Flannery O'Connor is an author known for her short stories that often feature her Catholic faith. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," follows the same suit. In this story O'Connor uses setting to convey the Grandmother's spiritual journey to find out what real Christianity is. O'Connor begins the Grandmother's spiritual journey by alluding to heaven, "Trees were full of silver-white sunlight and the meanest of them sparkled" (1043). The Grandmother, like everyone else, has access to heaven and the prosperities of being a good Christian, which is signified by the sunlight in particular. The road they were set out on begins as the path God as laid out for them. .
However, O'Connor's next reference to the sky entails how the Grandmother actually only acts as a Christian. The sky has clouds, which covers the sun. The clouds are the Grandmother's misinterpretations on how one ought to act as a Christian. Because of these misinterpretations the family does not continue down the set path. Instead, they end up traveling down a dirt road that will eventually lead to their peril. The Grandmother, along with the rest of the family, falls into temptation, when they decide to venture off to visit the plantation. The road they head down is not straightforward and simple like the road before, but dangerous. "The dirt road was hilly and there were sudden washes in it and sharp curves on dangerous embankments" (1047). The dirt road represents sin, which seems to be worth it at first glance. Specifically the road represents the Grandmother's sinful life that she has been leading with her selfish and superior ways. The key however, is that the Grandmother is ignorant to this sinful life. When she leads her family down the dirt road, she truly believes that the plantation is at the end even though it is really in Georgia. Similarly she truly believes that she is leading a good Christian life, but really she is headed down the wrong path.
