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“A Good Man Is Hard To Find”
Miyoko Nakaue
This essay is a response to “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
written by Flannery O’Connor for Michael Lake’s English 093
class. “What is faith?” This is what I thought at first; however,
I didn’t make this my thesis since it was too far. Observing
every detail O’Connor described, I chose more specific thesis.
This story reminded me of Shusaku Endo, a catholic Japanese
writer, and his point of view on Christianity helped me to
understand O’Connor. Though I studied English literature in
college long time ago, I have fun relearning English and
American culture now.
Editor’s Note: You may read Flannery O’Connor’s essay “A Good Man Is
Hard To Find” here.
Some say, “Those who have faith shall be saved.” However,
what is faith? How does “God” save people? What kind of
person is “a good man”? A lot of questions occurred to me when
reading “A Good Man Is Hard To Find.” Flannery O’Connor, a
Catholic born in Georgia, wrote about a family trip that ended
in a tragedy. O’Connor described common people who thought
they were “good” and a murderer who was thought to be evil by
those common people; then O’Connor exposed the true colors of
the characters through their conversations. This story was
written in 1953, when the U.S. was prosperous after World