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A Good Man Is Hard To Find Misfit Analysis

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Desperate times call for desperate measures. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the Misfit is depicted as a violent criminal who has escaped from the federal penitentiary. At first, the Misfit appears to be compassionate towards the grandmother, but when the grandmother identifies the Misfit as the escaped criminal, the Misfit becomes volatile and eventually violent towards the family. Although many would assume that the Misfit is psychotic, he opts to kill the family in order to save himself from being put back in the federal penitentiary. In order to comprehend the thesis, it is essential that one understand the psychological makeup of the Misfit. The Misfit accepts that he is not “a good man”, but he isn’t “the worst in the world neither” (O’Connor, 619). The Misfit has made his fair share of mistakes but more importantly, is conscious of his shortcomings and his strengths. A major strength that the Misfit possess is that he does not pass judgement onto others because everyone has done wrong, including himself. “I found out the crime don’t matter. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you’re going to...be punished for it” (O’Connor, 620). In the eyes of the Misfit, all crimes are held to the same degree, because no one is better than anyone else or …show more content…

Upon further evaluation into the psychological makeup of the Misfit, one can better understand the Misfit’s character and his desire to be free. At first, the Misfit appears well in the company of the family, but when the Misfit is identified as the escaped criminal, he becomes violent towards the family. Although many would assume that the Misfit is psychotic, he opts to kill the family in order to save himself from being put back in the federal

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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.

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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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Morgan Devitt Professor Teem ENGL 1101 2 December 2014 Moral Code In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ O’Connor reflects her views on society through the Misfit and the grandmother. Throughout the story, the characters display what they think are definitions of a good man, but O’Connor shows us that a man who follows correct moral code and is honest is the real definition of a good man. The grandmother throughout the story does little things that break her own moral code.

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Convicted murderer and cult leader Charles Manson were once quoted as saying “You expected to break me? Impossible! You broke me years ago. You killed me years ago”. On the surface, this statement may sound like brass bravado.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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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