American Literature

A critical look on Flannerys story, a good man is hard to find shows clear signs that generally foreshadow the horrible ending. The horrible episode begins with a big challenge to the family from their grandmother. The story starts when the grandmother is reluctant to visit Florida for the holiday, just because earlier she had heard concerning a serial mad killer named Misfit who is in Florida by that time. However, the old woman is ignored by the other family members except June Star, the young girl, who was able to read her mind. The fact that she warns her son, of this seriously dreaded Misfit and all what he has done to people (Flannery, 117) in other words foreshadows what will happen to them afterwards. One can not be blind to see that Flannery would not have mentioned such a timely fact if it ha no impact on the family as the narrative closes. During the actual morning of the trip the grandmother is in fact the first person to get into the car. This is exactly as the young girl had predicted. The old woman has to go wherever the family went (Flannery, 118). This can be interpreted as a clear foreshadow of the death of the old woman. After going through the story one may still wonder that when Bobby and Hiram take one into the woods he or she never comes back. The young girls prediction that the old woman will go wherever the family goes clearly shows even her will encounter the same black end like all the other family members.

Another clear foreshadowing is that although knowing of the finishing of the episode, the style of dressing of the old woman is symbolic in nature. It illustrates clearly preparation of her coffin. If someone breathes his last breath, is mostly dressed in their best clothing this is in fact how the old woman is dressed in which appears as her good outfit (Flannery, 118). Flannery says that the reason is to allow easy identification in any case some body finds her dead. According to readers this seems to be foreshadowing of high level. One vividly sees another implication of foreshadowing when they pass by a garden full of cotton plants and amidst it fivesix graves fenced at the core of that garden (Flannery, 119). The figure five to six is equal to the number of mature people in the car. There are five grown up people in the car and a baby.  Five to six graves are approximately equivalent to the number of heads present in the car. At Red Sammy place, when the family halts at the restaurant known as the tower. We see that Sammy immediately starts complaining about the untrustworthy of mankind. He explained to the family how just the other day he allowed two men to purchase gasoline and pay later only to realize that they had coined him. In her response the grandmother give credit to Sammy by telling him that he is a good person.  During the conversation we see the wife to Sammy saying that she can not trust anyone, even her husband. At this point the grandmother interrupts and asks whether they heard anything about the Misfit. Responding to this Sammy says that it is difficult to get a good man. We see he and the grandmother lamenting about what the world has turned out to be. The above conversation which took place at reds place foreshadows the black end. Flannery used foreshadowing to tell the audience through the two guys who coined Sammy what will be done to the whole family by the Misfit and his men (Flannery, 324)

Lastly, as the story begins it gives reliable clue to the readers that the characters are heading to cross roads with the Misfit in their holiday. For instance, the man is calling himself Misfit, this shows that he is weird and he is heading to Florida. The darkness ahead of them is easily read from the episode through the way the writer uses foreshadowing to indicate the end. It is through foreshadowing that the writer manages to put his view that the trust and virtues of the society has deteriorated (Rachael, 1999).

In summary, the author uses well-built images to give a prior knowledge to her audience of horrible end of the episode. He also manages to maintain the tension of the readers from the beginning when she first mentions concerning the murderous action of the Misfit. She then uses different images and metaphors like the dressing of the grandmother, graveyard where they passed, and the conversation about prayer that Misfit had with grandmother. All these and many other examples further increase the curiosity of readers. Foreshadowing by the author was both vague and well-built not to blur the folding of the horrible episode.