Morality In Flannery O Connor's A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Morality is not simply the distinction between rights and wrongs, it is a set of values and principles that are held to as a code of conduct. The title of the story, A Good Man Is Hard to Find, refers to the idea that it is hard to find a man with good morality. Flannery O’Connor exhibits the theme of morality through the different attitudes and characteristics of the characters, June Star, the grandmother, and The Misfit.

O’Connor portrays June Star, as ill-behaved and disrespectful; these characteristics contribute to the theme of morality. June Star exhibits poor judgment and weak morals. In the story, the grandmother speaks of Georgia and Tennessee fondly. The children, however, do not regard the states in the same way. John Wesley retorts

(O’Connor 5). The children do not share the grandmother’s perspective of the South. In this sense, the children follow different morals than their grandmother. The children demonstrate amorality by failing to recognize the importance of their native state. The grandmother points out that “[in her] time… children were more respectful of their native state” (O’Connor 5). Another example of June Star’s amorality is exhibited when Red Sam’s wife asks June Star if she “[would] like to come be [her] little girl” (O’Connor 9). Red Sam’s wife had made this comment because she found June Star to be cute. June Star ripostes by saying “[she would not]… live in a broken-down place like [Red Sammy’s Barbecue] for a million bucks!”(O’Connor 9). This exhibits June Star’s amorality and characteristics; June Star looks down on people. She does not realize the struggles Red Sam and his wife may face to maintain their restaurant and make a living. Another example of June Star’s amorality is after the family car crashes.

An LA Times article by David L Ulin describes O’Connor as a “devout Catholic who wrote out of [her] abiding faith” (Ulin Literature and the Moral Question). Flannery O’Connor portrays these same faiths and morals as the grandmother’s beliefs. These faiths are then displayed when the grandmother attempts to coax The Misfit to pray by telling him that “[if he] would pray… Jesus would help [him]”(O’Connor 24). Flannery O’Connor uses the grandmother to put forward her message of faith, the grandmother’s morals cause the grandmother to want to present her faith of God to the Misfit, believing she can help the