The uncanny in flannery oconnors a good man is hard to find and faulkners rose for emily

In the story, a grandmother travels for a vacation in Florida with her family. Among them is her son, who is accompanied by his wife and their children. Although the grandmother advises against going for a vacation in Florida because of a violent crime she refers to as Misfit, no one listens to her and they still travel for their vacation. The grandmother feels that they should go on vacation in East Tennessee. Unfortunately, the Misfit attacks them once they are in Florida. According to Freud, uncanny does not merely represent an experience that stays within the frightening realm that evokes the dread and fear. On the contrary, the Freudian unhomely or uncanny which is derived from “unheimlich”, a German word for frightening species that was once familiar to people.

Therefore, uncanny involves a type of fright that tends to connect to past experiences or events that had initially been forgotten or repressed. According to Freud, the word Heimlich is never ambiguous but rather a word that belongs to different sets that are mutually contradictory yet very different. More specifically, there is one word connected to the comfortable and familiar while the other word refers to kept hidden or concealed. She must be trying to convince the Misfit that they share family, and since her lineage is equated to goodness, the Misfit must be a good one. The grandmother still believes that the Misfit is a good person even when he has a rifle in his hand, “I know you’re a good man.

You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people” (127). They share the same blood and the same lineage. Therefore, readers must acknowledge their own opinions and biases on race. Perhaps, these opinions and biases are a reflection of an inchoate and simplistic way of marking these people based on race (Carapia-Aguillon 21). Although a good man may be hard to find, the story raises the important question of the definition of a good man in society. There was need for evolution of the perception of the whites and blacks beyond the stereotypical. According to O’Connor, she believed that the south simplified the black man as a proverbial clown rather than an ideal approach, but one that allowed society too flawed to function.

According to the readers, the grandmother was simply a desert and her death only brings relief so they cannot read about her selfish, annoying and ignorant voice anymore in the short story. The story has, therefore, provoked atavistic indignation sense from the readers. Consequently, the story has psychological impact on the readers and justifies reasons behind the readers’ less inclination towards recognition and acknowledgment of the depth to which the author examines the depth of the social ills in the short stories. Some people may perceive a good man to be that who is quite prince charming and can only be met in fairy tales, while others perceive a good man to that who makes multiple attempts at doing good in society.

The setting of this short story is in the South particularly in the states of Georgia and Florida due to the author’s background not only as an author but due to the several landmarks evident in the story (Carapia-Aguillon 27). For instance, there is Rose who should be constantly suspicious according to the narrator, and contemptible individuals who are considered townspeople including the story’s narrator. Although there is no evident crime committed by Miss Rose, she is raised among the August’s representatives of the town and this brings several problems to her. The study of Faulkner’s and O’Connor’s stories is essential in understanding the southern culture. Nonetheless, it is important to share the parabolic perspective and culture of the south, and as the evident observations that the authors make to treat ordinary people in society, but with quite extraordinarily.

To a large extent, this makes the two stories appear quite ghostly. The town specifically treated Miss Emily as a circus attraction. She is not only treated as an emblem of the willowing August’s names of the towns but also as a representative of this group. Interestingly, this group receives a lot of petty gossips in the town (Ryu 141). The readers then start to inquire about the strategies that the newer southern generations will employ against their predecessors. Contrastingly, there is an interesting southern identity as portrayed by O’Connor in A Good Man is Hard to Find. Notably, the stories of death and murder are not the major stories of the two authors for this discussion. Although shallow reading may only support the natural defenses into loathing Homer and the grandmother, critical reading figures out the latent message of O’Connor in the short story.

Faulkner’s story A Rose for Emily does not rely on the death of Homer to be the major focus of the story (Savoy 146). Both the two cases of Faulkner and O’Connor portray both more sinister and darker cases that others may not understand quite easily. Contrastingly, the major focus of the story is not death and murder but rather it is the uncomfortable truth that is evident across the entire short story. She is understood for her hypocritical actions that consider goodness only when it values her opinion and safety. Consideration of the grandmother’s as a typical case for the short story, it is possible to trace all other underlying psychological justifications for the mentality of other characters.

Indeed, all these characters in the short story embody the grotesque characteristics. The case of the grandmother is extreme, however, since she manages to lie to everybody when she discusses goodness in her and that of others to an extent every reader believes she is a devout Christian who values goodness and selflessness (Bronte np). The short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find does not only reflect the minds and actions of the characters, but it is as well an epitome of the Southern life that was deeply lacking spiritual beliefs. Although there is twisted moral code for the Misfit, he remains to be a consistent and strong character throughout the story, allowing to enjoy every step of his life.