Throughout the story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find", Flannery O'Connor uses irony more than once. One part of the story where irony shows up is when the family got in the car accident. It was ironic because they were on the unpaved road because the grandmother wanted to show the kids a house, but the house wasn't even located in the same state they were in. If the grandmother would have remembered what state the house was in, they wouldn't have had to drive down that dirt road. It is also funny that the grandmother caused the accident by scaring the cat, who jumped onto Bailey's neck while he was driving.
The crash was sort of forshadowed in the beginning of the story when the narrator said, "In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady" (366). And after the accident happened, the grandmother's hat was still on her head just like she would have wanted.
Another ironic event that happened was that one person that drove past the family on the side of the road was the Misfit, of course. This is ironic because the Misfit was the one and only person that the grandmother wanted the family to stay away from during their trip and they happen to run into him.
And of course, the last part of the story that was ironic was when the grandmother realized that the Misfit was one of her sons. It is funny that all along, the grandmother was trying to stay away from her son and she didn't even know it was him until he shot her.
All of these ironic points makes this story sad but funny at the same time. It is sad that the family got in a car accident and that one of the grandmother's sons killed his own family, but it is funny because how oblivious the grandmother was the whole time.
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Brittany,
I agree with your response that O'Conner relies heavily on irony as a literary device in this story. To support your claim, you chose two key passages from the text - the grandmother's reference "in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead would know...she was a lady" and the grandmother's obsessive desire to steer clear of the Misfit.
I'm hoping we can discuss in class one passage you referenced - "when the grandmother realized that the Misfit was one of her sons." When I was reading the story, I underlined this part and placed a large question mark by it. In my understanding of the reading, I do not think the Misfit was literally the grandmother's son. But, I do find it odd (and confusing) that the grandmother says, "Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!" What in the world does she mean by this? I wonder...We will have to bring this up in our next class for discussion!
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