How does Flannery O'Connor describe the cultural and physical landscape of the South? How does this tie in with the theme she establishes...

In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," by Flannery O'Connor, setting is a very important element of the story. As the family drives through the countryside, O'Connor at first describes the scenery of Stone Mountain and the “blue granite” and “red clay banks.” These physical details show a beautiful landscape that no one in the family except the grandmother appreciates. Later, just before they have a car accident, they find themselves on a dirt road...

In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," by Flannery O'Connor, setting is a very important element of the story. As the family drives through the countryside, O'Connor at first describes the scenery of Stone Mountain and the “blue granite” and “red clay banks.” These physical details show a beautiful landscape that no one in the family except the grandmother appreciates. Later, just before they have a car accident, they find themselves on a dirt road that is hilly and has sharp curves. This is foreshadowing for the accident that is about to happen. When they are standing near the accident, just as the Misfit approaches in his “big black battered hearse-like automobile,” the landscape is ominous. They are surrounded by woods, which were “tall and dark and deep.” Here, O’Connor again matches the physical landscape to the action and tone of the story.

The cultural landscape includes the stop at Red Sammy’s, the children’s comment that Tennessee is ‘hillbilly’ country, and later the in discussion with the Misfit and his boys. The culture in which the grandmother finds herself is harsh and crude—nothing like the old days, which she reminisces of throughout the story. She longs for the more gentile past over the world she is now and this can be seen in her constant voicing of the importance of a ‘good man.’

Thus, O’Connor places emphasis on both the cultural and physical landscape of the south to directly reflect the theme of the story, which is a lack of goodness in the world, exhibited by the rudeness of Bailey toward his mother and the murder the Misfit commits in the story's final moments.