Flaw Of Perception In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Mit Patel

Ms. Rogers

English 1102

March 3, 2018

Flaw of Perception George R. R. Martin once said, “In real life, the hardest aspect of the battle between good and evil is determining which is which.” There is no definitive definition when it comes to determining good and evil. People determine good and evil based on their perception. People perceive things differently. Someone can perceive certain situation in an infinite way. In the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” O’Connor’s use of foil makes the reader aware that there is no definitive good or evil but only a flaw of perception. In the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the reader can initially assume that the evil man in the story is the Misfit, and the grandmother is good. The

The Misfit have distinct perception of what is good and what is evil based on his brutal reaction to the grandmother touching him. The grandmother calls him “one of my[her] own children” even though she knows that he is evil (O’Connor, par. 136). So, the reader can view this from the grandmother’s perspective as an act of charity ‘is viewed by the Misfit as evil: he[the Misfit] springs back from her touch ‘as if a snake had bitten him….’” (Desmond 135). The Misfit believes that he is not the part of the society because he sees the society as evil, but when the grandmother touches him, he sees good in her and she is the part of the society: “He[The Misfit] cannot abide such threatening contact because it would mean opening himself to an admission of failure” (Desmond 135). The grandmother’s act of charity measures the gap between good and himself. He doesn’t want to admit that he is evil. He tries to escape this, what he sees as evil, by shooting the grandmother three times in the

No one is good or evil, but people are intertwined with good and evil and they cannot be separated. There is a flaw of perception when it comes to determining good and evil, as the Misfit perceived the grandmother’s goodness as evil and responded with evil. There is a deeper meaning embedded within O’Connor’s story. The characters, the grandmother and the Misfit, in O’Connor’s story shows how people define good and evil based on their perception. When someone lets their flaw of perception dictate their actions, it results in multiplication of the evil that one is trying to