Elmore Leonard once said “I don’t judge in my books. I don’t have the antagonist get shot or the protagonist win. It’s just how it comes out. I’m just telling a story.” “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, written by Flannery O'Connor, is one of the most interesting stories that we have read in this class. The protagonist in this story is the grandmother and the antagonist is The Misfit. In any other short story, the protagonist and the antagonist would not have much in common, but that is not the case in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”. The three major similarities between the grandmother and The Misfit is that they are both the oldest one in their groups, they are both hypocrites, and they both are missing important spiritual relationships. When …show more content…
The Misfit is clearly a criminal, but he calls himself “The Misfit” because he “can’t make what all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment” (429). The Misfit deflected responsibility from himself and refuses to bear the results of his conflicts. Furthermore, the grandmother continuously declares that she is a so called “lady” though she is clearly racist, and is the reason why her family gets murdered. The grandmother made her son that she wanted to see until she realized that it was in a different state. In addition to all of this, she begs for her life, but never asks The Misfit to spare her family. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, it says “Throw me that shirt, Bobby Lee,” The Misfit said. The shirt came flying at him and landed on his shoulder and he put it on. The grandmother couldn’t name what the shirt reminded her of” (429). The grandmother did not even recognize that The Misfit had killed her son and taken his …show more content…
The grandmother has never truly understood what being saved means. She is also ignorant to what salvation is. The Misfit is missing the ability to empathize and bind with other people. He does not hold respect for human life. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, it says “She would of been a good woman, The Misfit said, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (430). In “‘One of My Babies’: The misfit and the grandmother”, written by Stephen C. Bandy, it says “The Misfit has already directed the execution of the Grandmother’s entire family, and it must be obvious to all including reader and the Grandmother, that she is next to die” (108). These example justifies that The Misfit does not have any regard for human life. The only people that he has are the two goons that help him murder people. The grandmother sees that The Misfit has never had anyone to take care of him. At the end of this story she tries reach out to him on a spiritual level, but he shoots her three times in the chest as soon as she touches
The Misfit is a complex character created by Flannery O’Connor. He is talked about first when the Grandmother reads his criminal background at the breakfast table. Right when the Misfit meets the family the Grandmother starts questioning his faith and past, and through the Grandmother’s persistent behavior that you find out the truth behind the Misfits hard exterior. The reader understands that the Misfit was brought up by parents who were the “finest people in the world” (O’Connor 1312). With this type of background, how can one expect the Misfit to be such a cold blooded killer? Because of his kind nature in the beginning of the story, it’s almost impossible to understand how he could just kill. Through deeper analysis one can characterize the Misfit with a heart of gold, but the mind of a villain. This characterization is true because somewhere along the line he was wrongly accused of murdering his father and was brutally punished and he was mistreated by the justice system. The Misfit knows he was innocent and neither Jesus nor the justice system could rid him of the punish he received. It’s not because he is an evil person, he says himself “I never was a bad boy that I remember of… but somewhere along the line I done something wrong and got sent to the penitentiary. I was buried alive” (1314). The Misfit states he was never the worst person, but he also says himself that he was never good either, so the reason behind the Misfit’s homicidal condition is not because he is an evil person but due to his distrust in Jesus Christ and the justice system.
Pride is a very relevant issue in almost everyone's lives. Only when a person is forced to face his pride can he begin to overcome it. Through the similar themes of her short stories, Flannery O'Connor attempts to make her characters realize their pride and overcome it.
In the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” written by Flannery O’Conner in 1953, a family goes on a trip. Everything other than the original idea of going on a trip is directed by the grandmother. She forces the family to go on a detour to find a house that she wants to see, she causes a crash when she realizes the house is in a completely different place—Tennessee, instead of Georgia, and finally she identifies The Misfit, and exclaims to his face that she knows who she is. The grandmother is the cause of almost everything that happens in the story, and her mistakes eventually fatally doom the family. She constantly annoys and holds back the family, and is selfish, only caring for herself.
The parents pay little attention to the grandmother and when they do, they are often quite rude. The unruly children are representative of the breakdown of respect, and discipline, and are consequently a forecast of future generations. The Misfit represents evil. At one point the Misfit likens himself to Christ, in that they both were punished for crimes they did not commit. Christ accepted death for the sins of all people, however, and not only did the Misfit not do that, but he also killed other innocent people.
As I read Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, I find myself being completely consumed by the rich tale that the author weaves; a tragic and ironic tale that concisely and precisely utilizes irony and foreshadowing with expert skill. As the story progresses, it is readily apparent that the story will end in a tragic and predictable state due to the devices which O’Connor expertly employs and thusly, I find that I cannot stop reading it; the plot grows thicker with every sentence and by doing so, the characters within the story are infinitely real in my mind’s eye. As I consider these factors, the story focuses on two main characters; that of the grandmother, who comes across as self-centered and self-serving and The Misfit, a man, who quite ingeniously, also appears to be self-centered and self-serving. It is the story behind the grandmother, however, that evidence appears to demonstrate the extreme differences between her superficial self and the true character of her persona; as the story unfolds, and proof of my thought process becomes apparently clear.
The grandmother said that the Misfit was one of her children in an attempt to console him into thinking that she was not someone that he wanted to kill. The reason that she says that has some symbolic underlying tones. She symbolizes Jesus, saving His flock from the perils of life, while the Misfit represents Lucifer, out to undermine the very fabric of our belief system.
