A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” a family of six (Bailey, the mother, a baby, June Star, John Wesley, and the grandmother) goes on a vacation to Florida, in which the grandmother is highly against (O’Connor 137). While there, the family encounters a few obstacles, including a car accident that flips their vehicle over (144). After waiting for another car to pass to help them, the family is noticed by a vehicle containing The Misfit (a notorious criminal that had recently escaped from prison) and two of his partners (147). The Misfit takes the family into the woods, and the grandmother pleads with him; she tries to show him that he is actually a good man (148). However, the pleading did more harm than good, as The Misfit and his

Flannery O’Connor wrote this story in order to keep the audience’s morals and values in question. The author, in this short story, is very convincing, regarding the purpose for writing it. Throughout the story, morality is preached to the reader, while also giving the illusion that The Misfit is simply a misunderstood character. By doing so, the audience is forced to question their own morals and beliefs in order to fully understand the story. O’Connor includes many different elements in her story, including theme and point of view. First, one of the main themes in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is manipulation (or, more accurately, attempted manipulation) can be a person’s fatal flaw. The grandmother is manipulative through the duration of the story. She tries to maneuver the family out of the idea of taking their vacation in Florida, and she fails (137). She also attempts to manipulate The Misfit, but ultimately, that act was her downfall. Second, The point of view only changes once (very briefly) throughout the story. It remains in the third person and is limited omniscient, meaning that the audience is only fully aware of one