Introduction Flannery O'Connor's story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and Gabriel Marquez's story “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” are very different in nature, but share a common theme throughout. This theme is the depravity of human beings, and in the context of this essay, this simply means that human beings are imperfect and sinful and their actions reflect this. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay By examining a couple of similar elements from each story, you can see how the authors used them to communicate this theme of human life. depravity. Elements such as character and setting are used by O'Connor and Marquez to express this theme to their readers. Each of these writers does well to include many elements of fiction, but the two above will be analyzed in this essay to see how they are used to carry out the theme. Flannery O'Connor is a 20th century American writer. He died prematurely at the age of thirty-nine, but still managed to publish a good amount of fiction (Norton, 540). Comparative Book Analysis O'Connor's story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," begins with a family planning a vacation in Florida, and then the ending gets a little dark, as the foreshadowing of "The Misfit" suggests " who is at large, who escaped from prison and was also headed to Florida. They meet the Misfit after their car crashes, and things turn deadly after a strange conversation between the grandmother and the Misfit. Gabriel Marquez is also a 20th century writer. He is originally from Colombia, but eventually moved to Spain in 1967. Like O'Connor, he also wrote a lot of fiction and even won a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1982 (Norton 406). Marquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" is the story of an old man with enormous wings who looks like an angel and is taken in by a family. The couple, Pelayo and Elisenda, find him in their backyard and bring him inside. They immediately notice that this man is very intelligent and because of his wings he inclines the couple to think that he is an angel. Pelayo ends up locking him up. Eventually, news of this man spreads and many people come to see the "Angel" to ask for miracles. People soon begin to lose interest because the miracles they desired have not happened, as well as a strange sight that has diverted their attention. The characters in both stories are used by the authors to convey the idea that humans are sinful, imperfect, and dishonest. . In the story of “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” we see a family who simply wanted to have a nice vacation and it ended up being a horrible experience for them. During their journey, Red Sammy, a minor character, states that “a good man is hard to find,” suggesting that the world is messed up and full of evil people (Norton 547). Their experience during the journey and Red Sammy's words simply reveal the theme of human depravity. The character of the Misfit is violent and irrational. He's an escaped convict, which only adds to the fact that he's wrong. The Misfit is clearly evil and dishonest. There are no other words for him and his act of family murder. However, although dishonest and evil, the Misfit seeks spiritual and moral guidance, but his beliefs are very different from those of a normal person like Grandma. His beliefs were strong and consistent, but morally right for anyone but himself. O'Connor contrasts the Misfit with the grandmother in the story. Grandma also had her own beliefs, including faith inJesus. His beliefs, while conventionally moral, were weak and he could not consistently put them into practice. It is clearly seen that the Misfit is evil and dishonest, but the grandmother is also still sinful and imperfect. Grandma acts as if she has everything under control, but yet her beliefs fail to withstand the challenges brought forth by the misfit. It's just another example of how humans aren't perfect. Even when they appear to have it all together, they are still imperfect. In Marquez's "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings", we see an old man with wings who needs help and is taken in by a family. The characters who welcome him are Pelayo and Elisenda. At first Pelayo was kind to the man. He provided him with shelter and cared for him. However, this kindness was short-lived and Pelayo ended up locking the old man in a chicken coop. Whether it was out of fear or some other reason, Pelayo's action was simply wrong. It is inhumane to lock someone up against their will, especially an elderly man who clearly needs help. Pelayo's flaws don't stop there. He allowed and even charged admission for people who came to see the old man with wings. Anyone with common sense can see how wrong this is. Pelayo had to be overcome by greed to allow this terrible act, which, once again, highlights the theme of human depravity. His character reveals the flaws and dishonesties of all humanity. He was just a normal person, but when he was tried he failed, and it just goes to show how human beings are capable of doing harm in pursuit of their desires. Pelayo's wife, Elisenda, is in the same boat as Pelayo. She may not have been as invested in holding the old man as a prisoner and attraction, but she sat back and let it happen. Therefore, Elisenda is as guilty as Pelayo for that action. She was mostly annoyed by him throughout the story, which is ironic because she was the one holding him captive and profiting from him. Elisenda's depravity is easily seen through her unawareness that keeping the old man prisoner was wrong. . As for both Pelayo and Elisenda, they didn't even seem to have any conviction or guilt for their actions. The story only mentions Elisenda's reaction, but it was a sigh of relief, not a realization of her wrong (Norton 441). Once again, this shows how sinful and imperfect humans are. The setting of the stories helps reveal the theme of human depravity in a different way than the characters. The setting helps facilitate the action of the story and allows characters to act and react based on their surroundings. For example, in "A Good Man is Hard to Find", if the family had not been in Florida, there would be no fear of running into the Misfit. Therefore, the theme of human depravity that O'Connor wanted to express through the Misfit could not occur. The setting of the story continually changes to allow the action of the plot to unfold and the theme to develop. Reviewing O'Connor's story allows us to see this happen. The setting moves from the grandparents' house, to a car ride, to a diner, back to a car, and then to an accident on the side of the road. Each of these settings allowed different aspects of the theme to be revealed. For example, if they hadn't stopped at the diner, the conversation with Sammy Red about the poor state the world was in would not have taken place. This is how the setting is used to communicate the theme to readers. It is not a direct indication of the theme in this case, but it facilitates its representation. In Márquez's story "An Old Man with Enormous Wings",.