A Critical Reflection on An Alternate Ending of A Good Man is Hard to Find

I chose to create an alternate ending to A Good Man is Hard to find because the author, Flannery O’Connor, left plenty of holes in the story. I used all the minor details in the story.

One of the minor details in the story was Mr. Edgar Atkins Teagarden. I chose to use Mr. Edgar Atkins Teagarden because he was such a minor detail in the story. The grandmother mentioned him briefly when the family stopped at The Tower to eat. The grandmother was talking to about Red Sammy Butts about her past relationship with Mr. Teagarden.

Another minor element in this story was when the grandmother recognized the Misfit. “She saw the man’s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, ‘Why you’re one of my babies. You are one of my own children!’” This really stuck out to me because the reader can’t tell what the grandmother meant by this.  The reader also doesn’t know where the grandmother recognized this person.

There is a lot of dialogue between the Misfit and the grandmother because its similar to the  original story. In the original story, the grandmother was left alone with the Misfit and he told her some pretty personal things. The grandmother was trying to tell the Misfit that he didn’t have to be the bad guy that he is and that all he have to do is pray.

I chose to take both of the minor detail and created a story. At the end of the story, I decided to keep the family alive. The reader learns that Bobby Lee and Hiram didn’t actually kill the family. It makes the reader think that the story will have a happy ending. Instead, I decided to leave the story like the original one and end with a cliffhanger. The reader still has that open interpretation about what happens at the end.

An Alternate Ending to A Good Man is Hard to Find

“You look oddly familiar,” the grandmother said.

“I don’t think so,” the Misfit started, “See; I’m not from this part of town.”

Two gun shots echoed in the distance. The grandmother, still sitting in the ditch, looked at the Misfit.

“That scar on your face, what happened?” the grandmother asked.

“Fell out of a tree when I was a boy. My dad told me not to but I guess you could say that I’ve been a rebel ever since I was young.” the Misfit said with an evil smirk on his face.

The grandmother quickly rushed to her feet with the look of shock on her face. “Mr. Edgar Atkins Teagarden!” the grandmother shouted.

“Excuse me.” the Misfit said with a puzzled look on his face.

“Your father is Mr. Edgar Atkins Teagarden. He used to bring me a watermelon every Saturday afternoon with his initials cut into it, E.A.T. I knew you looked familiar!” said grandmother.

The Misfit walked over to the grandmother and looked her in the eyes. “I remember my dad telling me those stories but I never thought they were true. How do I know it’s really you and that you’re not just pulling my leg? I’ve told you too much about my life already!” the Misfit said defensively.

“Your dad and I used to date back in the day. He’s from Jasper, Georgia and we were both on the same plantation in Tennessee. He bought a Coca-Cola stock not too long after it came out. I heard he died a few years ago. I cared for your wound that day that you fell out of the tree. Don’t you remember?” the grandmother begged.

Hiram and Bobby Lee came back to join the Misfit and the grandmother. Hiram whispered, “Her next?” The Misfit didn’t even look at him nor did he speak. The Misfit just raised his hand at him as a way to silence him. The Misfit looked at the grandmother quizzically.

“I want to see my family. Where are they?” the grandmother demanded.

“I’m afraid we can’t do that ma’am.” said Hiram.

The Misfit grabbed the grandmother by the wrist and pushed Hiram and Bobby Lee out the way. Hiram and Bobby Lee looked at each other with a worried but confused look on their face.

“What are you doing man?” Bobby Lee shouted.

“Mind your business.” the Misfit said.

They soon approach an open field with one lonely tree in the middle. The grandmother and the Misfit could see the family sitting with their backs to the tree. They got closer and the grandmother began to cry. She hurried to her family and turned to look at their faces. She soon noticed that there was no blood. They knew that shots were fired but where is the blood. Her family sat there motionless. The grandmother touched Bailey on the shoulder and whispered to him, “Bailey Boy.” He then jumped in shock. The grandmother hurriedly removed the blind from his eyes and noticed that he was alive. She continued to remove the blinds from the rest of the family and soon noticed that they were also still alive. She removed the tape from Bailey’s mouth and said, “Bailey! I thought you were dead. We heard shots. What happened?”

“The guys tied us up to this tree and fired their guns. I thought one of us were dead. I’m so happy that we are all alive!” said Bailey.

Bailey and the grandmother untied the rest of the family and embraced them. Bailey confusedly looked at the Misfit. The grandmother explained, “It okay, he’s Mr. Edgar Atkins Teagarden’s boy and he’s going to help us get out of here. Aren’t you?”

