Flannery OConnors stories often deal with the south, and explore common details about the south

in each story. A Good Man Is Hard to Find is about a family taking a road trip accompanied by the grandmother, and take a wrong turn to find murderer. OConnors Good Country People tells about a home of a traditional mother and her atheist daughter, met by a bible salesman. OConnors other story, Revelation, takes place in a clinic full of assorted southern people of all classes, and the narrator reveals what a woman, Mrs. Turpin, is thinking. Although the south is known to be more religious than any other part of United States, Flannery OConnor shows how religion brings out hypocrisy in people, and uses irony to attack it by emphasizing the souths flaws, like racism and judging others. OConnors story A Good Man Is Hard to Find uses irony through the characterization of the grandmother of the story, to reveal that hypocrisy is brought out in religious southerners. In the exposition, the grandmother is on a road trip out of Atlanta, and tells her son not to go to Florida because The Misfit is there, and she wouldnt take [her] children (445) anywhere like that. She continues on how in [her] timepeople did right then (446). The family then goes to a restaurant to meet a like-minded friend of the grandmother and she tells him there isnt a soul in thisworld of Gods that you can trust (448). However, she shows a different attitude when the family has a car accident, and The Misfit begins murdering them while the grandmother is left for last. She begins to beg for her own life and exclaims Jesus! to him numerous times and tells him that she know[s] [he is] a good person (452), right before she gets murdered. It is clear OConnor uses the grandmother to represent the old-fashioned traditional mindsets of a southern society by depicting her old and racist. The fact that she completely changes her opinion about him to benefit herself brings out the hypocrisy in her.

Although The Misfit was an outlaw, he was not hypocritical like the grandmother, which goes to show the irony in those who judge, are not true to their beliefs. Good Country People is another short story by OConnor, aimed at peoples views on religion and intelligence, and uses symbolism to criticize religion. The story begins with a family where a mother, Mrs. Hopewell treats her daughter Joy, who had a fake leg, as a child though she was thirty-two years old and highly educated (456) though she didnt believe in God (466). However, Mrs. Hopewell believed good country people were the salt of the earth (461), and a bible salesman was welcomed to the house because he claimed to be good country people. Although the bible salesman appeared to be sinceregenuine, and earnest (462), the man lied to them and later went to have intercourse with Joy and revealed the bibles were hollow (468) and filled with items. He also ran off with the atheist girls leg as he reveals he also did not believe in that crap (469). The author uses an educated girl to symbolize education without religion while she also uses the salesman to represent the establishment of religion and the mother would represent a religious person. In the story, Mrs. Hopewell is deceived by salesman, while the atheist daughter decides to have intercourse with him instead. However, the man decides intercourse was not enough and steals her fake leg, which helps her stand up. The leg and the hollow bible then become two contrasting symbols where the fake leg represents the right for educated or atheist people to stand up for their own beliefs while the bible is symbolic of the hollowness and wrong usage of religion, where only labels like good country people or Christian (469) matter. OConnors other short story, Revelation also criticizes the irony in the judgmental aspect of religious people. The story includes a lady named Mrs. Turpin sitting with her husband Claud in a clinic full of different types of people. Mrs. Turpin began right away to label people

by their appearance, specifically a girl reading a book called Human Development while Mrs. Turpin noticed her acne and though it pitiful (471) to have skin like that while that same fat girl (471) would scowl (471) at her the whole time. The story shows Mrs. Turpins racism when she labels African Americans as niggers and puts them at the bottom of the heap (472). Mrs. Turpin thank[s] the Lord for having a good [disposition] the fat girl lunges to Mrs. Turpin and begins choking her. However, while the fat girl gets criticized, Mrs. Turpin gets negro flattery (481) from her employers. Instead of showing development, Mrs. Turpin is showing a human flaw by being racist and criticizing others. This differs from her actual perception of herself, thinking she is better because of her class status. OConnor purposefully uses the fat girls book title as an attack on Mrs. Turpin to show that it is foolish to use God to judge others when that person depicts flaws, like racism, as well. The irony then comes into play to emphasize that the people who place themselves above others, and use god to defend themselves, are actually flawed themselves. Flannery OConnors stories all take place in the south to portray the flaws of their society, as well as the flaws in general. All three stories use irony to attack the religious views of the south and their misuse of it.