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A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

886 Words4 Pages

I sympathize the least with The Misfit. In the story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" written by Flannery O'Connor. The Misfit is the antagonist when he shoots the family traveling in the middle of the night. From his actions, he reveals that he is a want to equate the Misfit esociopath, with possible narcissistic personality traits. The Misfit seems like a kind man in the south when approaching them, but then the family sees the guns and get nervous. He states that he feels insecure not having a shirt on in front of the women, but shows no empathy when he orders the other men to take the father and son to the woods to be killed. After they are shot, O'Connor states, "'I was a gospel singer for a while.' The Misfit said. 'I been most everything. …show more content…

He doesn't flinch when the shots are fired and immediately turns to his own life explanation. Even though he knew as soon as the grandmother recognized him, that he was going to kill them, he drags it on by focusing on his own life instead of making it a quick and easy getaway. I don't give him sympathy because he is self obsessed, with no empathy toward the people he killed and wants to play with their emotions and thoughts before he kills them. O'Connor makes a striking point about how the misfit might react following the grandmothers death in the piece, "The Element of Suspense in 'A Good Man is hard to Find'". She states, "I don't want to equate the Misfit with the devil. I prefer to think that, however unlikely it may seem, the old lady's gesture, like the mustard-seed, will grow to be a great crow-filled tree in the Misfit's heart, and will be enough of a pain to him there to turn him into the prophet he was meant to

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In a "Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O 'Connor, the contrast of good and evil is not as evident as it appears on the surface. The road that the family in the story travels symbolizes good up until the point the grandmother all but forces the family to make a detour onto a dirt road that leads to their demise. She is the unlikely antagonist in the story. A serial killer named, The Misfit, is the protagonist despite his homicidal actions. Both characters in the story help to illustrate how a relationship with God is perceived good and sacrilegious behavior is perceived evil.

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So, when reading the story initially I was left with the impression that The Misfit was least sympathetic because he just killed an entire family forcing the grandmother to come to terms with their death before killing her off. As blunt and brutal as this situation is, it is also the most symbolic as the true villain of Poe's story is actually the grandmother. For instance, the grandmother constantly insists that The Misfit must be a good man, "I know you're a good man" (O' Connor 504) and "I just know you're a good man" (O'Connor 505). Moreover, instances of the grandmother claiming that if The Misfit pray, Jesus will guide him, while she herself never does it and simply goes on to say in a cursing manner, "Jesus, Jesus" (O'Connor 507) insinuating The Misfit needs the saving. O'Connor cleverly implies this as the grandmother being sympathizing with his past, all the while her tone is almost becoming forcing, as a means of psychological attack.

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612 Words | 3 Pages

Was the Misfit really such a bad guy? In the short story a Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor he is given a bad reputation. He is a felon convicted of murder and escaping prison. However, as he is introduced towards the end of the story he is not portrayed as a macho mean killing machine. He is described as some old looking guy with spectacles, no shirt and tight pants.

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Also, in this story did you get the strong feeling that the misfit may have actually been the grandmother’s son? One that she turned away from years prior. This story line leads this direction and her selfish ways may have been the reason he felt the need to kill her in the end. Realizing she was his mother and still selfish enough to not care about anyone else’s

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The grotesque psychopathic nature of the characters in Flannery O’Connor’s, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” ironically shows how a good man does not truly exist through the revelation and proclamation of what characteristics a good man possess. In the story The Misfit shows characteristics of a psychopath by escaping prison and killing an innocent family. However, The Misfit isn’t the only character in the short story to show psychopathic tendencies. The grandma also shows some characteristics of a psychopath because she does not care or show remorse for her family who was brutally murdered

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689 Words | 3 Pages

In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” ,O’Connor displays The Misfit as a suspicious character. He is sneaky and cunning. In the scene where he talks to the family, he is not letting on what he is going to do, which displays a suspicious mood. For example, he says, “...but it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn’t of reckernized me” (O’Connor 7). The grandmother is pleading for her life and asks if the Misfit will shoot her, he says, “I would hate to have to” (O’Connor 7)

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1583 Words | 7 Pages

Freeman Bailey Freeman Hensley English 11/ Fourth Period 05 March 2018 Part 14: Rough Draft #2 In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” she writes, “If you would pray,’ the old lady said, ‘Jesus would help you.’

