"The moment of death is the moment of truth." This is a famous saying in Korea, which means that people are honest and pure at the moment of their death. In other words, death lets people open themselves and makes them realize who they really are. In literature as well as famous sayings, "the moment of truth" is discussed as one of the popular themes. Flannery O"Connor is the writer who catches our "the moment of truth" and shows it to the readers through violent endings. "Violence" in her stories is used as a tool of revelation of character's inner truth. Flannery O"Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" and "The Lame Shall Enter First," "violence" helps two main characters, grandmother and Sheppard, to realize and overcome their unpleasant sides. .
In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," the author sets violent murder as a tool of helping grandmother's redemption. Until the grandmother sees her inner truth, she has lived in selfish, naive, and superficial her own world. However, a cold-blooded killer Misfit destroys her superficial world and opens her mind up by extreme violence, shooting. It is shown at the last part of the story right before she is shot.
"His voice seemed about to crack and the grandmother's .
head cleared for an instant. 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're one of my own children!'" .
(O"Connor 160).
The grandmother finally reaches at the moment of realization of truth here. Her head clears so that she accepts the Misfit as who he really is. She is now out of her manipulative and selfish world and starts to recognize the reality. .
At the moment of redemption, however, the grandmother reaches death. The killing scene of grandmother can be looked cruel, but it has an important role in the context. With ending up her story with violent killing, Flannery O"Connor shows to readers more about her redemption.
