Foreshadow for a Good Man Is Hard to Find

Foreshadow for a Good Man Is Hard to Find

  • Submitted By: rithz
  • Date Submitted: 11/23/2008 2:40 PM
  • Category: English
  • Words: 1029
  • Page: 5
  • Views: 2519

O’Connor’s foreshadow

There is something that needs to be said about the art of surprise. When one reads a novel it's the shocking denouement that sticks in ones mind and makes the reader come back to reading the book again. As one reads Flannery O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find they are first introduced to a southern family that plans to go on a nice vacation to Florida. As the reader continues to read the story more and more, they find out by the end, the family is killed after running into a wanted criminal named the Misfit. The shocking ending however, was led up through O'Connor's hints that one would not figure out until the last possible moment, but the clues had been laid out for them throughout the whole book. These hints or clues are what one would call foreshadow. Flannery O'Connor's use of foreshadow is characterized throughout the whole book through imagery of clothing, the symbolism of the graves, and the musical choice, which in turn enhances and hints the surprise ending.
Foreshadow through imagery was seen through the grandmother's dress. In the quote:

“The Grandmother had 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. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady." (Booth 366).

O’Connor had put this in so the reader could grasp a great image of how well the grandmother had dressed. Knowing the ending is that the grandmother is meant to die, the clothes described through O'Connor's words suggest that it was her coffin's clothes. When a person dies, they usually are dressed in their best outfit, just like the grandmother was dressed in what seemed to be her Sunday best. Furthermore, the second part of the quote,...

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