Moral Dilemma Response

This reflective writing worksheet is designed for students in Grades 9 and 10 to deepen engagement with Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find through perspective-taking and ethical analysis. Learners imagine themselves as a member of the grandmother’s family during the story’s climactic moment and write an 8-10 sentence response describing their emotions, decisions, and moral reasoning in the face of danger. The task connects personal reflection to the story’s central themes of fear, faith, grace, and redemption.

Learning Goals

• Personal Narrative & Reflective Writing (Grades 9-10)
  Students write from a first-person perspective with clarity, detail, and emotional awareness.
• Moral Reasoning in Literature
  Learners examine how extreme circumstances reveal values, beliefs, and ethical choices.
• Perspective-Taking & Empathy
  Activities encourage students to inhabit a character’s situation and consider human responses to crisis.
• Theme Connection
  Students link personal choices to O’Connor’s themes of grace, morality, and redemption.

Instructional Benefits

• Teacher-Created Resource
  Designed by educators to align with high school ELA standards for writing and literary analysis.
• Structured Yet Open-Ended Prompt
  Provides clear expectations while allowing authentic, individual responses.
• Encourages Deep Engagement
  Moves students beyond analysis into lived ethical reflection connected to the text.
• Supports Discussion & Writing Growth
  Responses can be shared, discussed, or expanded into longer analytical reflections.
• Flexible Classroom Use
  Ideal for post-reading reflection, assessment, or discussion preparation.
• Printable & No-Prep
  Easy to implement in classroom or homeschool settings.

This Moral Dilemma Response worksheet helps students engage personally and thoughtfully with the moral crisis at the heart of A Good Man Is Hard to Find. By articulating emotions, choices, and reasoning under pressure, learners strengthen reflective writing skills, ethical awareness, and empathy-key components of deep literary understanding.

This worksheet is part of our A Good Man is Hard to Find collection.