Summary Of A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

“She would have been a good woman,” the Misfit said, “if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.” The Misfit was the antagonist in the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor. O’Connor’s piece takes place during a road trip from Georgia to Florida. There is a Grandmother, her son, daughter-in-law, and three grandchildren, as well as the Grandmother’s cat, headed down to Florida on this eventful trip. O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to find” illustrates the difficulty in finding good-natured people. O’Connor uses several symbols in her piece to relate to the idea of good people. She references the use of the Lord’s name in vein during the encounter between the Misfit and the Grandmother on the side of the road after the son, Bailey, has accidentally wrecked the vehicle the family was riding in. “Jesus!” The old lady cried. Pg 39. The Grandmother throughout the story referred to her Christian beliefs and was very vocal of what she thought “good” meant. Good to the Grandmother was a man like Edgar Teagarden, who the Grandmother once

On the trip to Florida, the family stops at a restaurant owned by Red Sammy. The Grandmother and Red Sammy have a conversation about how society is going downhill in their opinions. Red Sammy even tells her, "Two fellers come in here last week," Red Sammy said, "driving a Chrysler. It was an old beat-up car but it was a good one and these boys looked all right to me. Said they worked at the mill and you know I let them fellers charge the gas they bought? Now why did I do that?” pg 33. Sammy telling the Grandmother about this event shows his lack of trust in people after clearly being deceived by these men in the old beat up car. The conversation between Sammy and the Grandmother confirms their overall belief in people being