Mrs. Jernigan's Class discussion
Mazes & Labyrinths (2015)
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"A Good Man is Hard to Find"
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“I don’t want to hold hands with him,” June Star said. “He reminds me of a pig.” (131)June Star acts like she is the star the entire story. This perfectly matches her name. She is a brat the entire time to everyone. It shows how this girl has her demise coming the entire book. She treats people like they are garbage all the time and now she is about to turn into a dead body treated like litter on the side of a rode. This is O’Connor showing how some people let their kids do whatever they want. The parents were the parents of her time and June Star was the representation of children of her era that she thought got to do whatever they wanted. The Misfit and his goons were the representation of society. O’Connor’s story is a prediction in the form of a metaphor. She is saying that soon there will be events that the parents cannot protect their kids from, or they are going to die. Then, the kids are going to continue to act the same way they always have and are going to be killed by society.
June calls Booby Lee a pig. This is again showing how the kids are going to be rude to the very end, but it also shows that society is actually brutal. Kids may be rude but often times they are telling the truth in a brutal way. It is rough terms to live on that take about twenty years to prepare for. Society will eat people alive if they are not adequately prepared for this.
"I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that loose in it. I couldn't answer to my conscience if I did." (117)- In O'Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find, the grandmother, unnamed, lovingly but selfishly suggests that the whole family should go to Tennessee instead of Florida, because the "Misfit" is supposedly in that area. But she is so focused with keeping herself comfortable and out of danger that she cannot focus on the actual present.
The only way to rid herself of her grandchildren's curiosity was to bring them to her childhood house, which she forgot was in another state. All the grandmother wants is to be away from arguing and in a comfortable place, but, through her selfishness, she ironically ends up getting her family and herself killed not even in Florida by the Misfit.
“I found out the crime don't matter. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you're going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it."The Misfit gives these words just before sending the mother, the baby, and June Star into the woods to be shot. This shows how twisted the misfit’s view of ethics has become. He sees all crimes as equal… this begins to parallel to Christianity in that people believe in punishment for unknown crimes such as the original sins of the world. Christians believe that they are born into sin. They also believe that they are doomed to the punishment of death. Only through Faith in God and his Grace can they be saved from death and granted new life for eternity. In the way Christians’s sins are taken off of them because Christ took them upon himself. The Misfit exposes people for “forgetting” their crimes in this way, however they still get an earthly punishment. This opens the door and even causes the Grandmother to weigh herself and the Misfit as equals. The Misfit shows that everyone has their own struggles, but in the end it does not matter, because everyone receives punishment for the things that people think that they did, regardless of what they actually did.
-Harrison Myers
“Vincent Van Gogh. You know what everyone said to him? You can't paint, you've only got one ear.
"Know what he said back? "I can't hear you." - Michael Scott”
Wilson Smith“She would have been a good woman,’ The Misfit said, ‘if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.”
After shooting the grandmother, the Misfit realizes that the grandmother was never a good woman. The grandmother was never a "lady." She is weak and self absorbed in her appearance. While at gunpoint; however, she has the capability to become a good woman. She tries to avoid death by convincing the Misfit that he is a good man inside. The misfit then states that the grandmother could be a good woman if someone is "there to shoot her every minute of her life."
Through this quote, O'Connor is saying that people only become good people facing their last moments. "There is no such thing as an selfless act" has been said many times. But is it true? O'Connor voices her opinion on the subject through this quote.
There is no such thing as a selfless act. Every good or bad act is in someway selfish. The grandmother was never a good woman because she was always selfish. Only until her last moments was she a good woman. People only have the capability to be a good person when they are at their last moments. However, is that not a selfish act? The grandmother pleads for her life by being good but she is still being selfish by pleading for her own life. There is no selfless act.
"She would have been a good woman" the misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life" The misfit says this at the end of the story, after the execution of the family. The misfit was no doubt a physcopath but he was not dumb, he had this theory about justice. No matter what the crime large or small the punishment shall be the same. The old geezer thinks she is superior to everyone because of her religious status and age. Her last moments when she is held at gunpoint her morals take a turn, and her lack of compassion and respect for others suddenly appear. She tried to speak to the Misfit and relate to him, but he noticed this shift. The Misfits savage lifestyle continues and executes her, three shots to the chest.
