Discussion Questions, Week 6 (03/01 to 03/07)

Week Six Discussion Questions:

“A Good Man is Hard to Find”


1. Having reviewed the lecture on O’Connor, explain why you think recognizing and understanding the concept of the grotesque is important to understand and more fully appreciate the texts.

2. Do you think the grotesque elements present in either or both stories makes the characters more or less sympathetic? Do you find them alienating, or do they help render the characters more fully human and understandable?


3. Discuss the title of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” – how does it relate to the story? Does this title provide a particular kind of insight into the text?

4. Another major thematic element at work in much of O’Connor’s fiction is “grace”, the concept of undeserved forgiveness and/or acceptance. Consider her own statement about her characters: “Our age not only does not have a very sharp eye for the almost imperceptible intrusions of grace, it no longer has much feeling for the nature of the violences which precede and follow them . . . I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace. Their heads are so hard that almost nothing else will do the work. This idea, that reality is something to which we must be returned at considerable cost, is one which is seldom understood by the casual reader, but it is one which is implicit in the Christian view of the world” (1392-1393). Explain this statement in the context of “A Good Man is Hard to Find”.


5. How did/does Martha Stevens’s reading of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (From The Question of Flannery O’Connor influence your own reading and understanding of the story? What did you make of/presume about the story before reading any criticism?

6. Use the above question but base it on Stephen Bandy’s “From “One of My Babies: The Misfit and the Grandmother”.

“Everyday Use”

1. Is this story best read through a feminist or a Marxist lens? What makes you think so? Be sure to use direct quotes to support your answer.

2. Discuss how Dee’s interpretation of the phrase “everyday use” illustrates her perspective on social position, power, and heritage.


3. Some critics have suggested that Dee uses language to oppress her family (in much the same way that we saw in Oleanna) and, additionally try to force upon mother and sister knowledge that is impractical and probably unnecessary for either of them. On one hand, Dee might be seen as very caring but misguided –she’s trying to convince Mama and Maggie to question or reject the system of oppression to which they appear to have completely acceded. On the other, Dee doesn’t try to show them they are oppressed but oppresses them herself, depending upon her education and experiences to demonstrate that she has “seen the light” and escaped the very oppression she imagines Mama and Maggie have willingly complied with. Which is it? Why do you think so?