OConnor Character Traits Essay -- Comparative Literature Green Leaf E

O'Connor Character Traits In Flannery O'Connor's short stories, "A Good Man is Hard to Find", "Revelation", and "Greenleaf", the main character in each share similar traits. Though the grandmother, Mrs. Turpin, and Mrs. May differ from each other in many aspects, there are three notable traits that each clearly possesses. Each of these individuals is highly conscious of their own social status, is socially prejudiced, and is extremely racist. Each of the women is revealed as being highly conscious of their own social status. Not only are they aware of where they exist socially, they are quite proud of their ranking. A perfect example of this occurs in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" when the grandmother dresses herself in such a fashion that "in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady." She has purposefully dressed herself in nice, classy clothing so, in the rare case of an accident, people would know that she did not die a woman from the lower class. She also pleads with the Misfit, "You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you?" when she is held hostage. This desperate plea proves ludicrous because he would have killed her even if she were poor. In "Revelation" Mrs. Turpin is extremely cognizant of her place in society. While ranking the classes of people in her head she describes, ."..and above them the home-land owners, to which she and Claud belonged." The fact t hat she actually spends her nights carefully constructing in her mind a class ranking system proves that she places a strong emphasis on her own social status. Also, her feeling of superiority toward the lower class is evident when she thinks, "Help them you must, but help them you couldn't." She fool... ...ntly to her workers, "Idiots! You could never say anything intelligent to a nigger." Mrs. May in "Greenleaf" shows her disgust toward African Americans when she asks her son, "What nice girl wants to marry a nigger-insurance man?" She is appalled that her son sells insurance to African Americans for a living and is convinced that no decent woman would ever consider marrying him with this sort of career. "A Good Man is Hard to Find", "Revelation", and "Greenleaf" depict these three characters as haughty, self-righteous females who view everyone around them to be inferior beings. Of course, the different and similar histories and experiences of their lives shaped them all. Sadly though, the sum total of all they had lived amounted to nothing more than overflowing bitterness and hatred; obviously, ignorance was in splendid supply during O'connor's writing.