“ ‘Well then, why don’t you pray?’ she asked trembling with delight suddenly. ‘I don’t want no hep,’ he said. ‘I’m doing all right by myself.’ ”In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor explores the ideals of Southern Gothicism through the use of drastic character juxtapositions. As the grandmother realizes the dire severity of her situation, she attempts to convert the Misfit to Christianity and repentance in her potential last minutes.
Preceding the rejection of the grandmother’s offer/proposition, the Misfit declares that although he “ain’t a good man… [he] ain’t the worst in the world neither,” (128). His aroma of complacency collides violently with the grandmother’s Christian values as she urges that if he were “to pray, Jesus would help [him],” (130). The juxtaposition of these two characters highlights the battle of heaven versus hell, righteousness versus sin, good versus evil. The misfit symbolizes the hypocrisy of smugness of the South. He rationalizes his actions, even the murder of innocent children. O’Connor uses the Misfit to show how grace and salvation are available to everyone; however, just as the Misfit demonstrated, we have free will and are ultimately responsible for our choices and actions.
Ben O’Donnell“We’ve had an ACCIDENT’” the children screamed in a frenzy of delight. “But nobody’s killed,” June Star said with disappointment as the grandmother limped out of the car (125).”
The grandmother gets the children excited about a house off of a dirt road by lying about it having a trap door. The children scream and complain until Bailey gives in and takes them in that direction. On the dirt road the car roles over into a ditch and while they are getting out the June Star shows her disappointment that the grandmother is unhurt.
Flannery O’Connor conveys how people are excited by any event, good or bad, proving that people care more about a thrill than the safety of others. The children are jumping up and down enjoying that the car was wrecked but wish that instead of just minor injuries that somebody had died. All of the children’s affection for the grandmother was immediately lost because they wanted to see what would happen if their own grandmother died. In today’s times, the news and media have numbed the viewers into not feeling emotion for death. Someone can see how people died that day and simply go to work without ever thinking about them again. Simply because the viewer did not personally know the dead person they can keep going on in their own life and pretend nothing ever happened. This is exactly what happened to the children, they have forgotten that if their grandmother died they would lose someone they love. The quick thrill for oneself has become more important that long term happiness for others.
"Maybe He didn't raise the dead" the old lady mumbled.The grandmother consistently tries to force God and her beliefs onto others. After the car is wrecked by her ignorance and hubris, she begins to destroy the life of her family and even herself with those same qualities. She is trying to save herself from the misfit, by agreeing with his beliefs. This passage completely contradicts the rest of the book, now the misfit is in charge, and the grandmother finally is listening to someone.
The grandmother will try anything to save herself, including denouncing her faith and agreeing with a criminal over God. The Misfit has stronger morales than the Grandmother, He is consistent with his beliefs and actions. The Misfit has accepted who he is and instead of disguising himself or hiding his true identity, he changes his name to reflect his personality.
“‘Well then, why don't you pray?’… ‘I don’t want no hep,’ he said. ‘I’m doing all right by myself.’”The situation of this quote is when the grandmother is talking to the Misfit, telling him that what he needs to do is pray and find Jesus because He can help him. The Misfit admits that Jesus has the power to help him, but he doesn’t want His help. O’Connor, through this quote, is attempting to reveal that The Misfit (sinners) needs to find Jesus, which the grandmother is trying to help The Misfit achieve. But what the grandmother is blind to seeing is that The Misfit earnestly doesn’t want to go to Jesus at this point in his life, so she keeps pestering him on it, which ultimately leads to three bullets lodged in her chest.
O’Connor believes that evangelists try too hard to convert the sinners too quick, where one cannot just simply switch from a life of sin (murder, theft, etc.) to a life filled with Jesus. If so, then the sin will eventually become victorious over the evangelist. Rather, it takes time, love, and a true desire to change a sinner. All three of those are of equal importance because without enough time, the sinner will never change. If there is no love, then the sinner cannot feel the love of Jesus and will not convert. Without a true desire for the sinner’s heart, the sinner will feel as if he/she does not matter in the evangelist’s life and is only a mere subject to add to their resumé. Without all three, the sin can -and probably will- prove to be stronger. It takes time, passion, and a desire to know another’s heart to destroy the ball chains of sin in one’s life and turn them towards the path that Jesus has laid out for all His children to follow.