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Link to A Good Man is Hard to Find

https://pegasus.cc.ucf.edu/~surette/goodman.html

Comparative Analysis of Brownies and The Lesson

Toni Cade Bambara’s “The Lesson” and ZZ Packer’s “The Lesson” are two short stories. They are both about young African-American children. The two stories are also about how the young girls manage in everyday life. Back in the day and even up until now, African-Americans face a lot of discrimination and hardships. The two stories both describe the fears of being called a derogatory term or difficulty of living in poverty.

Brownies is a story about a group of young African-American girls at a summer camp. As the white brownie troop exited the bus, Troop 909, the others immediately begin to dislike them. The Brownie troop would call Troop 909 the “invaders”. The Brownies also immediately judged Troop 909 by saying that they smelled like wet Chihuahuas. The Brownies would also use the term Caucasian in a derogatory way towards each other.

“If you ate too fast you ate like a Caucasian, if you ate too slow you ate like a Caucasian.”

The Brownies immediately disliked Troop 909 because they were a different race.

In “The Lesson”, Sylvia and Sugar thought they were the smartest ones on the block. So when Mrs. Moore moved into the neighborhood, no one liked her. Mrs. Moore had natural hair, proper speech, didn’t wear makeup, and had a college degree. People in the neighborhood immediately dislike Mrs. Moore because she ultimately was smarter than anyone else. She would teach the children about money and the real world. The neighborhood people didn’t like Mrs. Moore because she was educated.

In some ways, Laurel (Snot) and Sylvia are alike. It wasn’t until the end that the reader found out the name of the narrator. The narrator in Brownies was a girl named Laurel. Laurel was also called Snot because she one time sneezed on a girl in two strands of snot. Sylvia was the main character in The Lesson. In Brownies, Laurel the outcast. She wasn’t in the popular group of girls. Laurel followed her own path just like Sylvia. Sylvia was the only one that didn’t take much from Mrs. Moore’s lessons. Sylvia was very stubborn and didn’t think that anyone could teach her anything, not even Mrs. Moore with her college degree. Laurel was different from everyone else because she didn’t want to fight with the other troop. She was always the voice of reason.

“When you’ve been made to feel bad for so long, you jump at the chance to do it to others.”

Although this is a quote from Brownies, I think this quote could tie together both stories. In Brownies, this quote was used to describe the Mennonites and how they were so easy to do anything you asked because it was apart of their religion. I also think that this is the moral of both stories. The girls in the Brownies troop picked on the girls in Troop 909 because they were different looking from them. It was rare to ever see a white person in Atlanta, so when they did the girls were afraid of being called the N-word. The girls were immediately offensive towards Troop 909. This could also relate to The Lesson. Sylvia and Sugar always thought that they were the smartest, but when Mrs. Moore moved in the neighborhood Sylvia became really defensive towards her. At the end of the story, Sylvia said that she wasn’t going to let anybody beat her. I think that Sylvia thought that Mrs. Moore was trying to show off and make her feel inferior and that no one could know more than her.

Hiding My Imperfections: Sandra Cisneros’ Barbie-Q

The ideal woman would be one that is skinny, short, and beautiful. For many years, people have looked to the Barbie dolls as being the perfect example of this kind of woman. Sandra Cisneros’ “Barbie-Q” is a story of young girls that were too poor to afford nice toys. Even though the girls were too poor to afford nice toys, they still appreciated what they had despite the flaws. The girls were so poor because the dolls that in the beginning of the story, the girls were playing with dolls that wore a dress that was made out of an old sock. (184) This is just one of the many symbols that the girls couldn’t afford nice things but could still have fun and appreciate what they do have.

‘We have to make do with your mean-eyed Barbie and my bubble-head Barbie and our one outfit apiece not including the sock dress.’ (184)

This sentence tells a lot about the characters. It shows that the girls acknowledge the flaws in their Barbie dolls and that they can see past them. The girls will dress up their dolls to hide the imperfections. The girls knew that the barbies weren’t perfect but they could possibly be after the imperfections were hidden from everyone. In their eyes, the dolls were perfect after they were dressed up but in the eyes of everyone else the dolls were the perfect image. At the end of the story, the girls had bought a doll that smelled like smoke and had a melted foot. (184) The girls still thought the dolls were still beautiful. The story is a great example of how some people, mainly women, try really hard to hide their imperfections. Some women think that if she can hide her imperfection then she would be viewed as beautiful in the eyes of others.

Work Cited Cisneros, Sandra. “Barbie-Q.” The Story and Its Writer. Compact 9th ed. Ed. Ann Charter. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 183-84. Print.