Evidence of Pride in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard To Find"

     In Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard To Find," pride is manifested. The existence -and predominance- of pride in the story is apparent from the beginning when the grandmother dresses in her "Sunday clothes" for a family road trip so that "in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady." If one is dead, does she care if someone else thinks she is a lady? Of course not- she is dead and therefore no longer on this earth. She would not care, but this lady does. The grandmother is prideful of the fact that she is- or, rather, she believes herself to be- a lady. When one is preoccupied with her appearance or self, she might be classified of described as vain. Vanity and Pride walk together: If one is prideful in herself, she is vain. The grandmother's obsession with appearing as a lady shows the reader that she is, indeed, prideful.
     There is evidence in this story that the grandmother believes herself to be better than others. At one point she says, "In my time, children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everyone else." She, of course, includes herself in that. (Do remember that she is a lady.) The grandmother believes that she and her generation were more respectful than her grandchildren's generation. With this belief, she elevates herself over her grandchildren. Of course she was not disrespectful; she is a lady. When one believes herself to be "better" than someone else, it is considered pride. In addition to considering herself better than her grandchildren, she believed herself to be better than Black children. The grandmother said to her grandchildren, "Little niggers in the country don't have things like we do." "Nigger" is a disrespectful term for a Black persin, and by using it to describe someone she insinuates that he is "beneath" her because she is white and he is black. The grandmother is prideful of her race! This is something no one can control (being born of a particular color, that is). If she were black, she would not have used the term "nigger" in that manner. If she were not prideful or her race, she would not have used the term. She may have even done something to help the people in need without expecting some glorification in return. That is the mark of a humble person, though, and the grandmother does not do this. She instead exhibits pride.
     The grandmother is not the only character in the story who is prideful. Young June Star, the granddaughter, has similar traits to her grandmother. While in the car, the grandmother tells June Star and her brother a story about one of her suitors from long ago. June star did not find the story amusing: "She said she wouldn't marry a man that just brought her a watermelon on Saturday." June Star felt she was better than that. Perhaps she wanted a watermelon every day, or a ruby-encrusted watermelon every Saturday, or a diamond-encrusted watermelon every Saturday. One plain watermelon a week is not "good enough" for June Star. She deserves better, in her mind. This is pride, June Star believes herself to deserve more than one watermelon a week. She feels as if she is above that. When one feels that an act of kindness is beneath her, it is obvious to anyone around her that she has excessive pride. Later, at The Tower, the owner's wife asks her, "Would you like to come be my little girl?" What would a humble person do? A humble person would certainly not say, "No, I certainly wouldn't. I wouldn't live in a broken-down place like this for a million bucks!" as June Star does. That respone is the opposite of humble. The opposite of humility is pride. Humility is lowering oneself to a mental and spiritual state of servitude out of love. Does June Star show humility? No, rather she shows prie with her rude retort. She shows the reader that she believes herself to be worthy of better surroundings and accomodations. She is selfish rather than selfless, prideful rather than humble. June Star wanted what was "good" for her, what was easy- selfishness. Why did she want what was good for her, easy for her? She was full of pride in herself.