Flannery O Connor Grandmother

From the beginning of the story, O’ Connor represents the theme of greed and fear as the Grandmother is fearful of Misfit. However, she chooses to take advantage of her perceived fear of the released convict to convince Bailey not to allow them take a vacation to Florida. She says “see here,

The story moves on and the road trip to Florida, not Tennessee as suggested by the grandmother, is underway. While the grandmother rejected the idea of going to Florida, she is the first person in the car to start the trip and makes a point to dress well in order to represent herself as a “lady” in case she happens to die in a traffic accident. While it might seem like the grandmother has finally agreed to the trip she is actively deceiving her family, she has smuggled her cat into the car for the trip, because she was fearful

As the family is driving along, the grandmother awakens from a nap and recalls “an old plantation that she had visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady” (189). This recollection happens while the family is driving through the town of Toomsboro, GA. The grandmother is extremely manipulative and selfish and coaxes the family into visiting the old plantation by lying to them with the possibility of finding hidden treasure. The name of the town is only a slight indication of the terrible tragedy that is yet to come. It is no

The first thing that the narrator tells the reader about the grandmother is that she “didn’t want to go to Florida” (O’Connor 422) because her family was in Tennessee and “she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind” (O’Connor 422). Although she wants the family trip to go her way, she never makes it evident. Instead she tries to manipulate her way by scaring her son by showing Bailey an article about a loose convict called The Misfit. The grandmother tells Bailey “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it” (O’Connor 422). Instead of showing fear for her family, the grandmother tries to scare her son into taking her family [her] to Tennessee rather than Florida. Further into the short story, the grandmother even manipulates her son and family into going to her old plantation home to find a secret panel that is made up in order for her son to drive in the wrong direction. Her devious scheme lands them in a car crash and stranded for The Misfit to find them. Soon, the grandmother makes an attempt at manipulating The Misfit himself by asking “do you ever pray?’’ (O’Connor 431). This shows that she is attempting to guilt her way out of the situation by bringing religion into the picture when she is not very religious

O'Connor's use of detailed descriptions of the grandma help understand her arrogance. The family and herself are to go on a road trip but, she refuses to go and declares they go elsewhere. It is clear

In the beginning of the story, O’Connor introduces a somewhat typical family preparing for vacation with their grandmother. During their preparation, the family illustrates just how disjointed and manipulative they truly are. In fact, in an attempt to get her own way, the grandmother tries to scare the family into going to Tennessee with the news of a killer who escaped prison. “Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people”.(575)

In the start of the story the narrator states “The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida” ( par. 1) from the very beginning the grandmother had wanted to go visit connections in Tennessee and Georgia but her family had decided to go to Florida instead. While traveling on the highway the grandmother recalls an old plantation house she had visited in her younger days and longs to see it again so, she engineers a tale to persuade the family to stray from their original path to visit this old house. This a clear example of indulging oneself and giving into temptation, which in most cases leads to a bad end. This next example of symbolism proves to be quite a grim

“She would have been a good woman…if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (Gardner). Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” tells of Bailey, his wife, their three children and Bailey’s mother all heading to Florida for vacation. In this paper I will summarize the story, and discuss the irony of the story and the morality and religion in the story.

The grandmother did not want to travel to Florida with her son, Bailey and her daughter in law for the vacation. She preferred to go East Tennessee, where she is familiar with. The grandmother tries to convince her son, by saying the Misfit is a loose from federal pen and has escaped from prison and headed toward Florida. (O’Connor’s 405). The grandmother goes as far as to say to her son that the children has been to Florida so why take them in the direction of a convict. Bailey nor his wife paid the grandmother any attention, but the little boy John Wesley, stated, that if she did not want to go to Florida, she can stay home. The day of the trip the grandmother was the first one ready to go because she did not want to leave her cat Pitty

The short story “A Good Man is Hard To Find” is an intellectual dialog that has hidden meanings in each character. It’s important to note that there is no hero in this story because each character is in need for redemption. Specially, the Grandmother, whose character is most expressed throughout the short story, is in need for grace. Similar to the other characters, the Grandmother is selfish and mostly complains and manipulates others to get what she wants. In addition to that, the Grandmother’s character is flawed and is in need for redemption. Notably, this can be seen in the interactions between the Grandmother and the other characters of the story. Also, the Grandmother has no principles of her actions but except for the motive of vanity and the way she views herself. For one example, the Grandmother is with her family on a long road trip and dresses very eloquently as if she was attending a wedding (O'Connor 137). The Grandmother expresses that if there were an accident, people would know she was a lady because of the way she was dresses (O'Connor 137). With this in mind, the character of the Grandmother shows that her principles are selfish. Overall, the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is about a grandmother’s need for redemption which is expressed by her interactions on the road trip with her family, her encounter with the Misfit and how she views a good man.

