A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Questions

The grandmother believes The Misfit is “good” because he will not shoot a lady, which is a denial in her faith to keep her moral principles. Her theory proves to be false. The only thing “good” about the Misfit is his uniformity in living out his moral cipher of there is no pleasure but meanness in life.

The Misfit stated that he didn’t have a rough childhood, growing up with the “finest people in the world… God never made a finer woman than my mother and my daddy’s heart was pure gold” (O’Connor 413). It’s commonly thought that serial killers are motivated by their troublesome pasts, yet the Misfit didn’t seem to experience that. This creates ambiguity because O’Connor does not disclose what caused the Misfit to turn into a vicious killer. However, a possible explanation is that he has always suffered from psychological issues and the turbulent events he experienced contributed to his mental instability such as his time “in the arm services” and seeing “a man burnt alive” (O’Connor 415). Another example is when the grandmother touched the Misfit’s shoulder and said, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” causing him to shoot her three times in the chest (O’Connor 417). The grandmother’s motivation for saying that the Misfit is her child and the Misfit’s motivation for shooting her after that statement are ambiguous. A possible explanation may be that the grandmother was in shock due to her situation and wasn’t in a clear state of mind when she said that. The statement and physical gestures presented by the grandmother must have agitated the Misfit in some way that resulted in her instant death. However, the true

"A Good Man Is Hard To Find" and "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been"

In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," Flannery O'Connor represents her style of writing very accurately. She includes her "themes and methods - comedy, violence, theological concern - and thus makes them quickly and unmistakably available" (Asals 177). In the beginning of the story O'Connor represents the theme of comedy by describing the typical grandmother. Then O'Connor moves on to include the violent aspect by bringing the Misfit into the story. At the end of the story the theme changes to theological concern as the attention is directed towards the grandmother's witnessing. As the themes change throughout the story, the reader's perception of the grandmother also changes.

Working Thesis: In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, O’Connor uses the corrupt, manipulative character of the grandmother, as well as the story’s plot and theme in order to emphasize the flaws of the church and the need for grace.

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” and Flannery O’Connor’s “A good man is hard to find,” both authors present main characters who are contrasting to the people in their society. In Faulkner’s work, Emily Grierson is an outsider because she hides herself from the people in town for more than thirty years. They have no clue that she has kept homers body in her home for so long until the day she dies. Also, in O’Connor’s work, the grandmother describes herself as a Pure, good woman but her actions contradict her by proving she’s manipulative and evil. In this way, both characters are outsiders by choosing not to show their true identities to their respective societies.

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been” share the same plot by having the protagonists in each of the stories end with death. Although their plots are the same, the landscape and imagery of the surroundings, leading up to the death of the characters are different. In these stories, there are different points like the unexpected deaths to make the ending the same. Each story consists of a different scenery/ landscape imagery to show the ultimate ending of death to the main characters.

I’ll give you all the money I’ve got!” (O’Connor 355). She is pleading the Misfit for her life only by saying the word lady repeatedly and offering him the money. She is also praising the Misfit by calling him a good man and trying to save her life. She was also careless about her family. When her family is taken down into the woods, she continues to talk to Misfit. She ignores the sound of when her son and rest of the family were being shot. She is apparently oblivious to many things. She was ignoring everything but the Misfit. “The shirt came flying at him and landed on his shoulders and he put it on. The grandmother couldn’t name what the shirt reminded her of” (O’Connor 354). The grandmother doesn’t even realize that shirt was her son Baileys. She had no interest in knowing where that shirt came from and what happened to my family. For the concern of her life only, she tries to persuade the Misfit the same way she tried with her family. “I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people!” (O’Connor 352). She is trying to manipulate the Misfit and hopes that he will bear her. She is thinking about no one else but the sake for herself. However she fails once again to influence the Misfit.

For example, Bailey, the father of the family, shows that he does not care too much about anything and he treats his mother with much disrespect,

Violence in the short story is very interesting because its so apparent and yet so deep. Towards the end of the story, the Misfit says to Grandmother “She would of been a good woman . . . if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.” Flannery O’Connor doesn’t say that being exposed to violence makes them better people, but the message is clear: violence changes us as a people (both in the story and in the real world). Up until the very end, each member of the family, mostly Grandmother, acted egotistically and only focused in herself. None of the characters take a minute to evaluate whats right and wrong for themselves or anyone else. They all react based on their instincts without thinking things through so much. But when Grandmother is put in a life or death situation where she’s forced to carefully pick her words and actions, she is suddenly capable of a being more selfless and spiritually sound. The Grandmother’s everyday considerations probably have nothing to do with her son or the kids, really anyone in her family, but when she is faced with her own mortality she has this moment of “grace”—she calls the Misfit her own son, and reach makes an effort, emotionally and physically, hoping to save herself or comfort him. In the end, however, the Grandmother’s moment of “grace” ends up getting her killed. O’Connor

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the grandmother and the Misfit become the main focus even though the other characters are involved in the story. Throughout the entire story, The Misfit is portrayed as the symbol of evil because he was in jail; he escaped from jail, and he committed murders. The grandmother believes to be greater than the people that she are around because of the “good” that she portrays. The conventional meaning of good, or possessing or displaying moral virtue, is not the particular good that the grandmother is trying to portray throughout the story. The grandmother believes that good

A good man really is hard to find. But what is the real definition of a real man? Maybe it is not just the prince charming you see in fairy tales or the perfect guy walking down Sixth Ave. that you pass by everyday to work. Maybe a good guy is simply someone that is good what they do. In this case the relationship between the grandmother and the misfit is just that. The only thing is if the reader sees it as clearly as the author would like them too or simply as she does.

Flannery O 'Connor is a Christian writer, and her work shows Christian themes of good and evil, grace, and salvation. O’Connor has challenged the theme of religion into all of her works largely because of her Roman Catholic upbringing. O’Connor wrote in such a way that the characters and settings of her stories are unforgettable, revealing deep insights into the human existence. In O’Connor’s Introduction to a “Memoir of Mary Ann,” she claims that Christians live to prepare for their death. This statement is reflected in her other works, including her short story “A Good Man is Hard To Find.” After reading “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” many questions remain unanswered

In Flannery O'Connor's eccentric short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the reader is introduced to her fundamental theme of Identity through a typical southern family. O’Connor’s exceptional use of fictional elements such as characterization, point of view, and setting further develop this theme in her work. She does so by familiarizing the use of violence, humor, and salvation along with point of view and setting to create a deeper connection between her work and the reader.

The unnamed grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” considers herself morally superior to others by her being a “lady,” and she freely and frequently passes judgment on other people within the story. She claims that her conscience is a guiding force in her life, such as when she tells Bailey that her