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Overshadow The Misfit

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Do you believe that everyone is born good? Immoral acts can be extremely tempting. Not everyone is strong enough to resist giving into the evils of the world. In A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor, the main theme that prejudice and sin can overshadow the goodness in a person, unless a conscious effort is made to be good, is shown through the thoughts and actions of the grandmother, Red Sam, and the Misfit. The grandmother acts like a strong woman who is not afraid to tell you what she thinks. This trait lets her be rude and unaccepting towards others. In the text it states, “‘I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he didn’t attact this place right here,’ said the woman. ‘If he hears about it being here, I wouldn’t be none surprised …show more content…

It is by chance that the family encounters the Misfit and his group on the road. In the text it states, “‘I never was a bad boy that I remember of,’ The Misfit said in an almost dreamy voice, ‘but somewheres along the line I done something wrong and got sent to the penitentiary’” (O’Connor 11). One can see that the Misfit believed that he was once a good person, but he succumbed to his inner darkness. In addition, a conversation in the text declares, “‘If you would pray,’ the old lady said, ‘Jesus would help you.’.....’I don’t want no hep,’ he said. ‘I’m doing all right by myself’” (O’Connor 11). This proves that the Misfit is well aware of his actions and the consequences of them. He is satisfied with being a bad person and committing sins and atrocities. Finally, another piece of evidence is, “The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest” (O’Connor 13). The most condemning piece of evidence against the Misfit is the fact that he murdered the grandmother point-blank in cold blood. He did not even hesitate in ending her life. As you can see, the misfit has given into sin for us whole life, and it has become a normality for

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has looked into his decisions and he is trying to find the good from his experiences. He feels he deserves more than what he got, so he went on and changed his name, he also believed that he did not get the right punishment for his crime. The misfit has self awareness that the grandmother doesn't know of cause he questioned himself and his actions, he knows he is not a good person but he also believes he is better than many people. He even admitted he was a gospel singer before he did something and was sent to the penitentiary and was buried alive. He had some made up rudimentary philosophies, such as ““the crime don’t matter” and “no pleasure but meanness”.

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In Flannery O’Connor’s story A Good Man Is Hard to Find, The Misfit is one of these dark and sinister characters that seems to act without a moral compass, leaving us to ask, Why? The Misfit seemed to have a wonderful childhood and a family that loved him as stated paragraph 89. “Yes mam,” he said, “finest people in the world.”... ”God never made a fine woman than my mother and my daddy’s heart was pure gold,” he said (O’Connor).

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The Misfit recognizes himself as a sinful person and says that "those few hours that you have to live, you need to do better - kill, arson or do harm to others. ’’ No pleasure but meanness ". Grandmother, on the other hand, seems kind and

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The Misfit knows who he is and does not pretend to be otherwise, unlike the old lady. With a show of unpretentiousness, he clearly states, “Nome, I ain’t a good man” (O’Connor 427). In the end, the antagonist enlightens the Grandmother with his brutal honesty, and her “head cleared for an instance” (O’Connor 430). In the final moments of her life, she is able to drop all pretenses and view evil in the form of the Misfit as something she can accept within herself by exclaiming, “Why you’re one of my babies” (O’Connor 430). Ironically, at the moment she reaches out to him, he kills her.

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The character of the Misfit is talked about multiple times in the story before the Misfit actually appears. The grandmother reads from the local paper that the criminal, the Misfit, is loose from federal prison (O’ Connor). I find this ironic because the grandmother and her family are found by the Misfit after they put their car in the ditch. The Misfit says to the grandmother, “I ain’t a good man, but I ain’t the worst in the world neither. I been in the arm service, both land and sea, and been twict married.”

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(1016). Although The Misfit comes across as genuine, the story later illustrates The Misfit as a sociopath. The grandmother throughout the story lies, is superficial and rather manipulative; changing this personality toward the end of the story, display what arguably could be the greatest ironic moment. The grandmother, at gunpoint is terrified for her life says “Why, you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!”

