Comparison
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ANALYSIS OF SOCIAL PROBLEM IN A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND BY
FLANNERY O’CONNOR
Mohamad Hani English Education Study Program
University of Muhammadiyah Bengkulu
Mohamadbengkulu16@gmail.com
Abstract
This study aims to describe the problems of social problems contained in the short story "A Good Man Is
Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor. This research applied descriptive qualitative. The data source is the
short story which title is "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor. The results of this study
are: (1) Family disorganization, due to lack of communication and lack of social relations within the
Bailey family, (2) Crime, the Misfit who came out of the prisoner all members of the Bailey family, (3)
Social status, the grandmother who is selfish and does everything she can to maintain social status and
people's views on her. On the basis of the results, it has been concluded and by using the sociological
aspect that the social problem events in the story can be a lesson and improve understanding and
interpretation in communicating and socializing in life. This study is hopefully more useful for readers of
literary books, especially the work of Flannery O'Connor and writers.
Keywords: “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor, social problem, crime, social status,
disorganization family.
©Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris FKIP UM Palembang
Introduction
This paper will identify the variety
of social problems that appears in this
short story by using the sociological and
psychological approaches. This is
because the story of the grandmother's
family life and the villain's misfit. The
story is full of irregularities or things that
should not be done in community life.
However, before going any further, it
would better to understand the definition
and some of the elements used in a short
story. The short story is fictional prose
with a fairly short story because it only
tells one main conflict faced by the
characters in the story. The short story
also has several elements. The following
are elements that are used in a short
story such as theme, characterization,
plot, setting, conflict, and point of view.
A literary work in the form of short
stories in which there is a conflict of
stories that imply social problems that
occur. It makes the writer interested in
conducting this study.
Mural Esten (1978: 9) gives the
opinion that literature can be used as a
source of artistic and imaginative
expression as a form of manifestation of
human life (and social) through language
as a medium that has a positive impact
on human life. Then in a short story,
there must be a social aspect that is
usually expressed in stories in the form
of conflicts that occur between each
character story.
If we try to understand further,
Wellek and Warren (Semi 1989:178)
said that sociology and literature are two
elements that are interconnected with
each other. Namely the existence of a
mandate or social message that is
captured in the literary works of the
author who wants to be conveyed.
Furthermore, Lucien Goldmann
(1967:494) explained that in identifying
social problems in a story not only can
be expressed from the behavior of the
characters in the story. It may also be
taken from the point of view of other
subjects in the story (the behavior of
animals or views of other objects) that
can be used as material in solving
problems that is.
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Besides using a sociological
approach, the writer will also use other
elements contained in a short story,
namely psychological approaches.
According to Wellek and Warren
(1989:41), psychology and literature
have a connection between each other
because an author must turn on each
character in the story through the action
or personality (psychology) of each
character that is the characteristic of
each character in the story. Therefore the
personality or psychology of each
character can be used as a reference in
researching a literary work such as a
short story.
The purpose of study is to
identify social problems in the short
story entitled A Good Man Is Hard to
Find by Flannery O’Connor. This story
tells a family that has problems in it.
There are two characters that have a big
role in this story, namely the
grandmother as a "good person" and the
villain misfit. Here the grandmother who
is the meaning of "good person" is not
the real meaning, but a person who has a
bad person who tries to look like a
perfect person. “The grandmother stood
up and waved both arms dramatically to
attract their attention” (page 7). This
indicates that the grandmother was
behaving that she was seriously injured
to cover up her mistake that she had
forgotten and did not mention that the
house was in Tennessee, this is the initial
trigger of the main conflict in this story.
The Misfit: "Jesus has shown everything
off balance” (page 11). The villain's
misfit in the story is described as an evil
and sadistic act in action but in terms of
personality (psychological) he also
questions the religious problem where
usually other criminals don't think about
it.
The quote above is the proof or
data that can be a reference in this
analysis that has included the social and
psychological aspects in it. This study is
expected to be able to increase the
knowledge of the readers in order to be
able to identify the social and
psychological issues contained in this
short story.
Literature Review
The definition of sociology
according to max weber, namely
sociology is a science which attempts the
interpretive understanding of social
action in order, it is a causal explanation
of its course and effects (Weber, 1964:
88). Based on the opinion of Weber,
sociology is knowledge in interpreting
an action in the social sphere that has an
impact in the future. Referring to a
literary work, sociology can be a
reference from the reader in tracing
social elements in literature, such as
deviations from norms in life.