Another idea that O’Connor portrays is that when a person is dubbed as evil, the title then takes over their life and grows to define them. This can be seen by The Misfit constantly repeating the phrase “It was no mistake. They had the papers on me” (O’Connor 130). Even though The Misfit cannot remember his crime, he gives in to his title. The title, “The Misfit” signifies that “he can’t make what all [he had] done wrong fit what all [he had] gone through in punishment” (131).
“I found out the don’t matter. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later your going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it,” (130-131). O’Connor portrays an interesting viewpoint through dialog with the character The Misfit. She refers to violence and punishment throughout the story. The misfit acts as a juxtaposition between civilization and barbaric ways of life. He often mentions multiple times about he comes from a nice and classy family. The misfit acts as a kind and honorary man towards the grandmother and family. He speaks with sanity but his actions strongly prove otherwise.
The harsh contrast between The Misfit’s dialect and mannerisms and the violence he acts upon reflects the contrast in the old south that O’Connor portrays through this story. The Misfit symbolizes the hypocrisy in all parts of southern culture. O’Connor shows the extremity of both ends of the spectrum.
"You shouldn't call yourself the Misfit because I know you're a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell." (128)In O'Connor's, A Good Man Is Hard To Find, there is a series of events that lead to a family being in the woods with a Misfit, murderer. This quote is said by the grandmother before the kids are about to get killed. The situation is weird because its almost as if she is doing anything to not get killed yet she is the one who led them into the woods. While all other members are freaking out, she is calm and in no way trying to help the others. Bailey, one of the boys, says, "we're in a terrible predicament" (128) while the grandmother continues to say, "I just know you're a good man"(128). Its as of she's just dismissing the fact that her family is about to be murdered, she is looking for the good in everything and finds her reason for it in the end. So her repetition of saying that he is a good man is foreshadowing to when she recognizes him as a son in Christ and a truly good man.
This quote can be seen in two parts of the book; the middle, before her family dies, and the end, before she dies. Both being said for different reasons, almost the opposites. To save herself and not be killed, and to let him know that there is meaning to his life and they are connected in a beautiful way. In the end when he says, "its nothing for you to do but throw everything away and follow Him, and if he didn't, then its nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can- by killing someone...or doing some other meanness to him." (132) its like he realizes the meaning of God and what his role should deb but its almost like he dismays it and talks as if God wants him to kill someone, likes its his duty. And the grandmother is going along with him.
"In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady" (118). As the story begins, the grandmother makes it clear that all she cares about is her appearance and how others view her. She acts cautiously because she wants others to approve of her. The grandmother begs the Misfit and says "I know you're a good man!" (127). The grandmother does not honestly think he is a good man. She is a classic southern woman, and he is a man from prison. She thinks he is a low-life and says at the beginning of the book that she "wouldn't take my [her] children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose" (117). All she cares about is surviving, and she does not show any concern as her family is killed one by one.
As she awaits her death, she never once asks the Misfit and his company to not kill her family. She yells, "Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady" (132). Moments before, her daughter-in-law and granddaughter was shot to death. She does not even stop to acknowledge it but just stays concerned with herself. She wants her life to be saved, and she wants to keep a good face. When she dies, it becomes clear that her "reputation" or her idea of it means nothing. She spent her life working to be a lady and respectable, but that did not save her. She speaks early to the children about all the respectable men she courted and how she acted as a young lady. All the men say about her is that "she was a talker, wasn't she?"(133). She spent the last moments of her life pleading for it. She was always prepared for any situation, even having the right things to ensure that people know that she is a lady. O'Connor uses the character of the grandmother to show the stereotype of the classic southern women and their petty cares. In the end, it got her nowhere.
