Similes

After going through the story A Good Man Is Hard to Find, I discovered many intriguing similes. Two of the similes that stood out to me were:

His khaki trousers reached just to his hip bones and his stomach hung over them like a sack of meal swaying under his shirt.

He was busy catching fleas on himself and biting each one carefully between his teeth as if it were a delicacy.

Both of these descriptions conjured images of disgust in my mind when I read them. This must be the concept of "grotesque" that Mr. Sexson was talking about. When I first read the story, these small grotesque details did not immediately jump out at me. Instead, the story had a way portraying a dark, gray theme throughout. I suppose that this dark theme was a result of all the minor grotesque details such as the similes all combined into one story, and that overall had an impact on me. Now going back through the story, I can see if I take the time to read each and every word and think about each sentence, there are numerous grotesque aspects throughout. For example, the first simile is very vivid and actually disgusting. When I read it, I can't help but picture a man and the image of his stomach swaying back and forth. Likewise, the second simile also brings up images of dirty things. One usually pictures a delicacy as something unique and great; a food that is delicious. But after reading this simile, I can picture the monkey picking fleas and eating them carefully. I'm a very visual person, so so I can't help but picture a clos-up view of the monkey's teeth eating the flees. Overall, can see why Flannery O'Connor's writing is described as grotesque. It contains many odd and dark elements, yet is clearly effective at porttraying that gloomy mood.