Exploring Meaning and Style: A Pragma-Stylistic Analysis of Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find

Abstract

This paper explores the intersection of stylistics and pragmatics in Flannery O’Connor’s short story A Good Man is Hard to Find. Grounded in a pragma-stylistic framework, the study analyzes how O’Connor’s use of language—especially dialogue, irony, and indirect speech—reveals deeper layers of meaning relating to themes of grace, violence, and moral ambiguity. Drawing on Grice’s Cooperative Principle and Speech Act Theory alongside literary stylistics, the analysis focuses on key interactions between the Grandmother and The Misfit. The findings reveal how O’Connor employs verbal irony, implicature, and Southern vernacular not only for characterization but also to critique societal values and religious hypocrisy. Through pragma-stylistic tools, O’Connor’s narrative unfolds as a multilayered commentary on human nature and the elusive search for goodness in a morally compromised world.

Keywords: Pragma-stylistics, Flannery O’Connor, irony, Grice’s maxims, Southern Gothic, dialogue, morality