“Why you’re one of my babies. You're one of my own children!” (132)While following the Grandmother and her opinions during the trip, Christianity and redemption within rises to the foreground to prove that as children of God, redemption is available for all. The journey begins with a decision to travel to East Tennessee instead of Florida because the grandmother would not allow it, for a criminal (The Misfit) is on the loose. The family takes a turn for the worse when they travel down a dirt road and topple into a ditch. To the family’s surprise, a “big black battered hearse-like automobile” (126) (symbolizes death) arrives slowly from above to aid the family. The men in the car consist of The Misfit and two others. They eventually end up killing the family, the grandmother last. Before the elder woman left for the dead, she pleaded with The Misfit telling him that he is redeemable and not all that bad. This raises the question: Is everyone capable of Redemption?
Although the grandmother may have been more concerned about her own life than converting The Misfit, she speaks truth. The grandmother uses prayer over and over again to convince The Misfit that he can come back from his misfortunes. The grandmother pleads, “That’s when you should have started to pray” followed by, “If you would pray, Jesus would help you” (130). The misfit does not listen as he rejects prayer for the purpose that “I don't want no hep. I'm doing alright by myself” (130). Seeing her chance to live has fled, the grandmother cries out to The Misfit, “Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!” (132) The Misfit lacks the most important fact of all saying that all of humanity are children of God and entitled to redemption. This thought elevates The Misfit’s emotions to a level rising above his ability to contain and shoots her right there. The idea of redemption for his troubled soul was impossible in his mind.
"You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you?" The grandmother said and removed a clean handkerchief from her cuff and began to slap at her eyes with it. In "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" the grandmother plays the role as the selfish manipulator. Whenever something challenges her will, she will try to have it her way. Notice that she only confronts contrary opinions subtlety. For example, when Bailey decides to take the family to Florida for vacation she tries to change his mind without making it into an argument. She tries to scare him by stating that there is a loose criminal, but when that doesn't work she attempts to guilt trip him hobby saying the children have already been there, and revisiting the state will keep the children from witnessing more of the world. The rest of the story exposes the grandmothers selfish personality and how she uses it to manipulate other people.
This quote is an example of the grandmother attempting to manipulate The Misfit. After she realizes that her family's "savior" is a criminal she begins her manipulation. Although her manipulation only pertains to saving her own life. She isn't worried about saving the rest of her family so she selfishly manipulates The Misfit by stating that because she is a lady she deserves to spared.
"'People are certainly not nice like they used to be,' said the grandmother."This quote is one of the many instances in which this theme surfaces in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." Just like in "Greenleaf," there is an old woman with thick, old-southern heritage. In Both stories, the women feel that they are being oppressed and that the southern culture is not what it used to be. Although there will always be change from generation to generation, the way the grandmother tries to place her generation above all others creates a stigma of arrogance that is constantly revealed in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find."
O'Connor uses women like the grandmother and Mrs. May to explore the mindset of a person rooted in the old southern culture. It is evident that anyone that grew up in an earlier time period in the south has a rather skewed version of a "good man" and the characteristics that a good man possesses. For example, Red Sam reminisces on the ways of his generation where, "...You could go off and leave the screen door unlatched" (O'Connor 122). To Red Sam and the grandmother, the concept of being a good man is occompanied by gullible and naive tendencies as well as a judgmental nostalgia for the old southern ways. To most, a "good person" is personified by strong morals and a nice and caring personality. The Grandmother and Red Sam have their own meaning of the word "good." The way the grandmother judges a good man is based off of everything but the character of that person. It is extremely ignorant and creates a prideful stigma surrounding the grandmother. In the end, her claim that there are no more good men in the world gets the whole family murdered, while at the same time, portrays her generation as pridefully ignorant.
Mod
We all know characters like this who exist in a world apart - separated from reality by their own self-righteousness - driven by a false sense of self-justification that dispels its scornful critique like a stinger. The grandmother character, a constant in the short fiction of Flannery O'Connor, in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is similar in her perception of self and other.
