Discuss "A Rose for Emily"
HMWK: Read Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Fiind"
http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/flannery-oconnors-good-man-hard-find-whos-real-misfit
- How does Flannery O'Connor describe the cultural and physical landscape of the South? What are the characteristics of the literary genre known as "Southern Gothic"?
- What are the key themes Flannery O'Connor explores in "A Good Man is Hard to Find"?
- The following questions can be given to students in advance or used
to guide discussion during class:
1. What qualities of the grandmother do you like? What qualities do you dislike? How did you feel when The Misfit killed her? Why?
2. How would you characterize the other members of the family? What is the function of images like the following: the mother's "face was as broad and innocent as a cabbage and was tied around with a green head-kerchief that had two points on the top like a rabbit's ears" and the grandmother's "big black valise looked like the head of a hippopotamus"?
3. How does O'Connor foreshadow the encounter with The Misfit?
4. What does the grandmother mean by a "good man"? Whom does she consider good people? What are other possible meanings of "good"? Why does she tell The Misfit that he's a good man? Is there any sense in which he is?
5. What is the significance of the discussion of Jesus? Was he a good man?
6. What is the significance of the grandmother's saying, "Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children"?
7. What is the significance of The Misfit's saying, "She would of been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life"?
There are, of course, no absolute answers to these questions; the story resists easy solutions, violates the reader's expectations.
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