The document analyzes Flannery O'Connor's short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find." It discusses the characters, themes, and references to the Civil War within the story. Regarding characters, it describes the grandmother as irritating and confused, and the Misfit as a remorseless killer. The main theme is the difficulty of defining goodness, as the grandmother clings to superficial definitions. It also analyzes four references to the Civil War in the story and how they relate to themes of guilt, evil, and judgment. The analysis provides insight into O'Connor's exploration of morality and the human condition through this short story.

1. Do CEOs Deserve Their Pay?
The myths that drive the CEO pay bonanza.
According to the most recent report of the Economic
Policy Institute, the average CEO-to-worker pay
ratio in the United States has gone down from
286-to-1 (in 2015) to 271-to-1 (in 2016). This number
may disappoint many top executives who were
hoping to see it return to its peak of 383-to-1,
achieved in 2000. But in spite of this “bad” news, it’s
clear that CEOs will not receive a pauper’s wage.
Looking at these figures, it appears that nobody
heeded the warnings of management sage Peter
Drucker who determined that the proper ratio
between a chief executive’s pay and that of the
average worker should be around 20-to-1 (as it was
in 1965). Drucker believed that larger discrepancies

2. would bring about morale problems within the
workforce. As things stand now, many CEOs earn
more in a single workday that the average worker
makes in an entire year.
In many respects, extremely large CEO
compensation packages are problematic. The
practice over-emphasises the impact of a single
individual and undervalues the contributions of
other employees to the success of a company. What
make these ratios even more troublesome are
studies that show that companies with high CEO-to-
worker pay ratios have lower shareholder returns
than companies with lower ratios.
The myths behind CEO mega pay
I would argue that extremely high salaries for CEOs
are abetted by the following myths.
Myth 1: CEOs need high pay to motivate them to
exceptional performance.

3. If CEOs were not paid so well, they would not work
as hard. Thus, for the benefit of the corporation, it’s
essential to offer them generous incentive packages.
Reality: High achieving CEOs will work hard whatever
they are paid.
Given our understanding of human motivation, the
kinds of people interested in the corporate game
tend to be high achievers. And most CEO-types fall
into this category. From my experience working
with these people, they will work hard regardless
of salary. Companies that give CEOs grandiose pay
packages are wasting resources that could be put to
better use. It’s very unlikely that cutting CEOs’ pay
would affect the bottom line.
Myth 2: Large CEO salaries reflect market demands
for a CEO’s unique skills and contribution to the
bottom line.
According to this argument, talented CEOs possess

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to-the-pay-of-typical-workers-and-high-wage-earners/
impressive but very scarce leadership skills.
Generous pay packages merely represent the
market forces of supply and demand. If there was an
oversupply of people with such unique qualities,
market forces would bring their salaries down.
Furthermore, they deserve high levels of
compensation given their ability to withstand the
enormous pressure they are under to create
exceptional results for the corporation.
Reality: CEOs are not that exceptional and it's almost
impossible to measure their singular contribution to
the bottom line.

5. What may be a downer to some is the fact that most
CEOs aren’t that exceptional. Rare are those who
have the impact of a Steve Jobs or a Bill Gates.
Although they may imagine that their skills are in
scarce supply, many are quite ordinary, fallible
human beings who have only a limited impact on
their companies. To replace them is not an
impossible task. After all, every year, worldwide,
business schools crank out hundreds of thousands of
MBAs, many with sights on a CEO’s office. In
addition, no matter how talented, CEOs cannot run
their companies alone. Other qualified people are
needed to make it happen. Given economic
upswings and downswings, it’s very hard to
determine the exact value a single CEO creates or
destroys. A company’s success is always the result
of a team effort.
The greed spiral

6. In order to understand why extremely high CEO pay
persists and why people continue to buy into the
illusion that they are getting their money’s worth, we
need to look at a number of systemic issues and
dynamics that drive the cult of the CEO.
In the CEO mega compensation game, peer
comparisons play a central role. Both the board’s
compensation committee and prospective CEOs are
taking advantage of the “above average effect”.
When determining the size of salaries, members of
the board assume that a prospective CEO must be
above average and make remuneration
comparisons accordingly. Similarly, in bargaining
for their pay, CEOs will not suggest that they are
below average. All of them want to be paid more
than the median.
Board members may fear that if they don’t
compensate CEOs according to the upper quartile

7. of the compensation scale, they could lose them.
They may worry that their CEO will be “poached”.
These social comparison processes, however, when
repeated year after year, have a dramatic,
inflationary effect on pay packages.
To put even more oil on this inflationary
compensation fire, many head hunters base their
own fees on what a prospective CEO will be paid.
And as they are operating in a highly irrational
market, they have considerable leeway to jack up
the pay package. Furthermore, the remuneration of
most compensation consultants is based on a
formula tied to their prospect’s pay package. When
we combine all these escalating pressures with the
fact that many board members often do not fully
understand the convoluted pay structures designed
by these consultants, it’s no wonder that there has
been such inflation in compensation.

