A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

Flannery O’Connor’s short stories have an underlying theme of redemption and grace. In her story “ A Good Man is Hard to find” that theme is very prevalent. In the way she presents the misfit and his horrible antics and still gives him redeeming qualities that really make him one of the most likable characters out of the whole story. Or in the grandmothers introduction when it seemed she was making her sound like a brass and cold, old woman when in reality she was a lost old soul who just needed a shot at redemption. It is even present in the numbers she choose in the story and the way they are closely inter-twined with religion. Flannery O’Connor’s Catholic faith and its appearance in her stories make her and amazing and fascinating and even

In fact both Christianity and Satanism share many of the same numbers. Inside of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, numbers that play into religion are brought up many times. Three is referenced three times, once when the grandmother says “alone in the house for three days” again when the Misfit, Hiram, and Bobby Lee were walking over the hill. That scene in particular draws parallels to Jesus and the two thieves being crucified on top of Golgotha. Three is referenced once more when the misfit shoots the grandmother three times. Three is typically considered a holy number referencing the Trinity; God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit. However three is also considered a demonic number, used as a mocking of the trinity. Meaning the three threes in Flannery O’Connor’s story could reference either good or evil. The number five is mentioned seven times in the story. In the religions of Satanism and Wicca, pentagrams are a common symbol or talisman and appear frequently. Pentagrams typically have five points making the number significant in the story. However since five was mentioned seven times and seven is a biblical number being said again and again in scripture. Which stays consistent with Flannery O’Connor’s theme of good and evil remaining in balance. The number six is said three times in the story, which is common knowledge among most people that it is Satan’s

She is a selfish old woman, she is stuck in her backwards ways and criticizes Bailey and his wife’s parenting. She is blatantly racist and classist and lies throughout the whole story. O’Connor disagrees though, so much so that she wrote a letter saying how she did not appreciate readers and critics believing the grandmother was evil, and that the grandmother was in the story as a representation of grace. Which is noticeable in the story, she offered the misfit chance after chance to change his mind about murdering her and she clearly loved her family and worried about her son. The grandmother was an interesting character to analyze because she seems like such a selfish person but then she seems like a sweet grandma too and it is as if the layers of her personality cannot really be put into the