Antagonists in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?"
Summary:
In the short stories "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Conner and "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, the anagonists are both mentally unstable and murderers, but their motivations are different.
In the short stories "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Conner and "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, the antagonists are The Misfit and Arnold Friend respectively. Both are mentally unstable and murderers, but that is where the similarities end. The protagonists of the stories are Grandma and Connie respectively. Both seem to be dissimilar at first but as the stories progress more similarities than differences become apparent to the reader.
In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" The Misfit is uneducated and was raised in the backwoods. He got into a lot of mischief when he was young as indicated by his father's comments. On page 439 paragraph 100 his father said he was a "different breed of dog from the others." You get the idea The Misfit is mentally unstable when he said in paragraph 111, ." . . along the way I did something wrong and they sent me to the penitentiary. I was buried alive." He seemingly ignores Grandma's question as to why he was sent to prison and continues to describe the way he felt in his cell. He then answers Grandma's question and says the psychologist told him he killed his father. He denied that fact because he said is father died of the flu epidemic in "nineteen ought nineteen." Another indicator of his mental instability in the story is when he talks about Jesus raising the dead and "thown" everything off balance. He was also angry because he was not present when the dead were raised.
The Misfit didn't really seem to enjoy killing like other psychopaths. Instead of killing all family members in plain sight he had Hiram and Bobby Lee take them into the woods and out of sight to kill them. They killed quickly without making them physically suffer. The Misfit did kill Grandma after she reached out to touch him but when Bobby Lee indicated it would be "some fun" to shoot Grandma everyday The Misfit told him in the last line to shut up and then said, "It's no real pleasure in life." He killed because he was "a different breed of dog."
In "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been" Arnold Friend's mental instability is indicated by his efforts to look, dress, act and talk like a young teenager to entice Connie to go for a ride with him and Ellie. Connie not only noticed he was much older but that he also wore something in his boots to make him look taller. The effect was that it made him walk funny and look comical. His different poses were to impress Connie but, again, they made him look more foolish than cool. Background information on Arnold Friend is not given in the story but the impression is he has some education. His comments on page 660 paragraph 58 also show him being cunning enough to get information on Connie, her best friend and details of where her family went for the Sunday barbeque and the activities planned for the event. Again, no reference in the story to his education but he obviously is more educated than The Misfit.
Arnold Friend enjoys harming other people. Page 663 paragraph 105 he tells Connie he is always nice at first and proceeds to tell her what he is going to do to her. You get the idea he takes great pleasure in harming other people, especially young girls. Rape is brutal and Arnold Friend explained to Connie that was exactly what he is going to do to her. You get the feeling, as did Connie, she is not going to survive the ordeal.
The similarities of Grandma and Connie are the antithesis of The Misfit and Arnold Friend. At first we assume Grandma should be much different than Connie because of her age and background. Grandma is interested in her own wants and desires. As the story begins Grandma is complaining about going to Florida. She wants to go to east Tennessee for vacation and uses the newspaper article about The Misfit's escape from prison as a reason to change plans. This is also a foreshadowing of her eventual fate at the hands of The Misfit. She knew Bailey did not want to take the cat. She got up earlier than all the other family members and hid Pitty Sing in a basket on the car's floorboard rationalizing the cat would miss her. Her conceit is apparent on page 442 paragraph 12. She dressed very elegantly for the trip so if "anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady." Her disregard for others is shown when she recalls a plantation near Toonsboro she saw as a young lady. She wanted to stop and see it but Bailey wanted to continue the trip. She lied about hidden treasure in the plantation to spark the interest and form an alliance with John Wesley and June Starr against Bailey. She eventually got her way. They turned back to the road where they had their accident and The Misfit came upon them, eventually killing all family members.
Like Grandma, Connie is also conceited. The very beginning of the story has Connie "craning her neck to glance into mirrors." When her mother tells her to stop gawking at herself she envisions herself and sees herself as pretty "and that was everything." She compares herself to her sister June and sees her as "plain and chunky." She is interested only in her desires and wants. When she and her friend Betty go to the mall she acts differently than when she is at home. At times Connie and Betty cross the highway, go to the drive-in to meet boys and be where the action is. One night Connie meets a boy name Eddie. She eventually has a burger with him and then leaves the drive-in to presumably have sex with him. The foreshadowing of her eventual fate happens as she leaves the drive-in. She sees a boy in shaggy hair and a gold painted jalopy. He wags his finger at her and says "Gonna get you baby." That boy, Arnold Friend, "gets" Connie on the hot Sunday afternoon.
Just before Grandma is shot by The Misfit and Connie succumbs to Arnold Friend's siren call both become detached from reality. On page 442 paragraph 136 Grandma doesn't know what she is saying, becomes dizzy and sinks down into a ditch. Page 667 paragraph 160 says Connie ." . .watched herself push the door slowly open . . .." We know Grandma is killed immediately by The Misfit while we are left to presume Connie eventually is killed by Arnold Friend and Ellie.
The common thread of the two stories is the theme if you do what is right or what you are supposed to do you will stay out of serious trouble.
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