According to June Star, "she has to go everywhere we go" (118) and takes her cat with her in a clandestine valise because "he would miss her too much" (117). Not only does she live with Bailey Boy and his unnamed wife, she dictates and instructs him in all things - including the speed limit and ticket-giving strategies of policemen and tracks the mileage and travel time with a fierce determination.O'Connor adorns her in "white gloves," "collars and cuffs," and "purple spray of cloth violets." She passively chastises her grandkids with lectures regarding "talking [negatively] about [their] native state" (119) and being "respectful of [...] their parents and everything else" (119). For someone who is so critical and manipulative of others, her critical views and false sense of justification creates a humorous tone throughout the text. After all the grandmother says that [Bailey] "didn't have a naturally sunny disposition like she did" (121).
O'Connor examines the grandmother's self-righteous "drama" with her usual scathing humor. Ironically, we are introduced to the Misfit through the grandmother's attempts to manipulate Bailey and go to Tennessee instead of Florida. Throughout the story, Granny references this "escaped criminal" almost like an invitation for him to join the party. Her words conjure him from his backwoods hideout, shirtless, and anxious because "children make him nervous" (126). He acts as the death catalyst bringing the grandmother her much-needed awakening.
"In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know once that she was a lady"All the grandmother cares about this entire story is how she looks to others but yet she does not put others emotions into consideration. If they all died on the highway, she only cares about how she will look to the people that find her body. When she argues with The Misfit, trying to persuade him not to kill her, the only appeal she knows to use is to focus on him being a gentleman. Since she did not want to go to Florida, the grandmother "was seizing at every chance she gets to change Bailey's mind," because, even though everyone else wanted to go to Florida, all she cared about was her opinion. The trip was not even for her yet she insisted he get her way.
In the short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find," O'Connor utilizes this quote to expose woman in the south and how they care so much about "saving face." In the south women are in encouraged to hide their emotions away and put on a façade that everything is fine and they are happy and content. Miranda Lambert has a song called "Mama's Broken Heart" in which she talks about going through a rough break-up and she is torn up about it. Her mother then tells her to "go and fetch your makeup, girl, it's just a breakup" and to be presentable because what others think of you is more important than your feelings. The south, as O'Connor points out though Bailey, does the same thing to men in a sense that they are also discouraged to show emotion. Men are supposed to be tough and strong and not sensitive or feminine in any way. They try I hard to conceal their feelings that they become fake.
“She would have been a good woman,’ The Misfit said, ‘if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.” In Flannery O’Connor’s depiction of Southern Gothic literature she uses an older women to illustrate the old south and a sense of hierarchy. In her story, “Greenleaf” she utilizes Mrs. May as the main character that is cursed by death and irony, but in justified in the end. O’Connor replicates this same technique through the grandmother in her story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
The grandmother’s tragic flaw is that she can only see the specks in others eyes and disregards the logs in her own. From the beginning of the novel, she highlights that the new generation does not compare to hers and that there are no “good men” in their society, “People are certainly not as nice as they use to be.” She justifies this claim with the introduction of the character, The Misfit. Describing that she would never take her children or grandchildren near a man like that, "I couldn't answer to my conscience if I did." Ironically, the grandmother accepts her circumstances and goes against her word towards her tragic fate. In addition, after ridiculing the Misfit, saying he was an awful man, changes her mind and pronounces that, "You shouldn't call yourself the Misfit because I know you're a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell." These two points prove that the grandmother is a pathological liar that goes against her morals in order to fix her tribulation. Furthermore, she believed that she had the right the try to “save” the Misfit, when she was only trying to save herself, “Why don’t you pray?” This last effort to alter the Misfit’s path ultimately led to her final destruction. Ironically, the Misfit and the bull from “Greenleaf” act as the agents of grace for the two women. Thus, when O’Connor describes the grandmother shortly after her death, “Her face smiling up at the cloudless sky,” the interpretation is that she had finally come to light of her own transgressions. In conclusion, pride and arrogance conjure a false identity that can only be eliminated through death.
"She wouldn't stay at home to be queen for a day."In Flannery O'Connor's short story A Good Man is Hard to Find, the disrespect that the children have for their parents and their grandmother becomes extremely obvious when June Star makes this insulting comment about her grandmother. Normally children are meant to be the form of innocence but in the case of June Star and John Wesley this is no where near true. These children are even more disobedient and disrespectful than normal children are at there ages.