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This conversation in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” between The Misfit, an infamous criminal in Georgia, and his accomplice Bobby Lee reveals the senseless views of not only The Misfit, but also the grandmother he just murdered. Both characters appear to be different, yet they feel authorized at some point in the story to assert their irrational judgments. Towards the end of her life the grandmother finally shows empathy depicting her as the lesser of two evils. While The Misfit acknowledges the grandmother’s moment of goodness, his cynical thinking ultimately leads him to seemingly rationalize his murders when he implies that his barbaric actions are meaningless.

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The Misfit states, “I never was a bad boy I remember of” and “but somewheres along the line I done something wrong and got sent to the penitentiary. I was buried alive” (O’Connor 407). These statements point to the fact that he believes he has done nothing wrong and is innocent. He also states that he did not commit the crime he went to prison for. He believes his actions are justified, maybe because of something that happened in his past or as revenge.

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The first way you can look at the fact that he’s a killer and nothing else matters and just that little detail makes him a bad man. Or you can look more into detail of the Misfit and realize that even though he’s a killer he’s truly a good man at heart. For example, when the son Bailey told his mother (grandmother) something that made her cry when she made it known that she knew he was the Misfit, the misfit actually responded the grandmother in a very loving and respectful way. The misfit could’ve told her to shut up or something heartless but instead he tells the grandmother “don’t get upset. Sometimes a man says things he doesn’t mean.

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Throughout the story the misfit is getting introduced as a bad guy because he was in jail and killed somebody, but as the text progresses his character begins to change. The Misfit’s anxiety and ocd becomes apparent as he is further illustrated. When first seeing the family he is nice to the family, kindly saying “good afternoon,” until the grandmother recognizes him as the Misfit (O’Connor). This causes him to have a reaction which might be subtle to the naked eye. The kind of reaction that they misfit is experiencing is similar to anxiety.

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One of the quotes states, “She saw the man’s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry, and she murmured, Why you are one of my babies. You are one of my children !” (O’Connor 508). This quote shows that the grandmother is trying to persuade the Misfit to spare her life and not kill her like the rest of the family. She does not understand that she cannot save herself from the Misfit because her faith has already been predetermined.

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Unlike the grandmother, who basically thinks that she is ethically superior to everyone else, the Misfit seriously questions the meaning of life and his role in it. He has cautiously measured his procedures in life and observed his understandings to get lessons surrounded by them. The Misfit has a stable vision of life and acts along with what he thinks is right. His thinking and actions are not ethical in the conservative sense, but they are sturdy and reliable and consequently give him a power of assurance that the grandmother lacks. O’Connor called the Misfit a “prophet gone wrong,” and in fact, if he had applied his moral reliability to a less immoral way of life, he could have been measured a true

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The Misfit, like the grandmother, goes by a title rather a specific name. Being nameless, the Misfit is not just one man but it represents as a whole the personification of evil in the world. The title of Misfit accurately portrays evil’s relationship to God. Evil isn’t just a part of God’s plan for creation; therefore it doesn’t fit how the protagonist was humiliated in order to recognize his state of sin and thus be open to redemption.

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Christians have frequently disapproved of the woman in question works for being corrupt but in fact she uses these risky circumstances and portrayals to direct the authority of God in a helpful light. The wicked charisma of the Misfit is very proficiently portrayed, as is the free-thinking character of Grannie. Many of the actors portrayed in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” go through some type of transformation, a modification in their opinions of the all God's creatures and in their insights about life and death. Perhaps, in a way, the Misfit symbolizes the age bracket of adolescent and faithfully ill-advised individuals, and Grannie represents the old-fashioned age group, which has developed to a certain extent separated from religion.

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“Listen, you shouldn’t call yourself The Misfit because I know you’re a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell,” said the grandmother. The misfit was moved by the old women words that he almost reddened. The old lady looked like his mother, if she had made it to old age. As The Misfit drew small circle with the tip of his gun

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