Abstract：Besides Faulkner, Flannery O’Connor is the most talented southern female writer in the USA. During her short life, she created so many brilliant works. Among them, A Good Man is Hard to Find is a masterpiece. Her deep thinking attracts people a lot. She lived in Southern America when she was a child, which endowed her works with distinctive Southern characteristics. Since she was ill with lupus erythematosus, a terminal disease from her youth, she lived in the shadow of death all the time, which made contributions to her unique views on death and formed distinctive features of her works. Meanwhile, as a Catholic, she filled her works with religious colors and awareness. The novel tells us a story that happened in Florida, where an ordinary middle-class family of six went out for a trip and came across a car accident on the way and were finally killed by “Misfit” and his accomplices brutally. On one hand, Flannery O’Connor condemned the society which had no faith in God by the violence in the story and in other hand, she also gave sympathy to these characters, with the belief that they could save themselves by their own ways. It indicates loose morals and belief crises after the World War in Western society and expresses its profound religious theme—sin, violence, death and salvation.

Key words: Flannery O’Connor      Religious Theme     A Good Man is Hard to Find 

摘要：继福克纳之后，弗兰纳里·奥康纳（Flannery O’Connor）是美国南方最优秀的作家之一。她的一生很短暂，但却发表了很多优秀的作品。其中，短篇小说《好人难寻》堪称她的经典之作。深刻的思想根植于她的作品，使它们具有迷人的魅力。由于她从小生活在美国南方，她的作品具有浓厚的南部特色和乡土气息。因为她年轻时遍患上绝症红斑狼疮，所以她长期处于死亡的阴影之下，这使得她对死亡有了独特的理解。同时，作为天主教的信徒，她的作品洋溢着鲜明的宗教色彩，具有浓厚的宗教意识。《好人难寻》讲述的是一个普通的中产阶级的六口之家前往佛罗里达度假的故事。途中他们遭遇了一场车祸，又祸不单行遇上了正在逃亡的“不合时宜”的人以及他的同伙，最终全部被残酷地杀害。 在《好人难寻》中，奥康纳一方面通过三个暴徒的暴行来抨击不信奉上帝的世俗社会，但另一方面，也对这些人给予同情，认为他们可以通过自己的方式赎罪得救。《好人难寻》揭示了二战后西方社会的道德堕落和信仰危机，通过对人性的分析，并且以暴力和死亡作为手段，表达了作者寓意深刻的宗教主题——罪恶，暴力，死亡，救赎。

关键词：弗兰纳里·奥康纳     宗教主题      《好人难寻》

Contents

Abstracti

摘 要..ii

Chapter One4

Chapter Two7

Chapter Three10

Chapter Four13

Works Cited.14

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Chapter 1 Introduction

Flannery O’Connor(1925-1964) was a well-known American writer in the 20th century. She lived only 39 years, but during her tragically short 17-year writing career, she left behind so many brilliant works: thirty-two short stories and a lot of reviews and commentaries. Recognized today as one of the most outstanding short fiction writers addressing people’s religious beliefs in her works, she boosted a Southern Gothic style and relied heavily on regional settings and grotesque characters. Her works also were characterized by her Roman Catholic faith and explored a lot of things such as morality, redemption, grace, ethics and God. Her posthumously compiled Complete Stories won the 1972 U.S. National Book Award for Fiction and has been the subject of enduring praise.