Considering their struggles and obstacles, how does the grandmother from the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" compare to Connie from the story...

When
answering this question, you must discuss each characters unique traits and overlapping ones.
The grandmother in OConnors story and Connie in Oatess certainly share similarities and
differences based on their .

The biggest similarity is their vanity. This
refers to each characters preoccupation with her physical appearance. For instance, the
grandmother dresses in her formal Sunday best for a road trip with her family. She does this so
that if she were to die on the side of the highway, anyone who saw her would know at once that
she was a proper lady. This shows that the grandmother is vain because she only dresses up
because of how she might be perceived.

Connie is similarly vain in that she
enjoys the attention she gets from boys based on her looks. She even stays home from a family
event so that she can wash and dry her luxurious hair, which indicates that she values herself
over others.

Beyond on obsession with looks, each character also values the
appearance of something over actually possessing it. The grandmother, for example, wants other
people to think she has manners, but she often lies. Connie wants her friends to think she is
enviable and experiences, when she is actually quite innocent. Both characters lie in some
capacity to those around them.

However, these characters also have many
differences. The most obvious, of course, is their age. Connie is a young teenager, while the
grandmother is elderly. Beyond superficial distinctions, the grandmother is responsible for
placing her family in harms way while Connie sacrifices herself in order to save her
family.

The grandmothers lie about the old plantation, her lapse in memory,
and her hysterical tendencies all lead to the family members deaths. When the grandmother
identifies The Misfit, she immediately pleads for her own life rather than for the lives of her
family. This indicates that she remains selfish even after it becomes clear that she has sealed
the familys fate.

On the other hand, Connie has a choice between going with
Arnold Friend or waiting until her family returns from the barbecue. Friend promises that
choosing the latter will put her family in jeopardy. Instead of potentially endangering the
lives of her family, Connie gets into Friends car and leaves.

This key
difference between the two characters is just one example of how literary figures with similar
personality traits can be portrayed differently.