In discussing Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, a literary critic named Martha Stephens once wrote of the story’s ending, commenting that “the failure of the final scene— and hence of the story— seems to result from a tonal shift that occurs midway through the story and finally runs out of control. [O’Conner seems to imply] that life is wholly senseless and contemptible and that our fitting end is in senseless pain.”
What do we know about A) O’Connor’s religion, B) her views on violence, and C) the words exchanged between the grandmother and the Misfit just before he shoots her that Stevens may be misunderstanding or overlooking in her criticism?