as a hypocritical, dishonest and selfish person. The grandma always feels like she is morally superior to others and looks for ways to criticize people. She acts as if she is a noble lady by dressing gaudily, expressing interest in a poor black boy and judging the lack of goodness in people in the world. Even when her life is threatened by The Misfit, she still believes that he will spare her because there is no way for him to kill a lady. Yet, after her children and grandchildren are mass murdered by Misfit and his companions, and she is told about Misfit’s life story, she realizes that she is not superior than others, her life is full of hypocrisy comparing to Misfit’s integrity as well. She and people like her just hide their selfishness under the guise of virtue, they also help to create Misfit what he is today. Ironically, her moment of epiphany is followed by her death. Simultaneously, Misfit also has experienced an enlightenment that he realizes the grandmother tried to preach the gospel to him, but it only happened when she was threatened by the death. In his opinion, she can be a good person if there is somebody chasing her. . From a person who thinks there is “no pleasure but meanness”, Misfit finds out “It’s no real pleasure in life.”
41054B005 社會系一白佳宜
In A good Man is hard to find, the grandmother’s attempt to use religion as a means of escaping the death which proves to be completely unsuccessful because the Misfit’ has arrived at a very definite conclusion about Jesus : Jesus has thrown everything off balance. If he doesn’t do what he has said, then it’s nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you have got left the best way you can(by killing somebody , etc.) . The author O’connor notes that the old lady is a hypocritical soul. The grandmother’s epiphany involves her recognition that the Misfit is, a product of the hypocritical attitudes and hollow actions which she and others like her has held and taken.
In Good Country People, Hulga’s epiphany occurs when Mr. Pointer steal her leg and runs away. O’connor highlights the idea of nihilism as Pointer opens his valise and we find that he has a hollow bible with a flask of whisky, some contraceptives, and obscene playing cards inside it we becomes aware that it mirrors Pointer’s religious condition (lack of faith ,hollow).And finally the opportunity for Hulga to achieve grace comes when Pointer abandons her in the loft after putting her artificial leg in his valise . It represent that her weakness is gone.
In Everything that rise must converge, the epiphany occurs when Julian’s mother is knocked down by the black women, "her eyes, shadowed and confused, finally settled on his face." "one eyes, large and staring moved slightly to the left as if it had become unmoved . " O’connor suggests the characters still indulge in the good old day, but in fact, the perceived social dominance that Julian’s mother believes in, doesn’t exist. The epiphany broke down the original perspective that black people are reliant on white people. The epiphany also takes effect on Julian himself because he actually looks at black people as some sort of trophy to rebel against his mother rather than as an equal. In the end, they both are punished for their self-centered attitudes toward the outside world.
英美一 410502026 李宜庭
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the grandmother considers herself superior than others and regards herself a “lady”. And she even wears a dress and hat with flowers on it so that people will know she is “a lady” if there’s an accident. She likes to manipulate others, when her family wants to take a trip to Florida; she says she wants to go to Tennessee. When they had a car accident and she recognized the misfit, the misfit then killed her family one by one. However, she only kept praying for God please don’t kill her. And in the end, the moment of epiphany happened when the grandmother is facing death, does she understand where she has gone wrong in her life. When she tells the Misfit that he is “one of her own children,” she is showing that she has found the ability to see others with compassion and understanding. She suddenly understood that they are all human beings.
In “Good Country People”, Hulga was an atheist and earned a PhD in philosophy. And she thought the daily talking of her mom was boring, but she envied two girls had beloved. The moment of epiphany happened when the Bible salesman, Manley Pointer, convinced Hulga to take her artificial leg to him; she never had immersed in love and gave it to him. However, he was a person who likes to collect prosthesis from disabled people and cheated her. She suddenly realized that she was not so smart like she thought. Although she has a high degree, she still couldn’t distinguish badly between good. I think she shouldn’t only see surfaces and had belittled others too much.
In “Everything That Rises Must Converge”, Julian’s mother is a racist, and she can’t take a bus by herself. In addition, Julian is a high intellectual, and he thinks his mom’s thinking stupid, and he did something to make his mom angry. The moment of epiphany happened when she was hit by a black woman to the ground and her consciousness went to the past. She understood that the world has changed, and she couldn’t hold the discrimination. And he suddenly realized that he couldn’t live without his mother and he couldn’t talk to the black with crossing the racial lines.
