The imagery in Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find creates an atmosphere that makes the reader feel knee deep in the story. From the first page to the last the writer creates realistic images and visions for the individual reading, making them feel as if they were standing off and watching over the characters in the story. In this short story there is a good amount of description of the surroundings but an even greater amount of detail for the imagery included in the story. This could be for many reasons, for most of the examples shown he uses it to the effect that it gives a physical sense of being in the story. Imagery occurs in all stories, just some have a little bit more than others to make the story have a sense of wholeness.
The story starts off in a living room, or common area where members of the family are sitting on the sofa, excluding the children, who are reading parts of the newspaper on the floor. The description here is not very intense, but it eases the reader into the story and prepares for what is to come. Here you get a mild physical description of some of the characters, which aids in forming one of the first images in the story. “ Bailey didn’t look up from his reading so she wheeled around then and faced the children’s mother, a young woman in slacks whose face was as broad and innocent as a cabbage and was tied around with a green handkerchief that had two points on the top like a rabbit’s ears.” (381, 382) It simply says that the mother is seated on the couch feeding the baby, the father seated as well, and the grandmother is seated in her wheelchair. The description of the mother shows her as kind of sloppily dressed. The eight-year-old boy is described as being stocky and is wearing glasses. The young girl is blond headed and at times has her grandmother curl it for her.
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The next scene, which eventually becomes a very pivotal point in the story, takes place in the car. The grandmother is the first one in the car, along with the cat. “She had her big black valise that looked like the hear of a hippopotamus in one corner, and underneath it she was hiding a basket with Pitty Sing, the cat, in it.“ (382) “. . but the grandmother has on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. 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.“ (382) She is described here as being very feminine and over dressed compared to the other characters, the mother is still in slacks and a bandana, and not much is said about the children or Bailey, the father. Her reasoning for this outfit was to distinguish her from the rest of the passengers if there were to be an accident, she wanted those who saw to recognize her as a woman. The scenery outside of the car windows is also described as they go along “The trees were full of silver-white sunlight and the meanest of the sparkled.“ (382, 383) This adds to the intensity of the reader’s involvement because it forces the reader to imagine such things as if they were the one peering out of the window. There is so much dialogue during this scene that you almost feel as though you are hearing the different voices for each character. The interactions between characters, such as the swapping of the comic books and passing of the baby are so realistic which just add more to the readers absorption in the story. “Let’s go through Georgia fast so we won’t have to look at it much,” John Wesley Said.
“If I were a little boy,” said the grandmother, “I wouldn’t talk about my native state that way. Tennessee has the mountains and Georgia has the hills.”
“Tennessee is just a hillbilly dumping ground,” John Wesley said, “and Georgia is a lousy state too.”
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“You said it,” June Star said.
“In my time, “ said the grandmother, folding her thin veined fingers, “children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then. Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!” she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack. “Wouldn’t that make a picture, now?” (383) At this point the reader probably is picturing the characters body movements and even attitude throughout this conversation. They can picture the grandmother sitting there with her hand folded and suddenly taking them out of place to point out the window to the figure she then goes on to talk about. Or even the little boy, John Wesley talking back to her in a disagreeing voice.
The next stop, the barbecue pit. “The Tower was a part stucco and part wood filling station and dance hall set in a clearing out side of Timothy.” (384) “Red Sammy was lying on the bare ground outside The Tower with his head under a truck while a gray monkey about a foot high, chained to a small chinaberry tree, chattered nearby.” (384) The author doesn’t simply say that they stopped at a tower-like building that served as a barbecue pit for lunch. He tells what it is made of, he tells of the man working underneath the truck, and the monkey chained to the tree, he even described the signs lining the highway miles before they even got there. All of which add to the image of the environment. When they enter through the doors there is a vivid description of what they saw. “Inside, The Tower was a long dark room with a counter at one end and tables at the other and dancing space in the middle. A long, dark room, here you are given a sense of space and lighting. Along comes the owner’s wife, she is described as tall, tan, light haired and that is pretty much it. Then Red Sam, the owner, is in his khaki trousers with gut hanging over and all takes a seat and begins talking to them. Here in this scene there is some more interaction of people. Which leads to the reader making a face and voice for each character.
They leave The Tower and enter the car for the second time continuing their journey to Florida. “There was a secret panel in this house.” When the grandmother mentions the house with the secret panel it adds a little mystery and makes you wonder if somewhere in the story you get to “see” this panel that she is talking about. “The children began to yell and scream that they wanted to see the house with the secret panel. John Wesley kicked the back of the front seat. . . “ (385) To add to this excitement the baby begins to cry and the little boy begins to kick his fathers seat and you can just imagine the feeling you would have gotten had you been the one getting your seat kicked. Annoyance and a physical feeling might be felt here.
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“The instant the valise moved, the newspaper top she had over the basket under it rose with a snarl and Pitty Sing, the cat, sprang onto Bailey’s shoulder. The children were thrown to the floor and their mother, clutching the baby, was thrown out the door onto the ground: the old lady was thrown into the front seat. The car turned over once and landed right-side up iin a gulch off the side of the road. Bailey remained in the driver’s seat with the cat-” Then it happened, the car turns over and the next thing you know they are all tossed in different directions in the car and everybody has different thoughts going through their head. You think just what the characters are thinking, what now? A feeling of fear and emptiness fills their emotions and they are stuck and all they have to do is wait. Once the black hearse containing three men arrives they feel a moment of relief, or what they think is relief. “The driver got out of the car and stood by the side of it, looking down at them. he was an older man than the other two. His hair was just beginning to gray and he wore silver-rimmed spectacles that gave him a scholarly look. He had a long creased face and didn’t have on any shirt or undershirt.
He has on blue jeans that were too tight for him and was holding a black hat and a gun. The two boys also had guns.” They see the three men as if they were there to help them, until they see them carrying guns. Stuck in the middle of the woods, having just been in an accident and there are three suspicious men with weapons that can kill. They are all faced with a scary situation. The situation escalates dramatically when Bailey and the little boy are taken away from the group and shot. Followed by the mother and the little girl. This leaves the grandmother all alone with the three men whom she once thought came to help her and her family. “Pray, pray,” the grandmother began, “pray, pray. . . . “ (390) This obviously shows that the grandmother is feeling alone and as the reader you get a sense of emptiness at this point. The main focus is on the grandmother and the scared feelings she has.
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In this story I believe that the interaction between characters and the description of the objects have an influence on the readers perception greatly. I believe that O’Connor used imagery in this story for the exact reason I mentioned at the beginning of this paper. He used it to make the reader feel a part of the story. Every sense that a human being is able of having is touched upon in this story. By doing that it made the imagery much stronger than if he were to only touch upon a few of them.
