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Literary Devices
Key Examples in A Good Man is Hard to Find
Dialect
Explanation and Analysis—Rural Southern Dialect:
Whenever the Misfit speaks, O’Connor changes her spelling and grammar, her attempt to capture the dialect of an uneducated person living in the rural South in the mid-20th century. The following passage—in which the Misfit shares pieces of his life story with the grandmother and her family while holding them at gunpoint—captures O’Connor’s use of dialect:
“I was a gospel singer for a while,” The Misfit said. “I been most everything. Been in the arm service, both land and sea, at home and abroad, been twict married, been an undertaker, been with the railroads, plowed Mother Earth, been in a tornado, seen a man burnt alive oncet.”
Related Themes:
