A comparative character analysis seems important while comparing two stories against one another. Characters such as the grandmothers in “ A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner and ” The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” by Kathrine Ann Porter are ones that play a major part in their stories. These two stories have a similarity in which they both have an elderly woman who is the main character the story revolves around.
An analysis of these characters seems understandable, as they are both in popular short stories written by well-known authors. The main point of this analysis is to recognize how these elderly women are presented by the author, how they feel to the reader and how the elderly women compare to seniors we have actually met. The characters of the elderly women in both stories are portrayed in the beginning as old and clueless, not knowing what is best for them. As both stories continue, they explain the backstory of each elderly woman and how they got where they were. The grandmother in “ A Good Man is Hard to Find” is dependent and lives with her only son, which leads her to being brought on a family vacation which the story takes place.
The grandmother in “ The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” is bedridden in the beginning of the story, having a doctor by her side to examine her. Both of the grandmothers begin their stories complaining and trying to get their way, the grandmother in “ A Good Man is Hard to Find” wants to stay home instead of going to vacation in florida and uses a murderer that is on the loose as an excuse. The grandmother in “ The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” complains to her children that she is fine and doesn’t need the doctor by her side. The author of “ A Good Man is Hard to Find” makes the grandmother feel old to the reader, as she talks about plantations and using the N-word when addressing people of color while her son drives an automobile.
