Hard To Find Misfit

As I read Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, I find myself being completely consumed by the rich tale that the author weaves; a tragic and ironic tale that concisely and precisely utilizes irony and foreshadowing with expert skill. As the story progresses, it is readily apparent that the story will end in a tragic and predictable state due to the devices which O’Connor expertly employs and thusly, I find that I cannot stop reading it; the plot grows thicker with every sentence and by doing so, the characters within the story are infinitely real in my mind’s eye. As I consider these factors, the story focuses on two main characters; that of the grandmother, who comes across as self-centered and self-serving and

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.

A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor challenges readers to look at life through a different lense and causes her audience to make connections to the modern world from the text. Throughout the entire story, O’Connor addresses issues that are still relevant to this day by thoroughly developing each character and using each character to bring up issues that are intriguing to the audience. A Good Man is Hard to Find is a story that challenges readers to make connections and think about the world through a different lense. These thought provoking qualities are the reasons why A Good Man is Hard to Find is a must read for readers of all ages.

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.

This article from the SCC database explains that O’Connor sought to present a message of God’s grace and presence in everyday life. It then provides a basic summary of “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. The article continues, going into an in-depth characterization of the grandmother and how she ultimately dies having transcended into grace. The article’s author and editor, Kathleen Wilson, is a professor of history and cultural studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook. She was educated at Yale University and has been awarded fellowships from a number of foundations. Even though the article was published in 1997, it still holds up, as it is analyzing a story that has already been written and will not change. There is no evidence of bias, as it is a simple analysis and summary. This source came from Short Stories for Students, which was published by Gale Publishing. Gale Publishing is reliable and unbiased, as they are an educational publishing company that has been publishing works since 1954. There are a few cited sources for this secondary source, one of which is biased. The biased source is a New York Times Book Review, which is biased in favor of the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. This source will be useful in describing the grandmother’s character and analyzing her connection to spirituality in the first body paragraph. It also helps to connect

     One of the most important scenes in the story takes place in the vehicle. The grandmother spots an old family graveyard that once belonged to a plantation. She tells the children that the graves

The grandmother hid her cat in a basket, which she puts in the car with her on the day of the trip. The grandmother wears a floral hat and dress, because if she were to get into a car accident people would know she is “a lady”. The two kids June Star and John Wesley clearly dislike their grandmother, it is very clear because they often make remarks to suggest this. The family makes their way through Georgia and they Grandma reminisces about an old suitor she had back in the day when the family passes

In a Good Man is Hard to Find, this grandmother is very selfish, talkative and manipulative. Throughout this story the grandmother portrayed all of these different personality traits. She is like no grandmother that you have ever seen.

The long dusty dirt road ends up being the ill-fated end to all their lives thanks to the grandmother. A criminal that is on the loose happens along the dirt road. He has his cronies take each family member into the forest and kills them. The entire time this is happening, the grandmother is trying to talk to him out of killing them by being nice to him and trying to convince him that he is really a good man.

A family has decided to go to Florida for vacation but, the grandmother tries to convince her son to go Tennessee instead. Afterwards, she shows him that an article saying that a convicted felon called The Misfit has escaped and moving towards Florida. The grandmother never-the-less comes along and hides her cat with her. During their trip, the grandmother wakes up from a nap and says a plantation she has visited once is close. She convinces her son to go there and shows him the way. After driving into the woods, she then realizes that the house she visited was in Tennessee, not in Georgia. Startled by her mistake, her cat jumps and scares Bailey who then crashes the car. A car that happened to be passing by, stops and three men, with guns

The irony of the story is that the family are the true Misfits in the story with their odd family structure of their time (Evans 1). The Grandmother is hardly a traditional Grandmother while the children are running rampant without control, the only control the mother has is over the infant. The family helps to represent caricatures of a modern family (Bouchard 1). The family is ignorant to their fate and is sucked up in their temporary desires and struggles, these, of course, being irrelevant to their fate (Bethea 1). The Grandmother is a character that faces the same problem but her disconnect is vast in regards to the world.

Written in 1953, A Good Man Is Hard To Find is one of O ' Connor 's most known pieces of work and has received many awards. Throughout the story, you come across many twists and turns when you least expect it. A Good Man Is Hard To Find is a story which includes religion,

So they got on a dirt road that she thought would lead to her old house. This road was in very bad condition. You could tell nobody used it because of the holes and bumps and washouts. The grandmother had remembered that they were in

As the kids start to get loud on the car ride the grandmother gets agitated. She tells the children if they are quite she will tell them a story. The family pulls off the side of the road into a place to eat. The grandmother starts to talk to the restaurant owner’s wife. The grandmother tells the lady that Europe is to blame for the way things are now. The owner walks in the restaurant, and the grandmother starts a conversation with him. She tells him about the Misfit and tells him that no one can be trusted.

The family stops at a restaurant to get a bite to eat, and we find out that the two parents, Bailey and his wife, do not really care for the Grandmother. The Grandmother asks Bailey to dance, but he just declines and ignores her. Bailey’s wife does not seem to care either. They then continue on the road, and the Grandmother begins to tell the story of a house that she really enjoyed passing. She really wanted to go there, so she persuaded the children to want to go as well. After a long time of complaining, they finally convince their father to head back toward this house. They go down this road when all