A Good Man & Potential First Essay Stories

A Good Man Is Hard To Find
In the words of Flannery O'Conner, this is the story of a family of six which, on its way driving to Florida, gets wiped out by an escaped convict, who calls himself the Misfit. The family is made up of the Grandmother and her son, Bailey, and his children, John Wesley and June Star and the baby, and there is also the cat and the children's mother. The cat is named Pitty Sting, and the Grandmother is taking him with them, hidden in a basket.

• The old lady settled herself comfortably, removing her white cotton gloves and putting them up with her purse on the shelf in front of the back window. The children's mother still had on slacks and still had her head tied up in a green kerchief, but the grandmother had on a 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 cuffs 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. (pg. 444)
• This passage struck me in particular as it contrasts the lifestyles of the mother and the grandmother through descriptions of their physical appearances. The repeated usage of the the word "still" in the brief description of the children's mother indicates her rushed, brash way of life, as it is made evident that the mother had not the slightest time for trivial conversations. What I found most striking in this passage was the last sentence, as it foreshadows the unscrupulous death of the grandmother.
• "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." (pg. 447)
• This passage includes the first time the title is mentioned in the story, indicating some significance to the overall piece. Placed after the grandmother's story of a genuinely good man, Mr. Edgar Atkins Teagarden, from her former times, this passage juxtaposes the two contradictory perceptions of men.
• "She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." "Some fun!" Bobby Lee said. "Shut up, Bobby Lee," The Misfit said. "It's not real pleasure in life." (pg. 455)
• The ending not only concludes the story, but it also relates the Misfit to the writing as a whole. The Misfit is introduced as this vindictive criminal, unsympathetic towards the subjects he mercilessly murders. Throughout the duration of the story, the reader is fixated on finding a good man. This simple statement, made by the Misfit, pulls our attention from what qualities define a good man to what constitutes a good woman. In addition, the ending statement, "It's not real pleasure in life," implies the true character of the Misfit: a good man corrupted by justice.

A Relative Stranger

I was particularly intrigued by Charles Baxter's "A Relative Stranger," as the main character was a character I constantly found myself wondering about. An adopted child and a former member of the Navy lost in the relationships of life, Oliver Harris took a distinct interest in oceans, as he lacked a meaningful connection with another individual.

• Now--and I'm convinced of this--every adopted child fears and fantasizes getting a call like this announcing from out of the blue that someone in the world is a relative and has tracked you down. I know I am not alone in thinking that anyone in the world might be related to me. [...] I could never go into a strange city without feeling that I had cousins in it. (pg. 64)
• Harris's anxiety of meeting a member of his biological family is made apparent in this passage. Raised in an adoptive family who acted as if they were his real family, Harris was awed to receive a phone call from his younger brother, bewildered on how to respond accordingly.
• Going into a bar in the midsummer afternoon takes you out of the steel heat and air-hammer sun; it softens you up until you're all smoothed out. This was one of those wood-sidewall bars with air that hasn't recirculated for fifty years, with framed pictures of thoroughbreds and cars on the walls next to the chrome decorator hubcaps. A man's bar, smelling of cigarettes and hamburger grease and beer. The brown padded light comes down on you from some recessed source, and the leather cushions on those bar stools are as soft as a woman's hand, and before long the bar is one big bed, a bed on a barge eddying down a sluggish river where you've got nothing but good friends lined up on the banks. This is why I am an alcoholic. (pg. 67)
• This passage goes into precise detail regarding the bar, playing a vital role to the story and the development of the characters. Not only is the Wooden Keg the place Oliver Harris and Kurt Sykes first meet, but it is also the location where alcoholic Harris feels most at home, now especially due to his recent split. In this passage, Harris explains the specific qualities the bar possesses that resemble more of a home than his actual apartment.
• My soul ached. My soul was lying facedown. He was taking me back to my apartment, and I knew that my brother would not care to see me from now on. He would reassert his right to be a stranger. I had lost my wife, and now I had lost him, too. (pg. 73)
• This terse selection encapsulates the enduring loneliness Harris felt. Harris grew fearful of losing Sykes, a complete stranger bounded to him by genetics.
• When I was small, living with Harold and Ethel Harris and the other Harris children, I knew about my other parents, the aching lovers who had brought me into my life, but I did not miss them. They'd done me my favor and gone on to the rest of their lives. No, the only thing I missed was the world: the oceans, their huge distances, their creatures, the tides, the burning water-light I heard you could see at the equator. [...] Even though I live here, now, no matter where I ever was, I was always homesick for the rest of the world. (pg. 77)
• Harris gingerly describes how he misses a place, in this case, several places, more than anything else, including any and all persons relevant to his life. This passage best captures the person Harris is: a troubled, lonesome dreamer.

A Temporary Matter

In my opinion, "A Temporary Matter" is the most arousing short story in "Interpreter of Maladies." As compared to the other stories, I experienced the most emotions from reading this short story. Jhumpa Lahiri brings the audience bouts of despair and happiness as she illustrates the beginning of the end of, what seems to be, a monotonous marriage.

• It was typical of her. She was the type to prepare for surprises, good and bad. If she found a skirt or a purse she liked she bought two. She kept the bonuses from her job in a separate bank account in her name. It hadn't bothered him. His own mother had fallen to pieces when his father died, abandoning the house he grew up in and moving back to Calcutta, leaving Shukumar to settle it all. He liked that Shoba was different. It astonished him, her capacity to think ahead. (pg. 6)
• Shoba is presented as this successful, professional businesswoman who over prepares herself in anticipation for any turn of events. I found this passage memorable as it prepares the reader for the inevitable end--Shukumar revealing to Shoba the one thing in her life that she had wanted to keep a surprise.
• Somehow, without saying anything, it had turned into this. Into an exchange of confessions -- the little ways they'd hurt or disappointed each other, and themselves. [...] Something happened when the house was dark. They were able to talk to each other again. (pg. 18-19)
• The dissatisfaction from their passionless relationship is revealed through their dinners in the dark. These two selections embody the entire story, revealing purpose of their somber dates.
• "I want you to see my face when I tell you this," she said gently. His heart began to pound. The day she told him she was pregnant, she had used the very same words, saying them in the same gentle way, turning off the basketball game he'd been watching on television. He hadn't been prepared then. Now he was. Only he didn't want her to be pregnant again. He didn't want to have to pretend to be happy. (pg. 21)
• Shukumar, filled with apprehension, now knows what he wants and what he does not want from his marriage. From one mere declaration, Shukumar, indifferent to find a resolution, realizes his marriage has begun to fall apart before his eyes.