A Good Man is Hard to Find

I'm half-sure that most of you in Leeper's Laboratory (EPIC NAME WIN) have read, seen, or at least heard about the infamous story 'A Good Man is Hard to Find'. After hearing Joel's blog in class, as ironic as it was, the first thing I thought and wanted to say out loud was 'Damn.' Why? Because in alot of ways he's right. And let's face it, that's why a lot of us, including Leeper, stayed silent after the reading, frankly because it took a minute or 5 to come up with a comeback.
I don't agree with him when he mentions that the films are morally junk, and I do agree with Leeper that even though these things are the way they are, they are still amazing works of art. But the point I wanted to debate was the effects of exposure to this harsh of a reality, and I have the perfect story. :)
When I started out in my first year of college at the community college in my hometown, I had an english teacher named Ms. Myers. Unbenounced to me and the rest of the class, this woman loved to teach about stories with horrible, horrible endings. I always avoided stories like that because I loved happy endings. Our first assignment was to read 'A Good Man is Hard to Find'. The next day that we came back to class, I was so pissed about the story and the fact wasn't warned how the story would be, I considered suing my teacher for emotional trauma. My plan was to confront her about it after class, but the class progressed, I realized more and more what the meaning of this story truly was, and I was suprised. This particular english class was all about reading between the lines and finding out the analogies and true meanings in a written work. The whole point of this story was to show that faking the southern cultural mores won't get you to Heaven, and that the murderer himself was closer to God than the grandmother because he knew what he was and didn't fake being something else. Suddenly, I wanted to read this story in front of my church on Sunday.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that even though some of the things we see in class are awful to watch, and you may not be ready for them mentally (like me with the story), there's a lot you can learn from the most horrifying stories, even though you hate watching them. I still shudder every time this story is brought up, but it opened up such a broad exploration of other works and the true meanings behind them for me. Honestly, if you haven't read this story, I highly recommend it. Flannery O'Conner is a wonderful writer, and suprisingly mentally stable...I think. But I will warn you: the ending really sucks.