Why Does The Misfit Say After Killing The Grandmother

612 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The study and analysis of literature

A good man is hard to find Inquiry Paper

- Why does The Misfit say after killing the grandmother “she would have been a good woman if it had been some body there to shoot her every minute of her life? Pg.150 The Misfit Since this story was written/published in 1953, there was a different atmosphere back then compared to now. In the 1950’s men were in control of everything including their wives. This movement did not change till near the ending of the 1960’s. A way of showing this thinking is just general knowledge of that time period and knowing the story was written in 1953 which is written right next to the stories title. Another thought was when The Misfit said “she would have been a good woman if it had been some body there to shoot her every minute of her life” It could go back on about how men …show more content…

So the idea for metaphorically saying to shoot her would mean to keep her in check. Since, she did not have a husband which the story did not explain why he was not a part of the story. It could explain some of her characteristics which back then would seem to be out of the ordinary for multiple reasons such as her sex (Female), age (elderly) and “grace” (in her own words she said she always looked nice in case someone found her dead anyone would know right at once she was a lady) The Misfit could also tell she was smart but also conniving and manipulative since she thought she could use pity repeatedly saying you would not shoot an old women would you? This shows the conniving piece of her personality then also bringing religion into it saying just pray it will be okay! You are a good man I know it and saying this multiple times either hoping or truly believing he would think about it and agree with her and after realizing such things to let her go. Wither or not that’s the actual case it won’t be known since it was not

Show More
Related

  • The Misfit

    1177 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

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

    959 Words  | 2 Pages

    Reading this part from “A Good Man is Hard to Find” I would think from The Misfit saying this would really be him feeling sorry that he killed his father. Nevertheless if you are coming at this quote from another point you could think he was losing his real father and also god at the same time. Which would make him feel guilty and become the killer he is today. So before losing his father and becoming a killer he could have been a perfect church boy like anybody would be.

    Read More

  • Flannery O Connor's Short Story: A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    985 Words  | 2 Pages

    “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?” the grandmother said while dabbing her eyes with her handkerchief. Looking at the ground, the Misfit says, “I would hate to have to.” “Listen,” the grandmother almost screamed, “I know you are a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people.” It all happened so fast. The car had rolled and wrecked. A murderer was in the family’s presence. The grandmother was begging for grace from the Misfit in every way possible. The character of the selfish grandmother, in Flannery O 'Connor 's short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” tries to use her manipulative ways to fight

    Read More

  • Examples Of Grandmother In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    1062 Words  | 3 Pages

    After the accident that the grandmother had unintentionally caused by manipulating the image of a nonexistent house into her family’s head, they run into the Misfit. No one else in the family knew who he was or anything about him. They all thought someone had come to their rescue and was going to fix the car, but nothing gets over on the grandmother. Blatantly putting the whole family in danger she blurts out, “’You’re the Misfit!’…’Yes’m…but it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn’t of reckernized me’” (192). At this point in time, she knows that she is going to die, trying to save herself and not caring about the rest of her family clearly as she has witnessed the Misfit’s goons kill off her whole family, she tries to manipulate him. She brings up that he is a “good man at heart” (192) and telling him if he “would pray…Jesus would help” (194). That was just simply her trying to plea for her life, but when she realized she was getting nowhere her “head cleared for an instant” (196), she knew this was an opportunity to try and manipulate the Misfit into letting her go, to make him feel like he didn’t have to be a killer anymore, to comfort him “she reached out and touched him on the shoulder” (196). The Misfit jolted away and shot her three times in the chest because he saw through her manipulative ways which if clear when he

    Read More

  • Misfit In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    842 Words  | 2 Pages

    To buttress this she pointed out that even at the grandmothers death misfit confirmed her to be a good woman in his statement “she would have been a good woman if she was to face death every minute of her life” (437). In contrast to her opinion Stephen Bandy a notable literally critics in one of his articles “One of my babies “: The Misfit and the Grandmother” he compared the characters of both and argued that despite the fact that O`Conner claimed the grandmother was merely filled with “prejudice” of her time, He described the grandmother as racist, busy body and utterly self-absorbed. When she saw that her child and grandchildren was been killed tried to manipulate Misfit to spare her own life whereas she was the one that lead them to their death.

    Read More

  • A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor

    581 Words  | 2 Pages

    There are three phases of thought for the Grandmother. During the first phase, which is in the beginning, she is completely focused on herself in relation to how others think of her. The Second Phase occurs when she is speaking to The Misfit. In the story, The Misfit represents a quasi-final judgment. He does this by acting like a mirror. He lets whatever The Grandmother says bounce right off him. He never really agrees with her or disagrees, and in the end he is the one who kills her. His second to last line, "She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life," (O'Conner 152). might be the way O'Conner felt about most of us alive, or how she felt that God must feel about us.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Mama And The Misfit

    854 Words  | 2 Pages

    One will never know his or her wrong doing unless reality checks them for things they have done. In the bible it says all sins are equal no matter how bad you think something is in God’s eye it all measured the same. "In A good man is hard to find, the author shows us through the character of Grandma and the Misfit that we need to see our own flaws. In this story, Grandma is not aware of her flaws, but the Misfit 's crazy behavior brings it out. In "Interpreter of Maladies" the driver as so know has an interpreter for a doctor becomes interested in Mrs.Das because she is not like the other Indian woman. Throughout the tour she flirts with him knowing she is married, however as the trip going on she feels the needs to tell him her problems.

