A Good Man is Hard to Find: The Power of Manipulation

One tends to meet someone who seems to be in charge of everyone around him or her. The grandmother in Flannery O’Conner’s A Good Man is Hard to Find is an extraordinary, scheming character that is extremely unrelenting in her actions to control people. On the contrary, she may have been a person just trying to attempt to save her own life without trying to be controlling. Maybe the fact that she was raised in a time when woman wore dresses to go out and never did anything unlady-like, made her think that her way of thinking and acting was the only acceptable behavior, even till the very moments before she was killed by the Misfit. The grandmother was trying to change her killer’s outlook on life and his position on holy grace and forgiveness. O’Connor wrote the story with the intension of having a very intriguing personality that complements the villain known as the Misfit. From the beginning to the end, the grandmother was a pinnacle of influence to everyone around her but only to her advantage in the story.

The Misfit was no exception to her ways of manipulation but her efforts came up short. Her actions, in many ways, could be compared to species of prey as they use their unique characteristics to elude the grasp of their predators. Just as the speed of the gazelle against the strength of the lion, the grandmother’s intelligence could be compared to the Misfit’s need for vengeance. When some people can see death coming, they will do anything in their power to avoid it. The grandmother knew who she was dealing with as soon as she saw the Misfit’s face. Yet, she tried to fool herself into believing that her sure fate could have been changed by her own actions. It is hard to say that her actions were just out of manipulation. T...

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... around she had met her match and this is what he had to say about her, “She would have been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.”

Works Cited

1. Shmoop Editorial Team. "A Good Man is Hard to Find Theme of Manipulation" Shmoop University, Inc..11 November 2008. http://www.shmoop.com/good-man-hard-to-find/manipulation-theme.html (accessed February 3, 2012).

2. Barnet, Sylvan, William Burto, and William E. Cain. An Introduction to Literature. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006.

3. Barnet, Sylvan, William Burto, and William E. Cain. An Introduction to Literature. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006.

4. Blythe, Hal, and Charlie Sweet. O'Connor's A Good Man Is Hard to Find. N.p.: The Explicator, 1992.

5. Barnet, Sylvan, William Burto, and William E. Cain. An Introduction to Literature. New York: Pearson Longman, 2006.