A Good Man is Hard to Find

For this post, I am interested in looking at the epistemological content of the saying: "The salt of the earth." This saying is prevalent in O'Connor's writing and is typically used to explain "good country people" by other people who consider themselves also to be "good country people." This saying, in the context previously mentioned, creates a sense of kinships and community, much like that of the Christian faith, a recurring theme in O'Connors works. Not surprisingly enough, the origin of the phrase, "The salt of the earth" is biblical. This saying occurs in the book of Matthew 5:13

Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing,
but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

What is interesting to me is not the phrase "The salt of the earth" itself, but the remainder of the verse. The saying "the salt of the earth" in its own does not hold much weight in comparison to the rest of the verse. In using this saying, O'Connor seems to be questioning the values of good country people, which we definitely see in the motif of prejudice vs. tolerance in A Good Man is Hard to Find. Just because country people consider themselves to be good, does not make them good. It is through questioning, through understanding that the salt of the earth has, in fact, lost its' flavor, that goodness is achieved. Thus, O'Connor asks both her characters and her readers to understand what they believe.