Flannery O'Connor Questions

"A Good Man is Hard To Find"
1.O'Connor begins to foreshadow at the very start of her story when the grandmother begins to talk about the "misfit" who escaped from jail. As the story progresses, she continues to talk about how much better it would be to visit Tennessee than go to Florida, hinting the readers something will happen if the family doesn't listen to the grandmother. Her conversation with the restaurant workers only further proves something will happen to the family by reminding the reader the "misfit" is still out of jail.

2. The grandmother always seems to be the typical, nagging older member of a family. She lives to reminisce about her past. As the story moves along, she seems to turn into a more caring, grandmother who is looking over everyone, to almost childlike at the end, not wanting to get in trouble with her son for causing the accident.

3.At the end, she realizes the man is going to kills her and claims to be his mother. She reaches out to his should trying to console him, but he kills her. She thought that maybe he would have mercy oh his own mom.

4. During the conversation, the reader learns the identity of the people and what their intentions are. The "misfit" has a very dim view of the world. He claims to be a bad man who doesn't belong anywhere. He tried to have a family, and couldn't even succeed at that.

6. The echo Mrs. Turpin hears is the answer to her worries. The girl at the doctor's office severely hurt her feelings. This made Mrs. Turpin self conscious and she wanted to know if she is as low down as the girl thought her to be.

7. She learned that people are people. You can't classify a person based on what the appear to be. You can't judge somebody based on the color of their skin or the clothes they wear.

"Parker's Back"
5.Parker believes there is nothing out in the world for him. Staring out into nothing is exactly what there could possibly be there- nothing. It shows he thinks of himself as alone with nowhere to go.

6. Parker wants to do something to impress his wife, only for her to beat him out of the house with a broom.

7. This shows Parker is very aware of himself and his actions. He knows he acted insane the night before and had every intention of not acting the same way the following day.

8. His quote shows he is by no means a religious man. If a man does not deserve his own sympathy, then nobody could save him. This goes to show that he thinks he doesn't deserve any of his own sympathy and can't be saved.

9. Sara Ruth wants the name written on his papers showing he was saved. Whispering his name through the key hole symbolizes him unlocking the door for her to open it. When he says his name, it frees him of his past ghosts because he is admitting to who he is.