The whole story has a sense of uneasiness, it never really settles down. There is either a fight or some chaos of some kind that makes the heart race and the mind turn faster than normal. The majority of the chaos comes from the children, they are distracting and unsettling. This is O'Connor making a different choice. She uses the children as a distraction in a dangerous way. Where most would use children to help pick the story up a bit, to make it not so brutal she uses them to add to the brutality and anxiety that the story makes most feel. O'Connor is wonderful at taking her stories and sending them in ways that are not expected, and she does it in a way that makes it seem like it is the only way the story could ever have gone.
"She wouldn't stay at home to be queen for a day."In Flannery O'Connor's short story A Good Man is Hard to Find, the disrespect that the children have for their parents and their grandmother becomes extremely obvious when June Star makes this insulting comment about her grandmother. Normally children are meant to be the form of innocence but in the case of June Star and John Wesley this is no where near true. These children are even more disobedient and disrespectful than normal children are at there ages.
The whole story has a sense of uneasiness, it never really settles down. There is either a fight or some chaos of some kind that makes the heart race and the mind turn faster than normal. The majority of the chaos comes from the children, they are distracting and unsettling. This is O'Connor making a different choice. She uses the children as a distraction in a dangerous way. Where most would use children to help pick the story up a bit, to make it not so brutal she uses them to add to the brutality and anxiety that the story makes most feel. O'Connor is wonderful at taking her stories and sending them in ways that are not expected, and she does it in a way that makes it seem like it is the only way the story could ever have gone.
“You’ve got good blood I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady.” In Flannery O'Connor's short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" the interaction between the Grandmother and the Misfit exemplifies the old South values in ones name. The paradox seen in the Grandmothers words reveal and prove that people in the old South based an individual’s worth and character on their name instead of their actions. "Who you are" to the outside world today (new South) is based on ones actions, good or bad. O'Connor is showing the flaws in the old South and how they need to be changed. This outdated thought process is ultimately what leads to the Grandmother’s death. It is through her character and her interactions with others that O'Connor is able to highlight the dysfunction and hypocrisy of the Old South.
Mrs. Jernigan's Class
Books mentioned in this topic
In the Lake of the Woods (other topics)Tender Is the Night (other topics)
This is informal writing in that you are selecting one aspect of the story to discuss. Be sure to think critically as you work with the text and its meaning.
Writings should be 2-3 paragraphs.
See the sample for guidance:
"Something Wicked This Way Comes."
After following John Wade through his horrid transformations in O'Brien's In the Lake of the Woods, looks like Fitzgerald provides another chameleon to lead us through this picture show of the Lost Generation. Dick Diver in Tender Is the Night is the dream weaver who takes shape and substance through direct and indirect observations of Rosemary, a lady whose "body hovered delicately on the last edge of childhood" (4). Poor Rosie, she will be drawn to Dick and his high society funhouse, but are her wings strong enough to carry her from its destruction?
The Divers wield culture like "kings," "rajahs," and "princes" (15). As a couple they are as mysterious as the sea- compelling, alluring, yet dangerous like fire. Dick's attentive handling of Rosemary "was all completely there" for "his voice [...] wooed the world" (19). Her reaction to the carnival was simply to let its "expensive simplicity" (21) consume her, but as the narrator quickly reminds us, she was "unaware of its complexity and lack of innocence" (21). Dick's "taking care of her" (21) includes his seductive words as he tells her she "look[s] like something blooming" (22). The god-like nature of the Divers is reinforced by Fitzgerald's characterization of their audience in that they "turned up ashen faces to [them], like souls in Purgatory watching the passage of a mortal" (23). Clearly distinguishing the two groups and the power they wield over others, the narrator gives this perception a duality...a hidden, secretive persona that begins to bleed into the "reality." The veil shifts as an outsider observes a hidden encounter or exchange of words. As she attempts to share her observations, she is silenced. For the Divers have fierce protectors (Cerberus like guardians) driven to guard hidden truths from crushing the "rose-colored" sandcastles built for the amusement and entertainment and seduction of their following.