A Good Man Is Hard To Find Grandmother Analysis

Not Your Average Grandmother

(A Character Analysis from “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”)

The first time I read, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, I was immediately drawn to the grandmother. She reminded me of the old southern women I have run across in my own small town in Georgia: judgmental, proud, and in denial. Throughout the whole story she never once admitted she was wrong, which consequently killed her and the rest of the family. This woman baffled me. She was so prideful, and arrogant that she never realized what she did was wrong. I don’t think she was an awful woman, even though her actions alone are what got her family killed, I think she is just a self-serving individual. When reading this story the qualities which immediately popped

She seems to think she is above everything. Throughout their trip, she makes many references to her past suggesting it exceeds the present. “In my time, children were more respectful of their native states, parents, and everything else. People did right then” (368). Grandmother always knows best is a statement which best fits this character. Till the very end she believes she can do no wrong, despite everything negative which occurred because of her actions, she was too sanctimonious to see the repercussions of her actions. The grandmother is convinced she is a “good woman”, one of high moral servitude, and upstanding character yet does nothing to prove to the reader she is any of these. On all accounts, she has done nothing but deceive and manipulate which are not characteristics of a “good woman”. If she was aware of her unpleasant characteristics and attempted to exhibit some sort of change, the reader could consider a dynamic character. A character who found flaws, and attempted to correct them for the betterment of herself and family. Unfortunately, this is not the case. When the grandmother is coming to her death, she continues to keep the same attitude. When she is conversing with The Misfit, ultimately begging for her life, she says, “you wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you” (373)? The grandmother stays rooted in her ways until her

Throughout the entire story, the protagonist lies to her family in order to achieve her maximum benefit. In the beginning, when the trip did not go her way the protagonist chose to bring her cat along, despite Bailey not wanting “to arrive at a motel with a cat” (367). This one act would later prove to be nothing but hazardous. Their deaths were not caused by being in the wrong place at the wrong time; there were lies which brought them to there. When wanting to visit an old house, in which she knew Bailey would not be for, she chose to lie in order to get her way. This is the first time throughout the story, in which the audience can distinctly see the grandmother being aware of her actions. In order to evoke a response within the children, so she can get her way, the grandmother told them “there was a secret panel in this house, she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that she were” (370). This act of deception causes Bailey to give in to her demands. Not once does she feel guilt for lying, because it ultimately causes her to have her way. At the beginning of the story, it was stated the grandmother wanted to go to Tennessee, and it seems because of this she created the illusion “that the house she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia but Tennessee” (372). Instead of immediately making Bailey aware of the mistake, she keeps quiet. She had every opportunity to