410502020 陳亮妤
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the grandmother was very proud of the past history and she still thought the white people were superior to other people. When meeting with the black child, she thought he was a good picture instead of thinking how unfair condition he was in. She didn’t reflect herself of having racial discrimination and just being absorbed in the past which was considered as wonderful memories by her. Also, she often said that she was a faithful person who believed in God very much. However, what she did was not consistent with what she said. She just like a hypocrite who cheated not only herself but also everyone. Until being killed by the Misfit, she realized that she was wrong about her egocentric thoughts. She knew that her thoughts were too limited to think of others.
In “Good Country People,” Hulga always thought of herself was brilliant woman who would not be cheated by anyone. She often despised people who were not highly-educated and she even didn’t believe in God. After being taken away her artificial limb, she realized that she was not as smart as she thought. She just liked other people who sometimes had the chances to make mistakes.
In “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” Julian’s mother was insolent and had serious racial discrimination toward black people. She still lived in the past and didn’t change her traditional thoughts. Therefore, when she realized that she was wrong, she couldn’t bear the striking change and then she died. Julian felt ashamed of his mother and had bad relationship with her. He didn’t understand why his mother was so proud that she thought herself was supreme. However, he knew how important his mother was to him when his mother died but he couldn’t change the fact that his mother left him forever.
英美一 410502032 劉子瑜
In “Everything That Rises Must Converge”, Julian's mother thinks blacks were better off as slaves and says they should "rise, but on their own side of the fence". Julian's retort? He tells her that "true culture is in the mind, the mind". She disagrees and tells him it's in the heart and that she knows who she is. It shows that Julian's mother is a self-delusional person who turn down to change with the times.
O'Connor has written a story which we can easily read and understand without having to struggle with abstract religious symbolism. Julian's mother is a bigot. Because she condescendingly offers a new penny to a small black child, she is, from the point of view of her son, Julian, punished with the much deserved humiliation of being struck by the child's mountainous black mother. It is Julian who recognizes that the black woman who hits Julian's mother with her purse represents "the whole colored race which will no longer take your condescending pennies." It is he who also recognizes that "the old manners are obsolete" and that his mother's "graciousness is not worth a damn." It is he (as well as we) who begins to realize, as we watch his mother die from the blow, that the world is, perhaps, not that simple. It is not a world in which everything is either black or white.
410301020 中文三 謝宓熹
In Flannery O'Connor's these three stories, we can find violence to bring the moments of epiphany near the end of the stories.
In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find", the grandmother is a self-centered person. The grandmother regards her proposal as the most important suggestion. She thinks she is the noblest. Even, because of her mistakes and lead to disaster, she still has no regrets. When the family was dragged into the woods to kill, the grandmother still said some vague language. In the end, when the grandmother alone to face The Misfit, she said, “Why you are one of my babies. You are one of my children.” In the face of violence directly, the grandmother had epiphany. She found herself no more noble than anyone else, and all were children of God. Although she paid the price of death, but also get the true meaning of God.
In ”Good Country People”, Hulga was a high-educated woman with an artificial leg. Her high education made her lack of faith in God. , Hulga’s epiphany appears when the Bible man, Pointer stole her leg and told her “you ain’t so smart.” She paid a terrible price, but also understand her self-righteous how ridiculous. Hulga has finally learned that she is not nothing to believe, just like she had just believed in love.
In “Everything That Rises Must Converge”, Julian is a high-educated man but he don’t have work and relied on his mother. Julian’s mother was a racist. She still trapped in the good old time. When Julian’s mother was hit by the black women, Julian and his mother all had the moments of epiphany. Julian realized he can’t live without his mother. His mother understood that the world has changed, and she couldn’t have the discrimination.
In these stories, the protagonists have suffered a painful experience, but also get spiritual inspiration, access to moment of grace.