Through a literary work such
as a short story, the author can tell a
polemic or conflict about life in society.
A short story work presents the problem
of life issues which basically contains an
intention behind it, which is expected to
the reader to be able to take the value of
social values in it. Hence, the sociology
aspect can be one of the main factors of
a literary work, including in the short
story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find". So,
literary works in the form of short stories
are basically fictional, but social facts
can be a dominating element in literary
making (Fananie, 2002:133).
Based on some experts' views
on sociological aspects in literature, in
this study using the views of Wellek and
Warren (semi, 1989: 53) states that
sociology is divided into three
classifications, including: (1) author's
sociology, (2) sociology in literary
works, and (3) literary sociology.
Therefore, this paper focuses more on
the second classification, namely
sociology in literary works.
An action which ultimately
becomes the trigger of every social
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problem in life certainly has a starting
point for that cause to arise. Namely the
psychological aspect. According to Shaw
and Ostanzo (1970: 3), that psychology
is science that studies behavior patterns
of individuals as a function of social
stimuli. The forms of psychological
interpretation vary, such as anger,
selfishness, a sense of help, and
socialization. In examining the study of
social problems in a short story we need
to find the starting point for the problem
to come.
So that the two elements in this
literary work (sociology and
psychology) become interconnected with
each other. Hauser (1985:119), said that
aspects of the psychological aspect can
be useful in sociology in a literary work
if it has a relationship with morality as a
whole. In other words, psychological
aspects are useful in the analysis of
social aspects in literature.
As can be seen from this study
a social problem can be examined by
considering the sociological aspects and
psychological aspects are very important
in characterization because it is
complicated to explain how participants,
in relation to others, manipulate
language and actions to pursue their
specific goals. The relationship between
sociology and literature has been the
motivation of researchers to conduct
similar studies to explore how the impact
of social problems in the environment in
general and specifically can help in the
interpretation of literature.
Methodology
This study discusses about the
social problems in the conversations of
the story A good man is hard to find. In
this study, the author used qualitative
methods by collecting evidence of data
in the form of utterances, excerpts of
text, clarifying data, then analyzing the
data chronologically based on the pages
where they were made, then made
conclusion.
It was used to analyze social
messages and problems in short stories,
especially works that consist mostly of
conversations and sentences like good
men are hard to find. The conversational
analysis was also applied to understand
and interpet the messages conveyed by
the main characters. In addition, it was
used to strengthen the analysis of social
problems.
Discussion
Disorganization Family
We should know that the
family is the first and most important
organization in a social community. So
that it can be said that a family has
several members who are in it such as
grandfather, grandmother, father,
mother, and child so that it becomes a
single entity. In a family, it is possible
for a dispute or problem that results in a
loss of communication and the inner
bond between family members. When
the emergence of problems in the family
that cannot be resolved the relationship
within the family also comes broken too.
If the relationship between family
members has been damaged it cannot be
denied that the loss of the function of
family relations and communication
skills among family members can be
said to be family disorganization
(Sreekumar, 2017:20).
Family organization in the
short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find
is experienced by all members of the
Baily family, such as grandma, Baily
and his wife, and Bailey’s kids are June
Star and John Wesley. In the family of
Bailey, family disorganization can be
found in every family member, they
seem to lack the sense of mutual respect
and attention caused by various things.
The grandmother who has selfishness,
the father or Bailey who is not
indifferent to his family and his wife,
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and the children of Bailey who lack
manners may be a reason by the
emergence of family organization.
At the beginning of the story,
the author Flannery O'Connor began the
results of his short story with the story of
the Bailey family who wants to go on
vacation. The grandmother selfishly
refused to go on vacation to Florida, she
wanted to visit some of her colleagues in
East Tennessee. The grandmother argued
that the area around Florida was
dangerous because a criminal had
escaped from a prison named The Misfit
even though she was also worried about
her family. The grandmother told to her
son Bailey:
“Now look here, Bailey,” she said, “see
here, read this,” and she stood with one
hand on her thin hip and the other
rattling the newspaper at his bald head.
“Here this fellow that calls himself The
Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and
headed toward Florida and you read here
what it says he did to these people. Just
you read it. 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.” (A Good Man Is
Hard to Find, 1953:1).
