A Good Man Is Hard to Find | Literary Qualities

A Good Man Is Hard to Find Literary Qualities

In A Good Man Is Hard To Find, O'Connor writes from a third-person narrator, telling the story from the perspective of the Grandmother. The point of view straddles the line between limited omniscience and total omniscience. O'Connor lets the reader know whose story this is in the first two lines, "The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind."

The omniscient narrator is limited in that she does not reveal any of the characters'— besides the Grandmother's—thoughts or states of mind but simply relates their words and actions.

O'Connor does provide background information about what happened just before the story started but, again, it is background provided only through the eyes of the Grandmother. In fact, the only action the reader learns about relates to...
(read more)