Imagery in: A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Of the images in the short story, the one that stands out the most for me is Bailey’s shirt. It was yellow with bright blue birds and was occasionally compared to Bailey’s appearance. After the crash, Bailey was, “as yellow as the shirt” and later it was said that his eyes were, “as blue and intense as the parrots on his shirt”. The author used these images to get the shirt stuck in the readers’ minds so they would realize the irony of the situation – two pistol shots and Bobby Lee dragging the same yellow shirt out of the woods, then the mother and daughter were glad to into the woods to where they believe the rest of their family is. This was an example of dramatic irony that left the image of the shirt, and even the family walking into the woods, stuck in the readers’ minds.