In A Good Man Is Hard to Find, the grandmother and the Misfit both received the grace from God. The grandmother was a nostalgic woman who was out of touch with the society. She considered herself morally superior to others by virtue of her being a “lady,” and she freely and frequently criticizing others. The old lady settled herself carefully with delicate and fancy garment which was flamboyant and unsuitable for family trip just because “in case of accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once she was a lady.” She proudly wears her carefully selected dress and hat, certain that being a lady is the most important virtue of all. The grandmother never introspected her own problems. She suggested that they visit an old house she had remembered, lied to the children about the secret panel, and chose not to tell the truth that she had made a mistake that the correct location of the house was actually Tennessee, nowhere near where she said it was. Her selfishness eventually led to a car accident and the murder of everyone in the family. When the Misfit murdered the family one by one, the grandmother never once begged him to spare her children or grandchildren. She did, however, plead for her own life because she couldn’t imagine the Misfit wanting to kill a lady. She kept asking him wouldn’t he shoot a lady, calling Jesus and saying “pray, pray…” but she wasn’t a pious Christian. It would mean something to him despite his atrocities. She tried to draw him into her world by assuring him that he’s a good man, but even though he agreed with her assessment of him, he didn’t see this as a reason to spare her. Only when the grandmother was facing death, in her final moments alone with the Misfit, did she understand where she had gone wrong in her life. Instead of being superior, she realized, she is flawed like everyone else. When she tells the Misfit“Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” she is showing that she has found the ability to see others with compassion and understanding. The Misfit said the grandmother would be a good woman “if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.” It was a moment of realization, one that is immediately followed by her death. The Misfit also had epiphany though he snarled “no pleasure but meanness” in life, he denied that there is any pleasure in life at all. Killing couldn’t bring him happiness anymore.
410334033 會計三 陳貞儒
In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," the grandmother thought herself as a lady with a higher social status than other people, and liked to control everything around she even she might be wrong; however, the age is changed, there are no slaveries. When she met the Misfit, she finally conscious that no one should listen to her. She became scared and nervous that the Misfit would kill her. Actually, she was not one who convinced the God, but the ironic thing is that she tried to tell the Misfit that the God would forgive him and finally realized that her fault. It's just like " A man's words are good when death is near."
In "Good Country People," Hulga, a high-educated lady with one disabled leg who thought herself an intelligent person and hated her mother treated her as a child. She considered the boy as a good country people and trusted him. Not only let him see her disabled led but also took it away from her body. The sad thing is she finally knew he was a liar at this moment, but it was too late. We often use our sight to think what things happen, but it will not be true every time.
In "Everything That Rises Must Converge,"it is the time when Julian's mother hit by the black woman that she found herself wrong to stayed in the past and had something discriminated to the black. In this moment, she knew that she can't discriminate others just like the time before.
英美一 410502056 鍾卓懿
In all the Flannery O’Connor’s book ,we always can see some“moments of epiphany” happened in the book , like in the book “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”,the grandmother in the story is a selfish old women who only care about herself, by the way she tread that african American child you can see it that she is so proud of the history of her own people about slavery and the good old days, and you can also see how selfish is by how she planning the trip with her family, and that makes her why she is the character need to be punish, I’m not saying then the other people is not bad ,but they just not worst enough compere with the grandma, so our writer let Misfit——the serial killer to give her a lesson, and indeed that work, but to the grandmother, that come with a great prize, and the grandma only know what she done before were so wrong is the moment she get kill.
In the story of “Good Country People”，Hulga is a women who is highly educated and she also is an atheist, and she is hard to trust other people, but very irony that she is fall in love with a younger man who sell bible for living eventually, and that feeling of Hulga to that young man didn’t come out a good end, in the end Hulga finally figure out that the young man she loved is a liar but in that time it is too late, that young man have already take her prosthesis.
In “Everything That Rises Must Converge”, we can see Julian’s mother is racial discrimination, and Julian as a highly educated young man is very despite that kind of idea his mother has, and that make Julian and his mother relationship become really intense, but Julian is not really hate his mother, but when the time he realizes that is also too late, his mother is already gone.
英美二 410402042 李志東
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find", the grandmother is a typical old lady, nagging about everything, she takes everything in her control, no one would spare. she believes in what she think, and she is so traditional, when they hit the road for their journey, she dressed so decently that no one would not recognize she is a lady. And she remember wrong place led to the whole family faced the threat of the serial. in the end, the grandmother's family got killed one by one, and Misfit give her the bloody punishment.
In the story of “Good Country People”，Hulga is a women who is highly educated and she also is an atheist, she overrated her ability to overlook this world. she thinks she realize the meaning of the world. so the bible seller,on the other hand, the imposer,could deceive her easily. it is pathetic that Hulaga believed that she found the true love for her live, but at that she just another victim of this serial criminal. what she got in the end?? regret and broken heard.
In “Everything That Rises Must Converge”, we can see Julian’s mother is racial discrimination,she is the bigot. and his son Julian seemed him as a liberalism, he did everything may make her mother angry,the childish treat, and in the end his mom got slapped by the black mother. he thinks his mom ultimately got punished, but he didn't realize she can't get up once again, so eventually who got punished?
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