Comparative Argument

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings”

The readings “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” could be easily said not to share any similarities. Both stories take place in different times, different society backgrounds and beliefs. Even though such is true, after reading these short stories a couple of times, I noticed that there are in facts some similarities between the themes of both stories. As we read through the climax of both, we can instantly notice the frequent use of religion by the characters of both stories. The factors that lead to the use of religion differ from one story to the other, yet in both cases religion tries to explain an unusual situation. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” we can see how the grandmother becomes extremely religious when her life is at stake. From “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” we can see that Pelayo and Elisenda as well as everyone in town all try to find an explanation through religion. I will be showing in this paper how these two readings both portray man's behavior when faced with the unexpected. A similar situation can be seen in the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, when the family is thrown into desperation right after the car crash in page, 147.

The story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a story taking place sometime in the 18th or 19th century. This statement could be checked at the bottom of page 338, “they had to call in troops with fixed bayonets.” It is well known that during those times religion was a big part of society. The church ruled the state not the government, and because upcoming discoveries in science defiled religious doctrines. Any scientic discovery or explanation was not widely accepted and sometimes even punishable by the law. The common man in this era therefore explained supernatural event through religion. “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” is a fictional piece of writing that uses an extremely unreal setting to portray an unexpected event. Because of the statements above I concluded that the writer must have been trying to portray man's reaction to the unexpected, man's reaction to that which has not been previously defined.

The story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” takes place ...