How The Grandmother In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” written by Flannery O’Connor, the grandmother influences her family to take a detour on a trip to Florida to see a plantation in Georgia. This maneuver leads them down a dangerous road ending in a car accident. The “Misfit” and his partners appear after the accident and murder the entire family. The grandmother’s self-serving character defines this story: by manipulating everyone who becomes in her path, her air of superiority and judgmental approach. The grandmother’s calculating personality is exposed in actions towards her family. At the beginning of the story, the grandmother does not want to go on the vacation her family has planned, instead she tries to persuade them to go

On the trip to Florida, the proud southern lady, makes sure her apparel is grander than necessary for travel. “Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady”(357). The grandmother boasts that she could have married a gentleman named Mr. Taegardenm, who is a successful and wealthy businessman. Noticeably, she believes that her appearance or impression she makes defines her as a prominent person not the actions of her character. The Grandmother’s judgmental way wields on all, except herself. This women is sneering at the way her grandchildren are disrespectful saying “In my time,” “children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else” (357). Nevertheless, when talking about a slave girl she says “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny” (357)! The contrast between the respect she talked about and her use of the word "pickaninny", a disrespectful term used to refer to African-American slave children, demonstrate that she is never