Excerpt From 'A Good Man Is Hard To Find'

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” Analysis
1. The grandmother took responsibility for the deaths of her family. By claiming that the Misfit is her own child, the grandmother is openly accusing herself for causing her family’s deaths. The Misfit being the grandmother’s child is a mother blaming herself for her child’s actions. His existence is the cause of the deaths. “Why you’re one of my own babies,” is the grandmother’s admission to guilt, her plea for personal forgiveness and her confession. A mother also forgives her child. When the grandmother treats the Misfit as her son, she is forgiving him for what he has done, and accepted her own role in the situation. The grandmother’s selfishness drew the Misfit’s attention. He could see himself in her, and could see all the other people whose selfish habits led to the flaws of his own life. When the grandmother put that

The grandmother’s definition of a “good man” is someone who is from her time. She is self-centered and arrogant, and places herself above others. Connecting to those ideals, the grandmother also believes that those raised with the same values as her are inherently better, or in her words “good”. She acts as though people “nowadays” are incredibly flawed, and that “people are certainly not nice like they used to be”. To the grandmother, “good” is an umbrella term for anything respectful, classy, and traditional. To the grandmother, being a “good man” is the highest esteem anyone can be held to. By calling the Misfit a good man, she was giving him the greatest compliment she could. The grandmother called him a good man in an attempt to have him give her mercy. She thought that because it was the most important compliment to her, it would have the same effect on him. By her standards, the Misfit may be a good man. He was older and “wore silver-rimmed spectacles that gave him a scholarly look”. He shared many of the grandmother’s traits, including her arrogance and