Good Man Is Hard To Find Heroism

In every good story there is a hero and a villain. Traditionally the villain will be defeated by the hero and the day will be saved. In every Great story the villain is redeemed and grace and forgiveness is identified. Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is not a traditional heroic story. In fact, her story is honestly tragic at first glance. Once you move past the deaths and horrific predicaments the characters of this story are consequently in, the story holds a greater meaning. Looking specifically at the grandmother, a self-centered, manipulative, prestigious human being, finds herself and her family on the side of the road in Georgia after a car accident. The grandmother and the rest of the family is being held

at gun point by the recently escaped convict; the Misfit. The grandmother goes through a series of pleads with the misfit to spare Her life. Despite her pleads with the misfit, that are based on the promise of only saving herself, the misfit shoots her, and it’s through the misfit and her conversations, as well as, looking death in the face that the grandmother receives redemption from her prejudice, self-motivated life.

Throughout the story the grandmother is manipulative and egotistical. From the way she presents herself, to the way she sees others. It isn’t until her dwindling moments of life with the misfit that the grandmother sees that her elite bloodline or fancy dress will not be enough to save her life. One identification of the grandmother’s redemption is found in her last words to the misfit, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” The grandmother is not suddenly remembering an illegitimate child she gave up many year ago, but rather realizing that there is no difference between her and the escaped convict. The grandmother receives redemption in this moment because the grandmother had lived her entire life thinking she was above the rest of humanity, especially those of other race, ethnicity and background. Katherine Keil in her critical analysis essay “O’ Connor’s ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’” states “The grandmother, likewise, is brought salvation by a “wretched” creature—The Misfit. At the moment of her

earthly death, she is awakened to the conjoinment in divine creation”. This last plea to the misfit is catastrophically what jolts the grandmother, for the first time into a non-judgmental state of mind, right before she receives three gun shoot to the chest by the misfit. Keil also writes in her essay “At first glance, it seems as if this immediate salvation and resurrection is cut short by the gunshot that kills her. However, the grandmother’s epiphany, which leads to her rebirth and resurrection, is not one of an ongoing spiritually energized earthly life…but one of a Christian resurrection and eternal life”. What Keil is identifying in her essay is that the grandmother’s redemption in O’ Connors illustration of the grandmother opportunity to die at peace. O’Connor describes the final position of the grandmother to further explain the grandmother transformation, “her legs crossed under her like a child’s and her face smiling up at the cloudless sky”. The grandmother had spent her life comparing others to herself, and always needing to present herself as prestigious as possible. In this moment she finally allowed herself a child-like mind of happiness and peace.

To identify the redemption in Flannery O’ Connors short story, it is important to identify the redeemer and the person in need of redemption’s relationship.

It is ironic that a man who is very openly far from God is who redeems the grandmother. Despite his disconnection from religion, the Misfit is surprisingly polite and mannerly when talking to the grandmother. Practicing manners and being polite is something you would expect from the elderly religious women not the convict, when the opposite is illustrated in the story. From analyzing the conversations between the misfit and the grandmother, it is very evident that the misfit is not impressed with the grandmother’s attitude or pleas after she theatrically tells him that she recognizes him. Since the grandmother picks up on the misfit’s gentleman attitude, she then attempts to use this to her advantage. Kathleen G. Ochshorn’s article “A Cloak of Grace: Contradictions ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’” analysis’s the dialog between the grandmother and the Misfit, “the grandmother deals with The Misfit by appealing to his gentility. She keeps insisting he is a good man, from good people”. The misfit not at all moved by the grandmother statement simply replies “Nome, I ain’t a good man…but I ain’t the worst in the world neither”. This rebuttal continues throughout the rest of their conversations, demonstrating the difference between the two people. One of the grandmother’s last pleas is that of a religious one. She asks the

Misfit “why don’t you pray” the misfit replies, “I don’t want no hep…I’m doing all right by myself”. What this dialog between the two confirms is that they see things different, or rather that their paths in life taught them to see things differently. Furtherly the two actually have similarities. Ochshorn discusses this in her article, “Despite their obvious differences, the Misfit and the grandmother are bound by their concern with appearances and superficial respectability”. In the final moment of the redeemer and the one in need of redemption the two of them begin understanding each other deeper by identify the parallels between each other.
The grandmother seems responsible for every one of the problems that arise in the story. This depicts the grandmother’s personality as well as her intentions. She nags Bailey, her son, to drive carefully and reminds him of the speed limit periodically. It is her who sends the children into a frenzy to demand for their father Bailey who was driving, to allow them to go explore the house with the secret panel that their grandmother was telling them about. The grandmother very clearly has her own agenda, she even smuggled her cat Pitty Sing, into the car without baileys knowledge. When the grandmother abruptly remembers that this plantation house she had been telling the children about in actually in Tennessee, and not Georgia the cat jumps out of the basket he had been stowed away in, and jumps onto Bailey’s shoulder that inevitably causes the wreck. Ochshorn identifies this as well, she writes “Her fuzzy fantasies about a southern mansion combined with some assistance from the smuggled cat manage to cause the car wreck. Then her pronouncement ‘You’re the Misfit!’ Seals the fate.” So it seems that without the grandmother the wreck never would have happened. But then the question arises, if the encounter between the Misfit and the grandmother had never happened then would the grandmother ever have had a chance for redemption? Even after all of the catastrophes she caused on this simple road trip with her family, it eventually leads to her ultimate ordeal. Flannerly O’Connor has a point to make. She writes with the intention to eventually end this nagging southern women’s life. O’Connors idea seems to be that the grandmother being shot is the only thing that can save her from her frivolous life. Ochshorn is clear about it in her essay, “O’Connors naive and deluded mothers and grandmothers are often brought low by violent encounter that shakes them out of their petty superiorities…They are forced to realize their vulnerability, their ridiculous conditions”. It is a difficult idea to digests, but yet it makes perfect sense. These ideas and thought processes that O’Connor implements in her writing is what makes her stories popular among literary critics.
Looking deeper into O’Connors hidden message of redemption and grace allows us to better understand her intentions of writing this story. While the picture is not particularly pleasant, it is obvious that O’Connor has strong feeling towards mid-twentieth century southern women and their lives. The grandmother’s transformation is very evident throughout the story. From when she manipulates the children to throw temper tantrums until bailey finally agree to take a detour to the old southern mansion the grandmother remembers so vividly is in Georgia; to how her final moment with the misfit allows her to be at peace with the person she is, as well as, being accepting of those who are different from her, and her life style. Overall the redemption illustrated in O’Connors short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is one of the most important components to her intended message in her writing.