8. Given the existing pay bonanza, it is fair to say that
many CEOs have lost their capacity for fair
judgment when making a case for their own
compensation, acting more like mercenaries than
genuine leaders. They are reluctant to recognise
that an excessive compensation package has
negative implications. For instance, it destroys the
sense of community that a high-performing
organisation needs. It demoralises people and may
even motivate some to leave. Although some CEOs
may acknowledge the downsides of exorbitant pay
packages (as they prefer to keep their pay secret),
greed is one of the deadly sins most difficult to
overcome.
Keeping the compensation game within
boundaries
Unfortunately, self-policing by the CEO community
is quite unlikely. Countervailing pressures will be

9. necessary to keep CEO compensation packages
within limits.
For a start, board members need to push back
against the “above average effect” and not be
tempted to make comparisons with outliers. They
also should be very wary of excessively
complicated compensation schemes which make it
easier for opportunists to rig the system. All too
frequently, these convoluted pay constructions turn
CEOs into financial engineers – focused on ways to
impact compensations formula instead of investing
in the company’s future. Board members need to
face the unpleasant truth that compensation
packages can be “gamed” in such a way to boost a
company’s short-term earnings. For example, the
emphasis on stock options and restricted stock
grants invites manipulation.
Compensation packages should be designed with a

10. focus on the company’s long-term health, taking the
various stakeholders into consideration. For
example, we can see how the German tradition of
worker representation on the board serves as an
antidote to excessive compensation.
Publicly releasing information about top executive
compensation is one way to offset excessive
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salaries. Another suggestion is a shareholder vote
on top executives’ compensation packages. The
same approach can be used concerning shareholder
approval on all share buybacks which are also an
invitation to manipulate compensation when it is tied
to share price. (Often, in taking such actions the

11. price of the shares is pushed up without actually
investing in the company’s capital, R&D or the
development of its people.)
Clawback provisions could also reduce the
temptation to manage for the short-term. They force
executives to return compensation that – at a later
stage – turned out to be calculated incorrectly.
Another way to fight against excessive
compensation is taking a hard look at how a
company deals with existing tax codes.
Compensation decisions are often attempts at
finding “creative” ways to manoeuvre through a
maze of tax regulations. In this case, the government
needs to play an important role. For example,
implementing higher marginal income tax rates at
the very top would have a dampening effect on
large compensation packages.
Furthermore, in many countries, the way stock

12. options are taxed could be revisited. Lastly, a rather
innovative measure to prevent pay packages from
spiralling out of control would be to set high
corporate tax rates for firms that have very high
CEO-to-worker compensation ratios.
These various recommendations may not be
received warmly, as many people view the CEO
compensation game as an important bulwark of
capitalism. Although this may be true, inflated CEO
pay scales are also a sign of impending rot. While
capitalism has many positives (in light of the
alternatives), free market ideas in unrestrained
forms have serious dysfunctional effects on society.
Unbridled capitalism only contributes to social
unrest. Therefore, it’s timely that the next generation
of CEOs thinks more creatively about the challenges
corporations face in building sustainable
businesses. And a good start to this is creating fair

13. compensation systems.
Manfred Kets de Vries is the Distinguished Clinical
Professor of Leadership Development &
Organisational Change at INSEAD and the Raoul de
Vitry d'Avaucourt Chaired Professor of Leadership
Development, Emeritus. He is the Founder of
INSEAD's Global Leadership Centre and the
Programme Director of The Challenge of
Leadership, one of INSEAD’s top Executive
Development Programmes.
Professor Kets de Vries is also the Scientific Director of
the Executive Master in Coaching and Consulting for
Change (EMCCC). His most recent books are: You
Will Meet a Tall, Dark Stranger: Executive
Coaching Challenges; Telling Fairy Tales in the
Boardroom: How to Make Sure Your
Organisation Lives Happily Ever After;
and Riding the Leadership Rollercoaster: An

14. Observer’s Guide.
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Running head: A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND
1
A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND
2
A Good Man is Hard to Find
Student Name:
Institutional Affiliation:
Date:

