Corrupted Grandma

A stereotype grandmother is one who can be described as selfless and sweet, with savory cooking that cannot compare to any other. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” however, a very different image of a grandmother is presented. The grandmother considers herself to be a lady, and expects those around her to treat her as if she is one. She tries to be manipulative throughout “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, constantly trying to get the others to do things her way. Although she usually fails in her attempts at manipulation, she does succeed once. It is with this success that the scene is set for death to show O’Connor’s meaning. The deaths of the family are used to demonstrate how the selfish manipulation of others can lead to grim consequences.
The grandmother shows throughout the short story that she is concerned for herself only. From the beginning, when she tries to make the family go up to Tennessee because she wanted to, until the end when she only stands up for herself against The Misfit. The grandmother, because she considered herself to be a lady, and few others to be good, saw herself above those around her. She saw something special in herself, which was why she insisted to The Misfit that, “You wouldn’t shoot a lady” (14). Even as her son is taken back into the woods to be shot, she remains still. This combined with the authority that she feels comes with her age and position in the family vault her importance far above that of her family that she is with. Her self-elevation, in turn, affects her morals, as she sees the flaws in others but not in herself, and views it as selfish when others get what they want. The grandmother’s narrow-minded egocentric behavior that she exhibits, along with he...

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...grandmother had more chances, despite her antics, to save the family from its fate that she gave them. When she had first realized that the plantation was in Tennessee, she did not tell the family but instead kept quiet. To her, it was more important to save face and to deal with whatever consequences would come later. She also shows that she is conscious of the burden that she gave the family by faking an injury in the accident in the hopes that Bailey does not “wrath would not come down on her all at once” (11). Despite being able to see physical damage that she had caused, she still does not show any remorse for anything that has happened. It is part of her selfishness hide behind the act of nothing being her fault, and she hopes to make the family find ways to blame themselves or others, anything other than the grandmother, for their grim consequences they face.