Describe briefly the use of voice in A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O Connor.

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O Connor tells a story about a family who was going on a journey to Florida. The grandmother did not want to go on the trip to Florida but could not bear the thought of staying at home alone. She wanted to go visit some of her connections in East Tennessee. She tried to persuade his son not to go to Florida by saying that there is a criminal on the loose from that way. This story is told in a third person point of view. The voice used in this story sounds indifferent. It is hard to tell whether it is in a negative or a positive voice. It lacks bias and opinion. The voice seemed more concerned in explaining exactly what happened in the story and let the readers decide on its interpretation. The voice even spoke of the characters in a reserved way where he refers them according to their status in the family. For example, instead of introducing the women in the story using their names, it only refers to them as the mother of the children, the wife, and the grandmother. However, at the start of the story, the son of the grandmother was introduced by his name, Bailey. This is the same with the children, June Star and John Wesley. There was also no intimacy between the characters as told by the voice of this story. The relationships between them are merely based on marriage connection. No emotion was slipped in this story making the story remains as just a story. It is really difficult to connect with the plot and the flow of the story for there is no personal attachment to it. One theory that could be discussed on why the voice of the narrator is so bland is that it refuses to specify the characteristics of the story to only the characters but aims to generalize it to human being as a whole. In the story, the grandmother was somewhat characterized to appear as a good person and religious. Yet, at the same time, she was being manipulative and would do anything to have things her way. This is a total contradiction to whatever she thinks she is. The same goes to humankind. Human are manipulative creatures, however good they want to believe they can be. Furthermore, the voice used in describing the shooting was really brief that it seems everything was happening so fast that there was no room for negotiation. It was as if, there was not a slight chance of hope. The fact that two shootings occurred in the story makes no difference. It makes the story seemed short-lived. Readers are unable to absorb the incidents as it happens to happen in a very short time. The violence and bad behaviours of the characters are described casually, as if it is the most normal thing to happen. In short, the voice used does not seem to be trying to give an impact in a big way, for readers could just be indifferent towards indifference. However, it could be said that the uniqueness on the use of voice makes the story interesting and thus inviting a lot of study and interpretation made based on it. Amira Salleh 1019802