15. Flint, T. P. (2018). On the Significance of Civil War References
in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to
Find." Renascence, 70(2), 119-128.
In this article, Flint raises concerns that most of the authors
have focused in writing about the violence undertone that is
present throughout the short story "A Good Man is Hard to
Find," that was authored by Flannery O'Connor while saying
little if any concerning the specific references within the
narrative to the Civil War. Flint points out that the references to
the Civil War within the story can be considered to function to
highlight questions regarding guilt, evil, as well as, a
punishment which come to the fore, particularly within the
closing scene that features the grandmother together with The
Misfit. Flint is quick to point out that even though it would turn
out as specious to make the implication that the connections
made to the Civil War provide the key to comprehending
O'Connor's story, recognition of their presence can affect a
reader's appreciation of the narrative.
Flint goes on further to argue the manner in which the
connections to the Civil war within the story augment the case
for asserting that part of the main morals within the story
happens to be the difficulty of people to discern what is
required to have justice. The author goes on further to outline
and expound on the four references to the Civil War, which
occur within the story. In overall, it can be argued that in
Flint's view, the O'Connor's story tends to make the suggestion
that attempting to establish the appropriateness of the evils that
people encounter can rightly be considered as an extra
manifestation of the pride which precipitated the human's
original fall. In that respect, Flint proposes that such matters
should at best be left to God's judgment, but not to us, humans.
It is outright that Flint's article makes one gain a better
understanding about O'Connor's story, "A Good Man is Hard to
Find." By directing focus on the references made to the Civil
War within the story, a reader gets to learn much about the said
story within a unique perspective. Besides, the references have

16. been articulately used to reinforce some of the major themes of
O'Connor's story, which are violence and death. Flint's review
of O'Connor's story will enable me to carry out better analysis
of the central themes within the story in my analytical essay.
There are also great ideas that can be obtained from Flint's
review that I will incorporate within the analytical essay.
Analysis of ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find
Analysis of ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’
‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ is a short story first published in
1953 that illustrates the several themes and techniques that
characterize the story of O’Connor. The story begins when the
grandmother tries to convince Bailey, her son and his wife that
they should go for a vacation in east Tennessee instead of
Florida because there is an escaped convict in Florida. This
introduction sets the pace of the article, coupled with the
headline and increases the unknown expectations of the readers
while immersing themselves into the story. In this paper, there
is a comprehensive analysis of the novel by examining and
analyzing the characters, the themes, the symbols and imageries

17. used therein.
Characters
O’Connor’s character treatment in this story is a reinforcement
of her view of man as a creature that has fallen. This is because
the story depicts the destruction of hat is initially thought to be
a normal family by three convicts that have escaped prison. For
instance, the grandmother is portrayed as an irksome woman
who lives with her son Bailey and his family. While travelling
to Florida, she insists that they visit an old house she has some
memories of and this idea causes an accident and the eventual
murder of everyone in the group. She is also portrayed as a
confused person because the house she suggested for a visit was
actually in Tennessee and not in Florida.
The misfit is another scary character in the novel that has no
good side on himself. He is the wanted convict who just escaped
prison only to stumble upon the crashed car in the woods.
O’Connor portrays Misfit as a person that lives by a moral code
that involves remorselessness and murder. He is a man who is
skeptical about religion because he keeps wondering if Jesus
really raised the dead to life and thus he fully invests his
character on meanness as a way of providing a meaning to his
life. Therefore, this is the most dreaded murder and dangerous
man that no one can ever wish to meet.
Bailey is portrayed as the frazzled head of the family. Bailey
appears to love his mother and the entire family but the nagging
behavior of his mother sometimes gets the best of him. He is
strict to the point that he turns down his mother’s request of
visiting east Tennessee and directs his family to Florida even
when he has been warned that there is a deadly criminal on the
loose in the state of Florida. This is because of the frustration
that the family is giving him, the stubborn children and the
stubborn mother. He hastily gives in to the demands of both the
grandmother and her grandson to visit the old house in the
plantation, where the car gets an accident.
Themes
One of the most apparent themes in this novel is the definition

18. of goodness. The definition of the meaning of good by the
grandmother is symbolized by her coordinated and proper outfit.
In fact, the grandmother is specifically concerned about her
outward appearance above anything else. She is not even
worried about her death or her family’s death but rather the
opinions of strangers about her. Even in the event of danger in
the face of the murderous Misfit, grandmother continues to
cling on the superficial definition of goodness and entreats him
not to shoot a lady, which assumes that shooting a person is just
a question of etiquette. In this regard, the theme of what is good
appears to be more materialistic as per the view of the
grandmother unlike the behavioral and emotional intelligence.
In fact, according to Gailey (48), in the end, the grandmother
insists that Misfit is a good man yet he is the very man who has
just murdered her entire family. This sparks in the question as
to whether being a good man depends on the internal character
of a person or the external actions of a person.
There is also a theme of violence and grace. Just before the
story ends, Misfit tells the grandmother that she would have
been a good woman if at every minute of her life there was
someone ready to shoot. This does not necessarily mean that
O’Connor believes in violence making us better people, but the
message of the book is clear: being exposed to violence changes
us completely. There is a moment of Grace for Grandma
because the materialistic things that she has been clinging on as
important were falling apart in the face of the violence and she
had to scramble and find any relevant thing to replace them.
The time Misfit was about to shoot her was her moment of
grace, her only chance of divine redemption.
Symbolism
Symbolism has been applied in this novel in several occasions.
When the family was leaving the Tower, the children were
amused by the grey monkey that initially took their attention
upon their arrival. According to Murphy Jr (29), members of the
Ape family have been used in Christian art for a long time to
symbolize malice, sin, lust and cunning. Apes have also been

