Flannery O'Connor had her roots in Milledgeville, Georgia, which happens to be one of many states that, when combined, form what is known as America's "Bible Belt." In this regard, O'Connor speaks of his beliefs: "This means that for me the meaning of life is centered in our Redemption by Christ and what I see in the world I see in relation to that" (O'Connor 482- 483). Since O'Connor was a devout Catholic, the violence was not direct preaching, but Joyce Carol Oates writes that “submitting to the divine through violence. . . it is immediate and irreparable” (O’Connor 483). Using the element of setting, to surround the reader in the culture and heritage of the South; as well as its frank use of foreshadowing, to keep the action escalating; and a strong dose of irony, to create light comic relief; O'Connor writes the suspenseful short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and shows how the theme of Redemption – in the religious sense – is woven throughout the story and shown by the grandmother's metamorphosis in her final moments of life. moments of life. The setting that O'Connor portrays in v. O'Connor gives insight into the family's life when she writes, "Bailey was the son she lived with, her only son" (O'Connor 497). The house with Bailey reading sports and the mother feeding the apricots is almost utopian, but the grandmother is the wrench in the mechanism. Being a husband and father of three, and letting his manipulative, presumptuous mother live with him, creates tension between the adults and begins to force the environment to resonate with a lack of social connectivity in the home. Grandma, for reasons of her own, says to Bailey, “'Well, this guy who calls himself The Misfit is far from Faith... middle of paper... Grandma's head cleared for a moment. He saw the man's face curled into his as if he were about to cry and he murmured, “Because you are one of my children. You're one of my sons!" She reached out and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit jumped back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times in the chest. Then he put the gun on the ground, took off his glasses and began to clean them (O'Connor 508). a final moment of clarity, the grandmother becomes possessed by the Holy Spirit in a tantalizing demonstration of the Redemption she has received. ""A Good Man is Hard to Find"" 1953. Literature and its Writers: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Ann Charters and Samuel Charters. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin , 2013. 497-508.