A Good Man Is Hard To Find

The story continues to have comical parts as the family continues traveling to Florida until the grandmother remembers of a time when she was young and decides she wants to visit an old home. She tells the children about a house and even lies to them and says that there are "secret panels" (324). They become very excited and Bailey decides to let them go see it and on the way there is when the tone and story line changes.

I believe that the cat was the only thing that showed her love and attention. Her only son, had a family of his own, her grandchildren were older now, and she felt like she was not important to them anymore, and the children?s mother was involved with the baby. By bringing the cat, she felt like she would not be lonely. The reader can also tell that the woman is extremely prejudice. She refers to the black child as a ?cute little pickaninny? and a nigger.

He was sent to jail for a crime in which he did not remember. Upon his escape, he decides to commit multiple crimes in order to actually deserve the time he spent locked away. The misfit does not neccesarily represent evil. When the grandmother lables him a “good man,” he does not disagree. Though he does not make good decisions, he does follow his moral.

With mild aggravation, Bailey drives down a winding and twisting road remotely traveled with scenic attributes. As the trip continues, Bailey considers and communicates to his mother that he will turn around if the house does not appear soon. Sudden memory confirms that the house was in Tennessee and the subsequent movement-based on slight embarrassment startles the cat that she had concealed before the trip began. While grandma simply tries to hold on to something that peaks her interest in this trip, eagerness and revelation further stresses her son and startles the stowaway cat that should not have made the trip anyway. The cat proves to be the mechanism that turns an already hassle filled trip into a fate filled voyage.

She packs her cat, Pitty Sing into a basket and hides it below her suitcase. She believes that her cat, if left by himself while she went on the trip with her family, would either miss her greatly or accidentally kill himself. While most people are attached to their pets, and vice versa, cats are notoriously independent creatures. As long as Pitty Sing had been left enough provisions for the duration of the trip, he probably wouldn't have missed the grandmother at all. If anything, he would probably have thoroughly enjoyed himself because there would be no children yelling and screaming, and no grandmother wanting togive him constant attention, as I can imagine her doing. It is also very unlikely that Pitty Sing would have accidentally killed himself. Not only would he probably have been napping a good portion of the time, but cats are very lithe and graceful animals. He would have had to "brush up against one of the gas burners" with a lot of force in order to "asphyxiate himself" (O'Conner 367). By selfishly not telling her son about the cat joining them on their journey, she has started the ball rolling on the track to everyone's untimely

Luigi Vittatoe Professor Rachel Johnson COM1102 Writing About Literature January 13, 2016 Week 1 Discussion The Misfit, in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" tells the grandmother, “I call myself the Misfit, because I can't make what all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment. " How does this provide insight into the Misfit as a character, and what does the Misfit represent? The Misfit knows he has done wrong but doesn’t think the punishment fits the crimes. The grandmother in the story tries to have him pray and see the things he has done wrong in the past.

Jacie Meier Professor Lee Friederich English 250 -- Introduction to Literary Studies July 7, 2015 Use of Literary Techniques in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” The confrontation between good and evil detailed in Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” wouldn’t be nearly as vivid without the use of various literary techniques such as similes, personifications, imagery, foreshadowing, and irony. While all of the aforementioned literary techniques contribute to the central confrontation, they are also used to create the distinctive tone of the entire account. Ultimately, the most influential techniques are the meaningful use of imagery and foreshadow along with the significant use of irony throughout the tale. O’Connor uses

He sends the wife off to her death, right after hearing the gunshots that killed her husband. After shooting the grandmother all the Misfit says is, “she would have been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (455). The Misfit regards no life as something to be saved. He only sees it as an opportunity to get what he needs. If he needed a t-shirt he was going to get it from Bailey, but he might as well kill the family since he would already get in trouble for stealing from

Likewise, this was an indication that death has arrived, sure enough it turns out that the car passengers were the Misfit, Bobby, Lee and Hiram. They were all killers, and end up murdering the Bailey's entire family. Even though the grandmother put up a fight to stay

Although the Misfit is a "murderer", he also has morals. The Misfit's morals can easily be described with two words "bitter and sweet". The sweet part of his morals is on page 205. "Good Afternoon", he said, "I see you all had a little spill"…Baily turned and said something to the Grandmother… The Misfit face reddened. "Lady don't you get upset. Sometimes a man says things he don't mean, don't reckon he meant to talk to you that away." the misfit said…. "You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you?" the grandmother said " I would hate to have to he said". The bitterness part of the misfit's morals is shown on the last page. "The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times in the chest" (208). In this particular quote the misfit was

The Grandmother believes that she is a righteous person who cannot do anything wrong, shown when O’Connor writes, “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience” (O’Connor 4). However the grandmother’s morals come into question when she hides her cat on the car ride, “the Grandmother was the first one in the car … she was hiding a basket with Pitty Sing, the cat, in it.” (O’Connor 5). First thought would be that the Grandmother was the least qualified to plant the seed of grace in the Misfit.

The family, Bailey, his wife, three children and his mother, are set to go on vacation to Florida from Georgia. The grandmother tries to convince Bailey to go somewhere else because there is an escaped man called The Misfit on the loose. When the family sets off the grandmother begins talking of a plantation that she remembered from her childhood. She tells the kids there is a secret passage in the house to make them want to go and soon they have persuaded Bailey to take them there. As the family is driving down a dirt road that “looked as if no one had traveled on it in months” (Gardner) the grandmother realizes that the plantation is in Tennessee not in Georgia. The grandmother began to get nervous and her foot twitched causing her stowaway cat to attack Bailey, and caused him to crash the car. Not wanting to admit to her mistake and have Bailey mad at her, the grandmother kept her mix-up to herself. When the family sees a car pass by they wave it down to get help from its passengers. The grandmother instantly recognizes one of the passengers as The Misfit. Once she tells

her pathetic view of life than oí The Misfit. It is no accident that the

Flannery O’Connor’s personal views on the justification of religion and the resulting world or corruption and depravity are apparent in her short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. She analyzes the basic plight of human existence and its conflict with religious conviction. The first two-thirds of the narrative set the stage for the grandmother, representing traditional Christian beliefs, to collide with The Misfit, representing modern scientific beliefs. The core of symbolism and the magnet for interpretation is at the end, the conversation between the grandmother and The Misfit. The conversation represents the examination of the clash between animal and metaphysical human

The children and the ways of the grandmother symbolized the division between the generations in the story. The children, June Star and John Wesley, represent a new generation of unruly and disrespectful people. On the other hand, the grandmother represents the strong, southern heritage and stubborn godly beliefs. The two conflict when they discuss going to Tennessee rather than go to Florida, which is what the grandmother wants to do. June Star, who can read the grandmother like a book, remarks after John Wesley told his grandmother to stay at home if she did not want to go to Florida, "She wouldn't stay at home for a million bucks. Afraid she'd miss something. She has to go everywhere we go." This is a prime example of the loss of respect the children had for the grandmother. The grandmother does nothing but reply, "Alright, Miss." The generation gap creates a stir, but the outcome of the two coinciding might be positive.