The Misfit

It seems unbelievable that an entire family would allow themselves to be slaughtered the way it happens at the end of A Good Man is Hard to Find. However, because the characters of the story have very set, predictable personalities, the reader can use textual examples to extend these characteristics to the ending of the story. Analyzing each character shows that they do, in fact, act completely in character when The Misfit kills them off at the end of the story. This analysis will focus on the behaviors of June Star, Bailey and Grandmother. June Star is an almost cartoonish representative of a rude, spiteful child, though she’s perceptive enough when she wants to be. The reader forms this impression of her almost immediately, when she cheerfully

Although she thinks of herself as a refined, conscientious woman who is a good judge of character, her family sees her as she really is: easily offended, manipulative, dishonest and at loath to admit fault. In the beginning of the story, she tries to scare her family into staying away from Florida by talking about The Misfit. Her idea doesn’t work because her son and daughter-in-law are already very familiar with her manipulative ways of persuasion and just ignore her. She takes offense when her grandchildren don’t act “respectful of their native states” (35) or when June Star insults Red Sammy’s wife. In other words, when the children act like children. She is very concerned with appearances, which is how she tells apart people with “good blood” and “common blood”, ideas that she mentions frequently throughout the story. When she chooses her outfit for the drive, it’s so that everyone “knows” she’s a lady (35). She tries to sneak her way around things when she knows others are against it, such as when she hides Pitty Sing in the valise. It is therefore not very surprising that she tries to convince The Misfit that he’s a good man instead of trying to convince him to spare her family, because she is trying to manipulate him into thinking he isn’t the kind of person who would “shoot a lady” because that is how she thinks a man who “come[s] from nice people” would behave (45). Any other person would not bother with her argument because if there is anyone who is clearly not a good person, it’s a serial killer. Grandmother, on the other hand, values the idea of appearing to be a good person over anything else and can’t acknowledge that The Misfit would have different values. She is so focused on clinging to this philosophy that she barely notices when her family gets shot and continues with her ineffective argument