However, her son Bailey still
did not respond in any form to his
mother and instead continued to read
sports news. The grandmother tried to
persuade her daughter-in-law to help her,
but the results failed because Bailey’s
wife did not respond to her. “Bailey
didn’t look up from his reading so she
wheeled around then faced the children’s
mother….’ And ‘The children mother
didn’t seem to hear her….” (A Good
Man Is Hard to Find, 1953:1). From
here, we can examine the lack of
communication and attention functions
in this family that is a symptom of
family disorganization (Sreekumar,
2017:20).
In this story, the grandmother
is the main character and plays an
important role and has a big influence on
the course of the story. Therefore, he
always showed his selfishness which led
to disharmony within the Bailey family.
We can see when in the morning on
vacation, the grandmother brings her pet
cat; Pitty Sing ignores that her son
doesn't like cats. Therefore, it can be
ascertained that the grandmother is more
concerned with her own affairs without
regard to other family members, even
though in fact she also cares about her
son and grandchildren. “She didn’t
intend for the cat to be left alone in the
house for three days because he would
miss her too much and she was afraid he
might brush against one of the gas
burners and accidentally asphyxiate
himself. Her son, Bailey, didn’t like to
arrive at a motel with a cat” (A Good
Man Is Hard to Find, 1953:2). When on
the way, the grandmother also told
stories by giving a picture of children in
ancient times with now. This was clearly
seen as a family organization, where
children were more polite than they were
at her time. The old lady tells: “In my
time,” said the grandmother, folding her
thin veined fingers, “children were more
respectful of their native states and their
parents and everything else. People did
right then. Oh look at the cute little
pickaniny!” (A Good Man Is Hard to
Find,1953:2).
When on the way, the Bailey
family had an accident. the car driven by
the bailey fell into a short ravine, but
only injured and caused no casualties.
This is where the uniqueness lies, John
Wesley and June Star are even excited
about the accident without worrying
about themselves and even their father
and mother. "We've had an
ACCIDENT!" the children screamed in
a frenzy of delight. "But nobody's
killed," June Star said with
disappointment as the grandmother
limped out of the car (A Good Man Is
Hard to Find, 1953:6). The children
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were happy that they had been in a car
accident and there was a feeling of
disappointment that no one had died. It
seems really enthusiastic that one of the
children hopes that family members have
died. Children do not feel worried about
themselves even to their families, which
seems unusual to a family. When
relationship within family ties diminish
and even disappear, it can lead to
disharmony in a family that a result in
family disorganization.
Crime
Crime is a form of action
deviation or social violation in a
community environment. there are
various forms of crime that can be
committed by a criminal in the form of
murder, theft, robbery, fraud, rape, and
so on (Ross L. Matsueda :6). Based on
the theory put forward by M. Lemert
(1912: 12), that the cause of someone
being a perpetrator of social deviation is
due to the labeling process is given by
the citizen to him, so that he is seen as
negative which in the end the criminal
will continue to commit the crime.
According to the short story A
Good Man Is Hard to Find, that the
perpetrator of the crime was played by
The Misfit. At the beginning of the story
was introduced the figure of the misfit
with status as a criminal who had
escaped from prison and was on his way
to the area around Florida. But
unfortunately, the misfit instead met
with the Bailey family who was on
vacation in East Tennessee. The misfit
and two of his colleagues had guns in the
form of pistols, as we know, that a
civilian was not permitted to possess
firearms except law enforcement, but
here we can know from his appearance
that they are criminals. “What you got
that gun for?” John Wesley asked.
“Whatcha gonna do with that gun?” (A
Good Man Is Hard to Find, 1953:8).
The Misfit gave orders to his
colleague to take the Bailey family one
by one to the forest that lay near the edge
of the cliff and let the grandmother stay
with him, but not long ago there was a
gunshot from the direction of the forest.
Not long after, Misfit's two comrades
returned while Bailey and his family
were not with them indicating that they
had been killed with a gun. “There was a
pistol shot from the woods, followed
closely by another. Then silence, The old
lady’s head jerked around.” (A Good
Man Is Hard to Find, 1953:10). But in
the end, the mother of the Bailey was
killed by the Misfit in a tragic way, shot
in the chest, so the journey of the story
from the Bailey family ended in ill-fated.
In addition to killing all
members of the Bailey family, Misfit
also killed his own father but he denied
the case and argued that his father's
death was due to epidemic flu.
