How early in the story does O’Connor foreshadow what will happen in theend? What further hints does she give us along the way? How does the scene at Red Sammy’s Barbecue advance the story toward its conclusion?
What will be an ideal response?
- The foreshadowing of the story’s tragic end comes as early as the opening paragraph. The grandmother doesn’t want to go to Florida because the newspaper says, “this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida.” The irony of this first paragraph’s last two sentences—“I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did”—becomes evident several paragraphs later. Baily does not listen to her, so the grandmother addresses the children. John Wesley suggests that she stay home if she doesn’t want to go to Florida (par. 3), and June Star says her grandmother “wouldn’t stay home for a million bucks” because she would be “afraid she’d miss something” (par. 7). Of course, if the grandmother had stayed home, she—along with her entire family—would neither have met nor been murdered by this same Misfit.
Along the way, O’Connor provides many other hints. The grandmother brings the cat in specific defiance against Baily’s wishes (par. 10). She wears a dress and hat as they travel so that “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (par. 12). She points out a family graveyard to her grandchildren (par. 22).
But the scene at Red Sammy’s Barbecue remains one of the most important scenes as it advances the story to its conclusion. No mere filler, this scene tightens the suspense and enforces the hint that the much-talked-about Misfit is bound to show his face. In his highway signs, Red Sammy boasts of his uniqueness: NONE LIKE FAMOUS RED SAMMY’S. He considers himself a hard-to-find good man. In calling him “a good man” (par. 37), the grandmother first introduces the theme. The barbecue proprietor agrees with her, even declares, thinking of how many bad characters are on the loose these days, “A good man is hard to find” (par. 43). In the end, the title leaves us thinking: yes, a good man (a saint) certainly is hard to find. We find, at the end, a serenely good woman whose salvation has come only through traumatic suffering and the amazing arrival of grace.
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What will be an ideal response?