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Viewing The Misfit as a tragic figure, we sympathize with his actions and feel remorse for who he has become. The readers see him as a victim and sympathize for his actions, including killing the elderly Grandmother. Although he is an awful person, because he is a male character, it is acceptable for him to have issues, but it is not acceptable for a woman to have any sort of issue. As the Misfits says, “She would have been a good woman...if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (O’Connor), this suggests that the Grandmother was an awfully annoying woman, but if she had a man there to keep her in line, she would have been a decent

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It seems unbelievable that an entire family would allow themselves to be slaughtered the way it happens at the end of A Good Man is Hard to Find. However, because the characters of the story have very set, predictable personalities, the reader can use textual examples to extend these characteristics to the ending of the story. Analyzing each character shows that they do, in fact, act completely in character when The Misfit kills them off at the end of the story. This analysis will focus on the behaviors of June Star, Bailey and Grandmother. June Star is an almost cartoonish representative of a rude, spiteful child, though she’s perceptive enough when she wants to be.

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The misfit is a criminal whom just escaped prison and is now running from the law. These quotes reveal his troublesome nature and devious ways. While he is a person who has killed before, the misfit acts as if he is embarrassed to be shirtless in front of the women like a gentleman would be. The misfit then claims that he was framed for the crime that put him in jail, but his killing spree seems to show differently. The criminal nature of the misfit is masked by pretending to be a gentleman and claiming he was framed.

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1016 Words | 5 Pages

The Misfit 's mind is one of the most complicated of any villain in O 'Connor’s stories and in all literature. His mental state is most evident in "the scene between the Grandmother and the Misfit at the climax of the story" (Walls 3) This recent escapee 's psyche can be described as "tails short of the athlete’s morality, for he plays by no one 's rules except his own" (Fike). This mental state is typical of most criminals but the Misfit’s perception on religion is not so conventional. Usually, when a person commits a heinous act and if the person is spiritual they will say God told them to do it.

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1393 Words | 6 Pages

Moreover, when the Misfit and the two men shoot the whole family in the woods, it illustrates the sinister and cruel world that needs saving. The violent car crash that causes the family to encounter the Misfit in the first place adds to the violent display that O’Connor creates of the world. O’Connor uses the violence in the story to shock the readers into self-awareness (Larson 1). She uses this self-awareness to bring to light the religious theme of redemption and grace for the corrupted. O’Connor’s

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1601 Words | 7 Pages

The Misfit is seen as being a part of reality and only believing what he sees with physical evidence. He also stays true to his morals of what he believes is right and wrong, especially when it comes to showing the equality of no mercy among the family members. Both characters reveal their use of Jesus, the spiritual battle that inhibits them and their concepts of reality. All of this gives insight to how there are no good or bad characters at the finale of this story. The battle of morality between the two characters only shows the

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1254 Words | 6 Pages

(6:27). O 'Connor presents both the view of the Misfit as a fellow human being in pain, and the feeling of love for him, as a gift from God. The grandmother as a human being, is prone towards evil and selfishness, so she could never have come to feel such love without God 's help, as this man was going to kill her. This moment of grace is incredibly important in the story. The Misfit kills the grandmother, withdrawing from her and what seems foreign to him (human compassion), but the grandmother already had her moment of redemption.

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844 Words | 4 Pages

The misfit gains awareness of human morals when he kills the grandmother and he says, "She would have been a good woman...if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life" (O 'Connor 1020), he then realized that she wasn 't all that good. O 'Connor did a good job of interpreting the grandmother as a way to put away the values of the old Southern America; she also interprets the Misfit as a type of common man who is defiantly not perfect which can a realistic version of the new Southern America. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find", the irritating grandmother cares more about matters such as her appearance and manners, she dressed her best for the car ride and the reason for her doing this is so that "In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would at once know that she was a lady." (O 'Connor 1010). The grandmother is a very selfish woman, the first thing she said to the Misfit is "You wouldn 't shoot a lady, would you?"

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