In O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the definition of what it takes to be a “good man” is very misconstrued. In the beginning of this story a “good” character does not exist. The family is habitually mean to the grandmother, and the grandmother is a conceded, selfish human being. The misfit, another main character, is a criminal and is not a morally good person either. The central theme of the entire story is the concept of the word “good,” and what it takes to meet this expectation. The only opinion of what the audience receives to be as a good man comes from a very morally questionable grandmother; who is not a good person until moments before her tragic death. The author uses a lot of foreshadowing, irony, and symbolism tied directly to Christianity to drive home the points of this story.

The grandmother made a gasp as she realized that this plantation she thought of was in Tennessee not Florida. During her realization, she accidently kicked her cat, that she just had to bring with her, and it got startled. The cat jumped and dug its claws into Bailey’s neck. This caught bailey by surprise and turned the wheel and crashed into the ditch. No one was seriously injured which was a disappointment to the two kids who had hoped that the grandmother had died. That is a sad thing to say but that is how selfish the two kids are. A little bit after their crash, a car comes down the road and the grandmother instantly runs out and waves it down because she wants to be saved. The men in the car get out and start talking to them. Bailey, who “Appreciates the Seriousness of the situation”, begins to speak with the men but the grandmother butts in so Bailey, has no say in the matter. While talking, the grandmother notices something about one of the men. She notices that the driver of the car was the Misfit. Earlier when she was trying to talk Bailey out of going to Florida she “read that the Misfit had broken out of jail.” She does not realize what she has just done, she just blurted it out. The Misfit might have let them go but now that she recognized him, he would have to make sure that they did not tell of his whereabouts. Bailey and John Wesley are the first ones to be brought to their doom. The grandmother screams “Bailey Boy!” but she was

Bailey wants to take his family, (his wife, baby, and two kids, John Wesley and June Star), to Florida. His mother, called simply "the grandmother," doesn't want to go there. To make her case, she mentions that there's a dangerous criminal named The Misfit on the loose, and that he's headed that way. No one seems to take her seriously. The next morning, it's off to Florida they go. Everyone piles in the car, including the grandmother, who seems to have acquired some enthusiasm for the trip. They hit the road and begin the trip from Georgia to Florida. During the trip the grandmother plays games and tells stories to the kids. They stop at a restaurant to eat, and converse a bit with the owner, Red Sammy, and his wife. The grandmother talks with the couple about how hard it is to trust people and find "good men" these days. She also talks a bit about The Misfit. Back on the road, the grandmother gets the kids all excited by telling them about an old plantation she once visited that's located nearby. The kids convince the reluctant Bailey to take them all to see it. He turns onto a dirt road, which, the grandmother assures him, leads to the plantation. After following the road for a while they don't see anything. Suddenly, the grandmother remembers that the plantation isn't here at all –

The story starts off with the Grandmother trying to talk her son Bailey out of taking the family to Florida for their vacation by bringing up the misfit a man who had just escaped from a federal prison by saying she could not in her good conscience bring her children in any direction the misfit may be as it would not be safe (par. 1). The real reason for the grandmothers disapproval of the trip to Florida was because she personally wanted to go to Tenasee to visit some people from past. Which I believe is the beginning to the author foreshadowing her personality, which is a crucial part for readers to

Bailey and his wife and children are completely indifferent to their roots in the old South; they are going to the artificial world of Florida for their vacation. The grandmother’s good qualities are, however, compromised by her delusions about her background and social status. She expresses concern for the plight of the rural poor but still regards them as part of the picturesque landscape. In fact, the grandmother’s notions are the source of her most serious shortcoming her firm, and eventually fatal, conviction of her own rightness. At the opening of the story, the grandmother goes behind Bailey’s back to get him to change their vacation destination. She smuggles the cat along in the car against Bailey’s wishes. The grandmother first appeals to the Misfit’s decency. She suggests that he’s too good a man to shoot a