“A Good man is hard to find,” is about a family who decide to go on a trip to Florida. The story revolves around a self absorbed grandmother who loves to talk about how everything used to be back in her day and takes the time to dress herself so that “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady (358).” She sneaks the family cat with her despite her son’s disapproval of bringing the creature along violating her boundaries to how a lady would act. The family encounters an accident along the way and happens to come across ‘The Misfit,’ a runaway criminal. Using ‘The Misfit’ as a tool, O’ Connor sends a message to her readers of how hypocritical a person can be when it comes to belief.
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” you are led to believe that the grandmother is a good, moral person while The Misfit is the opposite, bad and evil. These assumptions are soon torn down when you compare The Grandmother and The Misfit side by side. We see that the grandmother is self-centered, dishonest, and racist yet The Misfit is honest and nonjudgmental, he also sees himself as some sort of savior. Although both characters can be seen as evil, in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the grandmother causes more damage than The Misfit.
Lessons are learned through mistakes and experiences, but to completely understand the lesson, a person must be smart enough to profit from their errors and be strong enough to correct them. However, this was not the case for the main character in the short story; A Good Man is Hard to Find written by Flannery O’Connor. In this tale of manipulation and deception, O’Connor depicts the main character, the grandmother, as a shrewd self-centered woman, who considers herself morally superior than the other individuals. Throughout the entire story, she is seen using her manipulative tactics on everyone, which brought her to a sinister ending. O’Connor expertly portrayed the grandmother as a character that did not correct her negative characteristics throughout the story. To prove this statement, the use of time will be applied to help focus on the main idea of the grandmother not changing her deleterious ways throughout this story.
The grandmother continues to convince the Misfit that he is not a bit common and could see good in his eyes. His parents were both good people, but told him he was a different kind of person. Misfit had Bobby Lee take Bailey and John Wesley in the woods, June was screaming for her daddy. Later after grandmother continued to talk to Misfit about Jesus, they heard a gunshot then another; grandmother screamed for Bailey. The mother was breathing heavy; Misfit asked them to take the mother and June to the woods with her husband. Later they hear a gunshot then
After a few words, the Grandmother recognizes the Misfit and announces it to him. As soon as he is recognized, he turns into the person that the Grandmother pre-labeled him as being. During the conversation, the read can see all of the Grandmother’s flaws. For example, we see her selfishness when she seems to care more about her own life than the life of her family because she constantly pleads for the Misfit to let her go. The interaction between the two reaches a climax when the topic about Jesus is brought up. From the Grandmother’s view on Jesus we can see her one dimensional mind because her belief is the typical Christian doctrine. However, at this point is where a change in the Grandmother can be see, because she says “"Maybe He didn't raise the dead."(O’Connor 1184) For the first in the story and probably in the Grandmother’s life she has questioned something that has been to engrained in her. Finally, at the last seconds of her life the Grandmother realizes that the Misfit indeed is a good person and reaches out to him and says “You're one of my own children!” (O’Connor, 1185) Unfortunately, for the Grandmother the Misfit is not a dynamic character and he shoots the Grandmother multiple times to her
This selfish act jeopardizes the family when the cat causes Bailey to wreck the car. The grandmother’s egotism places them directly in the path of The Misfit. However, the most disturbing act of selfishness displayed by the grandmother is her lack of concern for any of her family’s life when faced with death. She only acknowledges Bailey’s life when she hears the gunshots and is never concerned for the other members of the family. As the grandmother realizes that her life is coming to an end, she finally displays compassion instead of selfishness. She truly feels for The Misfit and his dreadful past. The grandmother’s unspeakable acts of selfishness are transfigured into blessings when she offers grace to The Misfit (Bandy, 2003). Unfortunately, this epiphany is realized too late. If she had not manipulated every aspect of the trip for her own selfish reasons, her family might still be alive.
The Misfit knew that he wasn’t good. At the point that The Misfit became visibly distressed, the grandmother finally putting the well-being of someone else ahead of hers, reached out to the man that had just murdered her family and tried to comfort him. This act of compassion startled The Misfit and he killed the grandmother by shooting her in the chest. “Hiram and Bobby Lee returned from the woods and stood over the ditch, looking down at the grandmother who half sat and half lay in a puddle of blood with her legs crossed under her like a child's and her face smiling up at the cloudless sky”
The grandmother pleads with him and says that she knows he is a good man and wouldn’t harm a lady. The Misfit disagrees and even says “I can't make what all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment. (O'Connor, F. 1988) There is some irony in that the grandmother spends the whole story speaking about what a lady she is and how a good man is hard to find, yet throughout the story she continues to display characteristics such as hypocrisy, dishonesty, and selfishness. We can see said qualities in actions such as her lack of sympathy as her family is slaughtered around her. (SparkNotes Editors, 2007) The Misfit, on the other hand, is more sensible with his lot in life.
She also implies that she is in church when she asked him multiple times if he prays. The last part of her character that is revealed all throughout the story, from the beginning to the end, is that she's very talkative. Toward the end of the story she is trying to appeal to him and she continues to talk to him even after her son rudely hushes her. This is ironic because after she is shot the misfits states, "she would've been a good woman if it had been someone there to shoot her every minute of her life" (page 12). This shows the Misfits misogynistic character trait because he does not value the opinion or voice of women. His statement clearly shows how he would prefer a woman that is seen and not