Three Common Themes Essay Research Paper Three

Three Common Themes Essay, Research Paper Three Common Themes Flannery O=Connor tends to use similar themes in her short stories. There are three common themes in her short stories AEverything That Rises Must Converge@, AGood Country People@ and AA Good Man is Hard to Find”. The transition between the old south and the new is present in each of Flannery O=Connor=s three short stories discussed. Flannery O=Connor also strongly emphasizes the mother-child relationship in her three short stories. Finally in Flannery O=Connor=s work, there is a common theme where there is a form of evil that changes the lives of the main characters in her stories forever. Themes help a story flow and Flannery O Connor choose to use similar themes in each of her short stories. These

interpretations fit into how O’Connor chose to write her pieces of work. The short story AEverything That Rises Must Converge@, by Flannery O=Connor tells the story of Julian, the main character and his thoughts and feelings toward his mother. Julian is a college graduate who has a fair understanding of the world he lives in, and because of this finds difficulty dealing with his mother and her views of the world. The plot of the story revolves around a bus trip that Julian and his mother take. Once a week, Julian=s mother goes to the local Y for her “reducing” class. Julian accompanies her on the bus ride over and back because she is uncomfortable riding alone since the buses have been integrated. The ride is nothing more than a necessary evil to him; it is seen as a time

in which he would be “sacrificed to her pleasure.” In Good Country People , by Flannery O Connor, Manley Pointer, a traveling Bible salesman, visits the Cedars, home to Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter Joy, who has renamed herself Hulga to spite her mother. Pointer s visit brings the arrogant, disdainful young woman to a climactic point in her life where she must acknowledge that she isn t as smart as she thought. A Good Man is Hard to Find is about a grandmother, her son and his wife, and their son and daughter arguing about their ultimate destination for a car trip. A brutal killer, the Misfit, is at large. As the result of a side trip urged by the grandmother and the cat she has smuggled along, the car crashes, and the family falls into the killer s hands. As each family

member is executed, the killer talks about his history and philosophical and religious beliefs. The grandmother tries to convince the killer to believe in Jesus until she, too, is shot. The transition between the old south and the new is present in each of Flannery O=Connor=s three short stories discussed. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People,” a change from the old south to the new south is quite evident. O’Connor uses these stories to show the differences between the old and new south and to voice her disapproval as to what the south was becoming. What upset O’Connor about the new south can be shown by carefully examining and interpreting these stories. In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, O’Connor uses many different characters as

representatives of different generations in the same family and uses these generations as examples of the change from the old to the new south. O’Connor uses the main character of the grandmother to represent what the south once was. One of the characteristics of the old south that the grandmother displays, is the need to keep herself looking like a lady. For instance, O’Connor writes; Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady. By giving the grandmother the great need to be dressed like a lady, O’Connor makes this character a throwback to a time of white gloves, flowered