In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” an escaped convict and his companions murder a family because of a series of mishaps on the part of the Grandmother. Thinking that an old house is in Georgia rather than Tennessee, she insists that her son Bailey take a detour that leads them to their deaths….
Tag: The United States of America
A Good Man Is Hard To Find – Characters
Bailey Bailey is the son of the principal character in the story, the Grandmother, and is the father of June Star and John Wesley. He drives the car as the family embarks on their vacation. Bailey’s major importance in the story is his relationship to other people, especially his mother. He allows her to boss…
A Good Man Is Hard To Find – Summary
Flannery O’Connor’s story is told by a third person narrator, but the focus is on the Grandmother’s perspective of events. Even though she complains that she would rather go to Tennessee than Florida for vacation, she packs herself (and secretly her cat, Pitty Sing) in the car with her son Bailey, his wife, and their…
Everyday Use by Alice Walker: Analysis
Alice Walker’s early story “Everyday Use” is clustered around a central image: quilting and quilts. Her use of this metaphor is important to critics because she went on to develop the theme more fully in her later work, especially the novel The Color Purple. Simply put, the quilt is a metaphor for the ways in…
Everyday Use by Alice Walker: Symbolism and other Literary Devices
Alice Walker uses several literary devices to examine the themes in the story and to give a voice to the poor and the uneducated. Point of View “Everyday Use” is told in first-person point of view. Mrs. Johnson, an uneducated woman, tells the story herself. The reader learns what she thinks about her two daughters,…
Everyday Use by Alice Walker: Themes
In “Everyday Use,” the contrast between Dee’s beliefs and those of her mother and sister is emphasized by the different values the characters place on some old quilts and other objects in the home. Heritage The main theme in the story concerns the characters’ connections to their ancestral roots. Dee Johnson believes that she is…
Everyday Use by Alice Walker: Characters
Asalamalakim See Hakim-a-barber Grandma Dee Although Grandma Dee, as the Johnson women call her, does not appear in the story, she is a significant presence. Maggie is attached to the quilts because they make her think of Grandma Dee. Thus, although the woman is dead, she represents the cherished family presence that lives on in…
Everyday Use by Alice Walker: Summary
Alice Walker’s modern classic “Everyday Use” tells the story of a mother and her two daughters’ conflicting ideas about their identities and ancestry. The mother narrates the story of the day one daughter, Dee, visits from college and clashes with the other daughter, Maggie, over the possession of some heirloom quilts. The story begins with…
A Christmas Memory: Analysis
Truman Capote often drew on his Southern childhood in finding material for his fiction. He also frequently focused his stories on unconventional, strangely appealing women. ‘ ‘A Christmas Memory” is possibly the best example of a Capote story that exhibits both of these features. Capote described it as his favorite among his stories, and it…
A Christmas Memory: Themes
“A Christmas Memory” is an evocation of an idealized early childhood, a memory clouded by the innocence of a seven-year-old. The narrator, who is now an adult, remembers making fruitcakes with his elderly cousin, an annual event which marked the coming of Christmas. Memory and Reminiscence From the beginning of the story, the narrator’s memory…