The Good Man Is Hard To Find Grandmother Essay

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.

Another virtue the grandmother lacks is courage. Courage is “The state or quality of mind or spirit that enables one to face danger with self-possession, confidence and resolution” (Courage). When The Misfit arrives, the grandmother is nothing but a coward. She exhibits no self-possession, “Alone with The Misfit, the grandmother found that she had lost her voice” (O’ Connor 1116), displayed here when she can’t even speak. She also has no resolution to the situation but to give The Misfit her money, “‘I’ll give you all the money I’ve got!’” (O’ Connor

Since the beginning of mankind there is been an unsolved issue of good verses evil. We see this controversial issue in everyday life, Such as Television, Newspaper, etc. " It is not difficult to label the agent of evil in Flannery O' Connor's signature story, "A Good Man is Hard To Find", says John, Desmond. The family is described as a typical modern family, which has all type of problems. Agreeing with each other is one of the biggest problems the family faces. The story starts of where Grandma is in disagreement with her son about where they should plane there next family trip to. After much discussion they decided on going to Florida. The story makes a twist when their car gets into an accident and they have an encounter with Misfit,

At the end of the story, the grandmother only pleads for her life and never for her son Bailey or his family. “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?” (O’Connor 192).The mother never showed no remorse of her son’s death even after the other two men came back with Bailey’s shirt and then took his wife and daughter. She never pleaded for the men to stop and spare their lives. The daughter June Starr selfish characters are observed when she believes her way of living is right by stating to Red Sammy’s wife “I wouldn’t live in a broken-down place like this for a million bucks! (O’Connor 189). For a very young girl she carried an arrogant attitude that was never fixed by her parents.

The Grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard To Find” is the one of the most prominent characters in the story. Moreover, her personality is quite interesting and greater than most, for she casts an ascendancy over the other characters in the story. Great in the sense that her personality was quite faceted.; though not a particularly admirable mixed bag of personality elements. Evidence of her complexity is sprinkled throughout the story: The Grandmother enticing her grandchildren to get their father to go to a particular area; her interest and enthusiasm for being regarded as a “lady” (357), which is a euphemism for a term you would use when referring to a woman in the upper class; not to mention, a proclivity for doing whatever she deems necessary to get what she wants. The aforementioned examples are proof that The Grandmother in "A Good Man is Hard To Find" is massively status conscious, manipulative, and juvenile.

The grandmother in the beginning seems to be a very curious, kind, and old fashioned woman. As the story progresses she turns into this self-centered selfish woman. She appears like this in times like when she tells story’s (old fashioned) about her past experiences and the excited way she points out things (innocence and kindness.). I dislike that her curiosity is what lead the family to their death. Overall she remained the only character I liked so when she was killed I was left disappointed.

The term “a good man” is usually referred to it as a worthy person that has done a marvelous deed. A person look can be deceiving and it is very difficult to know whether that person is generous or malicious. In a short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, the audiences are focus primary on the grandmother interactions toward The Misfit, a wanted criminal. The story is set to be in one big irony about a family vacation from wrong. There is a numerous irony throughout the story, but the most irony scene is the interaction between the grandmother, who's the protagonist of the story, and The Misfit, who’s a wanted criminal and the antagonist. Throughout the conversation between the family and The Misfit, the audiences will

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.

Brutality, humor, religion, and violence are a few themes portrayed throughout many of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories. In many of her short stories, O’Connor exposes the dark side of human nature and implements violent and brutal elements in order to emphasize her religious viewpoints. In the short stores “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Revelation”, O’Connor explicitly depicts this violence to highlight the presence and action of holy grace that is given to a protagonist who exudes hypocritical qualities.

Before the grandmother realizes who it is that has stopped to assist them, she states, “We turned over twice!” (126), trying to gain sympathy from the men by lying about their predicament. However, this only last a few moments until she finally realizes exactly who the man is, she seals her family’s fate by blurting out “You’re the Misfit!” without even thinking about what may happen to them if she does (Walters). To this the Misfit states, “Yes’m, but it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn't of reckernized me” (127). Though the Misfit is one of the only characters in this short story with any idea of what it means to ask morally serious questions and decided whether or not he should kill this family he now feels he has no choice in the matter (Bonney). Due to the grandmother’s outburst the Misfit feels he has no choice but to end the lives of the family because he cannot risk being caught. Thus, making it so that once again the grandmother’s inconsiderate ways are causing the family more troubles then she is

The grandmother uses the word “good” randomly, blurring the definition of a “good man” until the label loses its meaning entirely. She first applies it to Red Sammy after he angrily complains of the general untrustworthiness of people. He asks her why he let two strangers charge their gasoline. He has obviously been swindled; and the grandmother says he did it because he is “a good man.” In this case, her definition of “good” seems to include gullibility, poor judgment, and blind faith, none of which are characteristically “good.”

One of the first main acts of symbolism in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is the Misfit and the grandmother lack of spiritual faith and saving grace. The Misfit tells us that he came from a good family, but he was from a different breed of dog from his brothers and sisters. Here he tells the grandmother how he came from a good family and how he is different in a bad way, but further educates her on his mother and father. The Misfit is one of God’s very own children, but he went against him and therefore he was punished for his actions. “I never was a bad boy that I remember of, “The Misfit said in an almost dreamy voice, but somewhere along the line I done something wrong and got sent to the penitentiary. I

Using the word “good” for the qualities that she believe should be in people, the grandmother sets a proper standard. She tells Red Sammy that he is “…a good man” (O’Connor 409). Red Sammy and the grandmother begin to talk about how times have changed. He and the grandmother discuss when times were better. Red Sammy conveys the title of the story by commenting on how it isn’t easy to trust people “A good man is hard to find. Everything is terrible. I remember the day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more.” (O’Connor 409). The grandmother continues by saying that Europe was to blame.

O’Connor’s succeeds to bring out his arguments in this short story to sum up the feeling that in today’s world, societal morals and values have drastically crumbled making the world an inhabitable place. INTRODUCTION The author presents his main theme of fate by bringing the reader to a family’s holiday which is unfortunately brought to a sudden end by a murder (O’Connor 36). The grandmother argues that the family should go to Tennessee instead of Florida. Her insistence makes the family to deviate from the right path in an attempt to look for a fake treasure.

"A Good Man is Hard to Find" is an extremely powerful commentary that elucidates Flannery O'Connor's opinions about religion and society. Like the majority of her other works, " A Good Man is Hard to Find" has attracted many "interpretations based on Christian dogma" (Bandy 1). These Christian explications are justified because Miss O'Connor is notorious for expressing Catholic doctrines through her fiction. Once she even remarked "I see from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy" (Kropf 1). This longstanding reputation compels every critic of O'Connor to expose the religious convictions encrypted within her stories. The grandmother's final gesture towards the Misfit is not a