19. used to symbolize the slothful soul of human beings and their
greed, blindness, and sinfulness in Christian religion. There is
also an element of symbolism just after Grandmother has been
short. The killers returned from the woods and find grandmother
sitting in a paddle of blood while her legs crossed and her face
smiling while facing the cloudless sky. According to Murphy Jr
(30) the smiling face of grandma symbolizes victory over the
grotesque where sublime is passed by the reception of grace in
the act of love.
Imagery
There are several instances of imagery in O’Connor’s novel ‘A
Good Man Is Hard to Find’. Grandmother is the first character
to indicate imagery in the novel. When she hears that Bailey
wants to take his family for a vacation in Florida, she declines
and instead suggests that they go to east Tennessee. In fact, she
issues a warning that there is a deadly convict on the loose and
even goes ahead to ask Bailey what he would do if he met the
convict face to face while in Florida. This was actually a
foreshadowing of what would exactly happen because they
ended up in the path of the deadliest and remorseless convict in
Florida, a place that grandma was against visiting in the first
place (Gailey (48). When the family finally meets Misfit, he
arrives in a hearse-like vehicle, which is commonly used to
move coffins and dead bodies. This was an imagery that was
foreshadowing death to those that met this convict and they
truly faced death after meeting him.
Setting
The story takes place mostly on and around the country roads in
the South of the United States. The family’s initial residence is
Atlanta and it was travelling through Georgia towards their
vocational destination, Florida. They make a stop at a place
called The Tower to grab some barbecue sandwiches where the
owners are Red Sammy and his wife. These are more realistic
settings fitted in a more likely fiction story (Gailey (48). The
family does not even reach its destination in Florida because
their lives are cut short by the deadly murderer on the loose,

20. Misfit.
Works cited
Gailey, Christine Ward. "A good man is hard to find: overseas
migration and the decentered family in the Tongan Islands."
Critique of Anthropology 12.1 (1992): 47-74.
Murphy Jr, Russell D. "A good man is hard to find: Marriage as
an institution." Journal of Economic Behavior &
Organization 47.1 (2002): 27-53.
O’Connor,F. (1955). A Good Man is Hard to Find. In L.G.
Kirszner & S.R. Mandell (Eds.), Compact Literature: Reading,
Reacting, Writing [VitalSource digital version] (pp. 367-378).
Boston: Cengage.
Use the tips below for the new paper:
Use a short version of the title and give the page number in the
running head.
The cover sheet should include a unique title that reflects the
story and your focus for the essay. Add your specific title to

21. page two.
Some elements are missing from the cover sheet.
Remove the subheadings (character, theme, symbolism,
imagery, etc.) in the essay. Do not use bold anywhere in the
essay.
Remove Works Cited and use References. Place it at the top of
the final page. The rough draft should not have any outside
sources. At this point, it should just be the story you are
analyzing.
The introduction should begin with an engaging opener, such as
a quotation or question. Give the topic and mention the story’s
title and author in the introductory paragraph. End with a clear
thesis.
You cannot do all the literary elements in your argument.
Choose one for the final draft, and explain how it is used in the
story. This is very important!
The thesis statement should give your argumentative stance on a
literary element (such as character, theme, imagery, or
symbolism) and how or why the author used it in the story. A
thesis cannot be a fact (because it is your opinion). It should be
a stance with which some people may disagree.
Do not refer to writing an essay or completing an assignment.
Avoid writing things like “the story I chose is” or “in this
essay, I will talk about….”
You must give quotations from the story and in-text citations.
Most paragraphs should have at least two pieces of evidence,
including short quotations. Add analysis to explain every
quotation and example, and clarify why you are including this
evidence.
For in-text citations, give the author’s last name, year of
publication, and page number (with a p.). The period goes after
the citation’s end parentheses.
For the final reference, center References on a new page. Use a
hanging indent on the second and following lines.
Proofread the essay carefully. Read it out loud to listen for

22. errors. Consider submitting the draft to Smarthinking for a free
review and extra feedback.