The Misfit sneered slightly. “Nobody
had nothing I wanted,” he said. “It was a
head-doctor at the penitentiary said what
I had done was kill my daddy but I
known that for a lie. My daddy died in
nineteen ought nineteen of the epidemic
flu and I never had a thing to do with it.
He was buried in the mount Hopewell
Baptist churchyard and you can go there
and see for yourself.” (A Good Man Is
Hard to Find, 1953:10).
Along with the passage of time
making people's attitudes and behavior
change, which is due to various factors
that cause it to occur. In the story by
Flannery, it is said that nowadays good
people are rarely found, which means
that they have increased the growth of
criminal acts in the community that can
cause serious threats. Red Sammy
provides a comparison: “A good man is
hard to find,” Red Sammy said.
“Everything is getting terrible. I
remember the day you could go off and
leave your screen door unlatched. Not no
more” (A Good Man Is Hard to Find,
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1953:5). Here it is clearly seen that there
has been a lot of crime as a form of
social problems that occur in the present
era, in contrast to the age of the
grandmother and Red Sammy who did
not need to worry about a crime that
would happen, even leaving the house
with the door open.
Social Status
The emergence of sociology
makes human understanding of social
and social sciences a basic subject in
socializing and adjusting conditions
when socializing. Karl Mark (Antonio
2016:61), this social situation makes
every human being has his own status or
class in life, social status in sociology is
based on the form of the method of
producing, rather than the type of form
produced or the source. It can be said,
that someone who tends to want to
improve his social status will pay more
attention to the steps that must be taken
in getting it.
Social status has become a part
of life for every human, as well as in this
shrt story. The grandmother's character
always looks perfect, ranging from
dressing to the attitude he wants to be
considered perfectionist by others. The
author of this story makes the
grandmother's character as the main
character he tells, so that the
grandmother is a priority in the character
who always maintains social status.
When the Bailey family will
leave for vacation, the grandmother
swiftly enters the car first by dressing in
a very striking manner. It is already
known that the grandmother who was
dressed very neatly and beautifully to be
seen by people as a noble and elegant
woman even though she had an accident.
“… but the grandmother had on navy
blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of
white violets on the brim and a navy
blue dress with a small white dot in the
print. Her collars and cuff were white
organdy trimmed with lace and at her
neckline she had pinned a purple spray
of cloth violets containing a sachet. In
case of an accident, anyone seeing her
dead on the highway would know at
once that she was a lady.”(A Good Man
Is Hard to Find, 1953:2).
Based on this declaration, his statement
that the grandmother chose to look
different than the daughter-in-law who is
also a woman to look more elegant and
luxurious than the Bailey’ wife. Here,
the grandmother was though that with
her appearance she felt a higher degree
than anyone else.
The grandmother told her
grandchildren in the car while traveling,
that she would have been happy if she
married a rich man from Georgia. ‘The
grandmother said she would have done
well to marry Mr. Teagarden because he
was a gentleman and had a bought Coca-
cola stock when it first came out and that
he had died only a few years ago, a very
wealthy man.” (A Good Man Is Hard to
Find, 1953:3). In the story, my
grandmother still showed her class. That
he does not want to be a partner of a
poor person who feels more remorseful
because he cannot marry a rich person
who he thinks is more appropriate for
him based on his class.
Until when they had an
accident, we could find out that the
grandmother felt that she was guilty of
the accident. therefore, he covered it up
by acting as if he was badly injured,
hoping that Bailey would not know it
and feel angry. therefore, the
grandmother must maintain her status
and reputation here so as not to be
blamed for the accident, this sounds
pretty selfish enough. “The grandmother
was curled up under the dashboard,
hoping she was injured so that Bailey’s
wrath would not come down on her all at
once.” (A Good Man Is Hard to Find,
1953:6).
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Conclusion
This paper has explained and
demonstrated the social problems that
occur in a short story entitled "A Good
Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery
O'Connor by observing the sociological
aspects of each event. Based on the
discussion and results of data analysis,
conclusions can be taken as follows.
First, there are three main social
problems taken by the researcher,
namely: 1) Family disorganization, due
to lack of communication and lack of
social relations within the Bailey family,
2) Crime, the Misfit who came out of
prison killed all members of the Bailey
family, 3) Social status, the grandmother
who is selfish and does everything she
can to maintain social status and people's
views on her. In this short story, social
problems that occur and are experienced
by each character that can be a separate
lesson for each reader in the relationship
of communication and outreach to
others.
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