A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

In the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor explores the perception of what makes a person good, diving into the realms of religion, fear, and selfishness. The reader is submerged deeper into what the word ‘good’ truly means, while O’Connor reveals the grandmother’s corrupt version of this process through character development, symbols, and the theme of selfishness, proving The Misfit to be more ‘good’ than the grandmother and her family. One of O'Connor's best, yet considerably violent, stories depicts the brutal killing of a family on vacation by a notorious murderer dubbed The Misfit. O’Connor’s character development throughout the story helps reveal The Misfit’s twisted - yet in his view, acceptable - moral

Opening with a grandmother at her son’s house not “[wanting] to go to Florida” on vacation because a known murderer, The Misfit, was said to be loose, she tells her son Bailey that she “wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that” (225). As the story unfolds, the grandmother begins to represent one of the most important characters in that she embodies the very evil she fears. She views herself as morally superior, only taking into consideration whether others follow her same values. This would make them “good” in her mind, as she says “in my time...people did right” (227), referring to her youth when she was taught to respect her elders, while also showing that she thinks herself to be above others because of her age. She acts conceited when she is unable to admit to giving her son the wrong directions, “the thought” of it “so embarrassing” (232). She remembers that the house they were going to try and visit was “not in Georgia, but in Tennessee” (232), leading them straight to The Misfit. When the family encounters The Misfit, the grandmother realizes he has a gun and might shoot her, so she asks him to pray. The

When she is talking to her grandchildren, she says “in my time” (227), implying that age makes her superior to everyone else. The grandmother is fake and dishonest. She lies and manipulates her family, even confessing to “not telling the truth” that “there was a secret panel in [the] house” (231), all to make them go when she wanted to visit for herself. Because of her lying and selfishness, she leads them straight to their deaths. She also doesn't beg for any other family member’s life when they encounter The Misfit and his gang, only caring about herself. She never asks The Misfits’ friends to not let her family be “pulled off into the woods,” instead pleading with him not to shoot her, crying “you ought not shoot a lady” just after hearing her family being shot (239). This shows just how little consideration she has for others and how much she has for