Authors write short stories, novels, poetry, or plays sharing their own beliefs to inspire, challenge, and entertain an audience. Every author has their own distinct qualities, beliefs, and styles that are reflected in the writings they create. By knowing the author alone, one can predict what they might find throughout their stories or after reading a story one can make an educated guess of which author wrote it. Flannery O'Connor is no exception to this theory. A firm believer in Christianity, her beliefs are evident in her stories; she herself said her Christian vision of human life and destiny informed all her writing. Internal evidence in Greenleaf and A Good Man is Hard to Find shows that the two stories are written by the same author.
References to prayer and Jesus are found in both short stories. O'Connor herself has said, "This means that for me the meaning of life is centered in our Redemption by Christ and what I see in the world I see in its relation to that."" In Greenleaf, although Mrs. Greenleaf is ridiculed for her unusual and extreme praying style by Mrs. May, Mrs. Greenleaf is the one who is more faithful and more fulfilled. Mrs. May believes Jesus' name should be kept inside the church, while Mrs. Greenleaf shouts phrases such as, "Jesus stab me in the heart!- as a part of her healing prayers. Mrs. May has convinced herself she is the more successful, respectable person of the two when the opposite is true. In A Good Man is Hard to Find, the strongest character, the grandmother, in attempts to save her own life and those of her family urges the Misfit to pray. The Misfit does not listen of course because he is the bad guy of the story who is portrayed as someone who has no faith in Jesus. He says, "Jesus thown everything off balance - O'Connor repeatedly incorporates faith into her works.
Animal symbolism is another literary device used my Flannery O'Connor. A monkey, a pig, and a cat are all symbols and incorporated into and involved in the ironies of A Good Man is Hard to Find.