    Read More

  • What Are The Elements Of Southern Gothic Literature

    1294 Words  | 3 Pages

    This is an image of how he was perceived to be. Then the Grandmother keeps telling him how he is a good man this is after she figures out whom he is. The Misfit has all of the Grandmother’s family escorted into the woods and killed. And as the story ends he takes the Grandmothers life when she touches him on the

    Read More

  • The Misfit and the Grandmother in Flannery O’ Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

    941 Words  | 2 Pages

    The granny and the misfit are two completely opposite characters that possess two different beliefs. The grandmother puts herself on a high pedestal and the way she calls the misfit ‘a good person’ based upon his family background gives the reader an idea of what the grandmother acknowledges to be considered as ‘good’. Self absorbed as sh...

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast A Good Man Is Hard To Find And Good Country People

    1427 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Grandmother is an elderly woman who believes she possesses all of the qualities to be a lady. However, she passes judgement on to others thinking only highly of herself. Ironically, the Grandmother’s own actions are the ones that lead to her encounter with the Misfit and consequently leads to the death of her family and herself. Moments leading up to her death the Misfit helps lead the Grandmother into realizing that she is not better than anyone else. Her true moment of clarity is stating that the Misfit is one of her own children. Grandmother stating this shows she does not see herself as someone who is better than the Misfit. Moments after this realization the Misfit murders the Grandmother. After murdering the Grandmother the Misfit states, “‘She would of been a good woman,’ The Misfit said, “if it had been somebody to shoot her every minute of her life’” (O’Connor 430). The Grandmother lived a life where she only revealed her true kindness in moments of death. In Good Country People Hulga is a thirty-year-old overweight woman with a disability who still lives with her mother. Hulga has a doctorate in philosophy which leads her to have a much different outlook on life than those around her. She does not believe in religion and believes that she knows all there is to know about life and that she has society figured out.

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Misfit And A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    813 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Theme Of Foreshadowing In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    770 Words  | 2 Pages

    The conversations between The Misfit and the Grandmother are quite interesting. When she is face-to-face with him and her death is imminent, she is the least willing of the family to accept it. Only the grandmother attempts to talk her way out of the situation even though the rest of her family lies assassinated in the woods behind her. In a last effort to escape with her life, she offers The Misfit all the money she has. He responds, “‘Lady,’ The Misfit said, looking beyond her far into the woods, ‘there never was a body that give the undertaker a tip'” (O’Connor 30).

    Read More

  • Manipulation and Deception in A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor

    1487 Words  | 3 Pages

    Since the beginning of the story, the readers have come to known the grandmother as a spiteful old lady due to her repulsive and deceitful attitudes toward others. Right from the start, we can see the grandmother using her manipulative tactics on her family. “The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind.” (O’Connor 1) This initial quote shows an early indication that the grandmother is determined to obtain whatever she wants and will not allow anything to get in her way, even if it means manipulating her own family. This line already suggests that the grandmother may have sly motives concealed in her mind. “Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is a loose from the Federal Pen a...

    Read More

  • Irony in a Good Man is Hard to Find

    954 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...nd shot Grandmother pleads and bargains with “The Misfit”. This plea-bargaining draws to a climax when the Grandmother says “Why, your one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” “She reached out and touched him on the shoulder.”(218) This stirs something in “the misfit” and he snaps back and shoots her.

    Read More

  • Literary Analysis Of A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    1459 Words  | 3 Pages

    Never once as the Grandmother was begging for her life, did she stop and beg for the life of her family. Her tactic to save herself went from “You wouldn’t shoot a lady would you?” (O’Connor), to “You’ve got good blood! I know you come from nice people” (O’Connor), then lastly to “If you would pray, Jesus would help you” (O’Connor). Yet to every beg the Grandmother made, the Misfit was completely honest with her, admitting that he would hate to have to kill a lady, but he would do it, admitting that he did come from good people but that he is not good, and admitting that he does not want Jesus’ help, that he is perfectly fine alone. Because the Misfit was so honest and open about who he was and his flaws, the Grandmother realized that she is not a “Good Man”. That she has been lying to herself and the people around her. The Misfit allowed the Grandmother to come to terms with who she really is a person. The Misfit giving her this eye opening realization before taking her life gave her the redemption she needed so

    Read More

More about Why Does The Misfit Say After Killing The Grandmother

Open Document