Good Man #3
O’Connor’s title “A Good Man is Hard to Find” relates well to the story because it makes you question what a good man really is. From the title I initially thought this story would be about finding someone to love or marry, as opposed to being about the ‘goodness’ of man.
In every character you can see their lack of goodness, not that they are completely bad. Bailey, his wife, and children, by society’s standards, from the outside looking in, would probably be considered good, but O’Connor points out their imperfections, so to speak. Bailey is short-tempered and unloving toward his mother, the children are ill mannered, the BBQ joint owner is, at the least, verbally abusive to his wife. Do these people symbolize what is considered good?
The Misfit, by his actions is evil, but through his conversation with the grandmother, we see that he is not pure evil. He has good in him, just as Bailey, who is supposed to represent good, also has evil in him. The title relates so well to the story because a ‘truly good’ man is hard to find, in that all of mankind has within us the polarity of good and evil.
Everyday Use #2
Dee‘s interpretation of the phrase “everyday use” shows us that she thinks herself better than her mother and Maggie. She believes that her wants and needs are more important, and cultured, and therefore take precedence over theirs. As she lays claim to the butter dish, churn top and dasher, as well as the quilts, in order to use them as decorative displays of her heritage, I noticed that every item was specifically created for its “everyday use”, each had a purpose. Dee doesn’t see beyond herself, she wants a display of where she came from, not who she came from. This is very clear in her decision to change her name, because she no longer wants to be named after the people who oppress her, ignoring the connection her name had to who she came from. Maggie and Mamma see the value of these items comes from their purpose, or everyday usefulness, and from their connection to the people that made them.
Response to "Everyday Use" Question Two:
ReplyDeleteI definitely agree with your response. I liked how you brought up Dee’s name change. Dee changed her name to “Wangero” in order to disassociate herself from the generations before her bearing similar names to “Dee.” It seemed like most females had some sort of connection to the name Dee, or at least one sounding like it. Dee didn’t want anything to do with a family name: “I couldn’t bear it any longer being named after the people who oppress me” (300). She made that statement as if it had been torturous to bear that name. It also seems that from this statement, she is implying that those people – her family members – weren’t living the way they should have, according to Dee. Dee was superior to every member of her family now that she was getting her education, thereby advancing herself to a new, superior social standing, and she no longer wished to be associated with those inferior.
I liked your take on the household items that Dee wanted to take. She did not associate those things as being handmade, cared for, and used in daily life. Dee simply saw them as items representing her heritage, that heritage that she had learned about in school. The churn even still had milk in it, as if it were recently used. Dee did not care though. She wanted the churn top as a decorative piece. I think you said it brilliantly when you stated that Dee wants those things as representing where she came from, and not who she came from. Mama and Maggie actually uses those items, whereas Dee just wanted them for show.