The story, A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Conner’s was published in 1955. The story is set in Georgia and is a famous Southern Gothic literature that talks about a man by the name of Bailey, who wants to take his family for a trip to Florida. However, the grandmother tries to convince her son to take the family to Tennessee and even goes ahead to tell him that the children have already been to Florida. She goes ahead to point out the misfit, who is an escaped convict, in Florida but still, the family goes ahead with the trip. The Lesson is another short story that was published in 1972 by Toni Cade Bambara. In the story, a character named Sylvia is the narrator. Sylvia lives in Harlem, which is a slum in New York. In the story, Miss. Moore, who lives in this slum, decides to take the children of Harlem on a trip for the purpose of educating the unappreciative children in this neighborhood. They travel to FAO Schwartz in Manhattan, where items such as toys are far too expensive for the children to afford. In the end, Miss Moore is unable to teach these children the lesson she intended for them to learn. The children plan to use cab fare that they stole from Miss Moore to buy what they want. Sylvia disowns her friends and goes alone to contemplate the events of the day. The major characters in both stories, that are Sylvia and the Grandmother, will be analyzed to identify their similarities and differences.

The Grandmother, regards herself as a Lady and for that reason, she considers herself morally superior than others. She is judgmental, for example, she often judges the lack of goodness in people. The author also portrays her as being a hypocrite because she believes that being a lady is the most important virtue of all and proudly wears her selected hat and dress while constantly seeing the errors of others and not her own errors the whole time, for example, she criticizes the mother for allowing the children to travel to Florida, a place that the Grandmother was against. Also, she criticizes John Wesley for not showing any respect for Georgia, his hometown. She is dishonest, for example, she sneaks Pity Sing into the car and does not tell the family that she cannot remember the location of the old house. Also, she is selfish, for example, she pleads for her life rather than the life of her family. She does not beg misfit to spare the grandchildren or her children. However, the grandmother realizes her own errors when she is near her death.

Sylvia is similar to Grandmother in that she is judgmental and defensive. She sees Miss. Moore as unwanted company and she is not pleased that she joins them for the trip. When Miss. Moore takes them on the trip, Sylvia asks “Watcha bring us here for, Miss Moore?” This question indicates her defensive nature. She then gets upset at Miss. Moore and fails to see the purpose for the trip, this is inferred when Miss Moore asks her “You sound angry, Sylvia. Are you mad about something? Givin me one of them grins like she telling a grown-up joke that never turns out to be funny. And she’s looking very closely at me like maybe she plannin to do my portrait from memory. I’m mad, but I won’t give her that satisfaction. So I slouch around the store being very bored…”Sylvia is also dishonest, she keeps Miss. Moore’s change so that she could use it for her own plans. The differences between the two characters is that, the author portrays Grandmother as a hypocrite who is quick to judge the world and regard herself as being above others in society because she is a lady, Sylvia on the other hand is portrayed as being defensive and against the change that Miss. Moore tries to introduce to the girls. Another difference is that Sylvia is proud of her background. She does not try to portray herself as being above the rest, like the Grandmother.

Key theme in the Lesson is majorly on Wealth and Poverty. Sylvia and her friends are from Harlem, which is a slum. The children identify the price difference of the toys from their neighborhood with the ones in Manhattan, a fact that upsets Sylvia. The author brings out the difference in the pricing of items between the slum and where the rich live(Snodgrass 2006,pg47).On the other hand, in the book, a good man is hard to find, the key theme is Religion, where, according to Christian theology, human beings are granted favor through God’s grace (O’Connor1969,pg115). In both books, there is the use of symbolism, for example, the Grandmother’s hat is used to symbolize her misguided moral purpose. She wears the hat to show that she is a lady. Also, in the book, the lesson, names such as Miss. Moore and Sugar are used figuratively. Miss. Moore, can be seen to be derived from the term “More” showing that the woman had “more” knowledge to share with the children. Sugar is used to describe the kind and gentle nature of the character. Imagery is also used in the book, the term “Rosie Giraffe” suggests a tall girl with long neck.

In conclusion, both short stories in which the writers use mood, depiction, symbolism and color to describe life in America. Flannery describes life in America’s south whereas, Toni describes life in two contrasting neighborhoods, that is Harlem and the world in which white people live in, which is in Manhattan authors have been effective in the use of imagery, metaphors and tone in their stories for comprehensive communication with the readers(Gillespie