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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.
In Flannery O’Connor’s story A Good Man Is Hard to Find, The Misfit is one of these dark and sinister characters that seems to act without a moral compass, leaving us to ask, Why? The Misfit seemed to have a wonderful childhood and a family that loved him as stated paragraph 89. “Yes mam,” he said, “finest people in the world.”... ”God never made a fine woman than my mother and my daddy’s heart was pure gold,” he said (O’Connor).
Flannery O’Connor uses her short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” to show the transformation of two character stereotypes which the grandmother and Misfit embody. This story might seem like a road trip gone wrong but, O’Connor also shows that through compassion and grace, people can change. The grandmother’s stereotype is a southern, Christian, overpowering mother who is often judgemental and hypocritical. She is flawed from the start and is ultimately responsible for the family’s fate, insisting on the change of course.
In the story, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” by Flanner O’ Conner the story deals with a character who appears to be a dark caged animal .The Misfit is actually a fallen angel whom has been sent to eliminate the bad people of this world. The Misfit, is the antagonist in the story who is a convicted murderer aloose from the state penitently of Florida. The story describes the Misfit as being a ‘bad guy’ he kills an entire family. From a reader’s perspective, the misfit feels as though he does not belong in the world and battles a severe mental disorder.
In the 1953 short story titled “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, readers are given a glimpse of what the end of the story may look like through use of foreshadowing, symbolism, and other literary techniques. Although the story looks to be an innocent story of a family who travels to Florida for vacation at the start of it, readers soon find out that the story has a darker twist to it. This family trip turns violent and this gruesome ending can easily represent the violence taking place in America during the time this story was written by O’Connor and even today. The short story starts off with a family of six- parents, a grandmother, and three children-
The criminal doesn’t like this outcome, but comes to accept this. The story revolves around a man named the Misfit, Bobby Lee, a grandmother and her family. In the book, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor,” the theme of the story is about how our past is always a part of us and accepting it. The
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
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” narrates a story of a manipulative grandmother who always enforces a “moral code” on her family members. When her son, Bailey, announces a family vacation to Florida, the grandmother “[seizes] at every chance to change” his mind because she desires to “visit some of her connections” (137) in Tennessee instead. She reveals her crafty, “snake-like” nature as she “[rattles] the newspaper at [Bailey’s] bald head,” telling him about a murderer who “calls himself The Misfit” (137). When Bailey does not react, the grandmother “[wheels] around… and [faces] the children’s mother” (137). Realizing that the news of the Misfit will not influence the family into changing their travel plans, the grandmother devises a new tactic.
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the grandmother’s selfish attitude and pride forces the family to change their traveling plans. The grandmother was persistent on going to Tennessee, but the rest of her family wanted to go elsewhere. After bothering her family enough she got her way. On this trip she convinces the family to take a small detour where they would meet their tragic fate of death. O’Connor shows how the grandmother’s selfish pride led to each one of the family members death.
In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” we see the impact societal beliefs and norms have on a person’s life. Whether people are pushed into troublesome situations or make choices that lead them into being punished this can lead them to have a huge change in their life. Although most would consider the punishment to be hard enough to deal with then comes the aftermath, the weakness’ that are created, along with the hardships, the breaking of your own beliefs and doubting yourself along with doubting those around you. At the beginning of the story all we see is the Misfit’s outer shell and the grandmothers perception of him, “ ‘I wouldn't be a bit surprised if he didn't attack this place right here …
The family stops for lunch at “The Tower and meets a character called Red Sammie Butts. This is where the grandmother strikes up a conversation with him. They talk about how it was back in the olden days when there were good people and Red Sammy states, “A good man is hard to find,” (Lawrence 410). The Misfit is the second major character in the story after the grandmother. The Misfit is an escaped criminal who comes in contact with the grandmother and her family when they get into an accident on the road.
In her short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor introduces the reader to a world of family issues, danger, and murder. The story was written in 1955 during a period of social and racial unrest in the southern United States. Mostly, the story follows O 'Connor 's basic Southern Gothic writing style. A work that is "cold and dispassionate, as well as almost absurdly stark and violent" (Galloway). While the quote gives major insight into the theme of the story, it does not offer a glimpse into O 'Connor 's real message of the story.
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor creates a story where the roles of good and evil blend together. In the short story, a family in the rural South gets caught up with a criminal named the Misfit after their wreck and they end up getting murdered. The clash between the grandmother and the Misfit highlights the religious aspects of the story and also O’Connor’s beliefs. Her stylistic traits of violence, distortion, and religion are used to convey a corrupt world that needs salvation. O’Connor’s trait of violence is used throughout to reveal the corrupt and criminal world that emanates the need for salvation.
The balance of what is good and what is bad is a rather controversial topic in the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find". Most notably, the characteristics of both the Grandmother and the Misfit. The Misfit portrays an immoral personality and seems to be the evil in the story while the grandmother is the innocent lady seeking to be the good in this story. However, the religious virtues effect both personas and in itself draws the line around them mutually as sinners. Both characters have a particular relationship with Jesus, a physical crisis crossed with a spiritual crisis and different conceptions of reality; thus, revealing how the portrayal of these characters are not what may seem.
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?"
