The Misfit Analysis

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 is a symbol of the anti-Christ and is portrayed as such through the inversion of divine characteristics. As pointed by Marion Montgomery, “the devil she presents in her fiction is the devil Christ came to oppose, made articulate in a world largely given to him.” In the Bible, Jesus is a surrounded by little children, whom he loves. The Misfit is bother by little children, even stating, "Watch them children, Bobby Lee," he said. "You know they make me nervous" (O’Connor 642). Michael O. Bellamy emphasizes that this “set of inversion is consistent with the Misfit’s entire personality” (200). When the Misfit is called “a different breed of dog,” this shows the inversion of the word God itself, and “demonology is based on inverting the sacred” (O’Connor 643, Bellamy 200). Moreover, “the Misfit is a self-imposed title,” which is representative of “the figure of that ultimate misfit of Christian orthodoxy, Satan” (Montgomery 186). The emphasis on the Misfit’s alienation from society is show by the symbolism of the true misfit in Christianity. The rejection of Satan by God can be reversed to say that Satan rejects God, and thus the Misfit reject religion.

The final comment of the story seams to be showing a change in misfits' life. Misfit seams to be thinking about goodness and probably thinking that evil is not the answer to the problems in his life. The story shows us that a lot of people are evil, but when they are in trouble they will think of god, as grandma did in the story. At the end of the story Misfit regrets killing grandma, and says that "she would have been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life. (O' Connor 318)." The story is trying to tell us that do not flight all the time and be evil, because you never know what may happen to one. O' Connor is trying to tell us that every man has good and evil in him, but some time we only see one side of them and forget that they have another side as well. The final comment of the story implies that even though misfit seams evil, there still might be some goodness in him. Misfit has gone thorough so many challenges in his life that have made him this way, because he has no faith.

In O’Connor’s “ A Good Man Is Hard To Find” the grandmother uses ethos, pathos, and logos to convey with the Misfit. The grandmother did not see him for who he was, but for who he was intended to be.

Violence and the indefinable definition of a “good man” are two major themes utilized by O’Connor throughout the short story. Violence is a huge factor across America as much as it was when “A Good Man is Hard To Find” was published. Although during those times most individuals were against violence and murder and reacted negatively. People during those times reacted negatively and believed those who committed crimes should be sentenced to death or to cruel punishment. In the short story,

In 1955, Flannery O’ Connor published the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” which became her best-known short story. Although many appreciated her work it received much criticism for its peculiar character, The Misfit. His callous violent behavior made people uncomfortable with her work describing it as consistently distorted and manipulative. The Misfit’s unsentimental and cruel behavior characterizes true psychological disturbance similar to that of Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer. Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” Is an accurate representation of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). Through The Misfits recollection of his past, his trauma, and his lack of guilt he depicts a severe case of ASPD.

An ardent Catholic as she was, Flannery O’Connor astonishes and puzzles the readers of her most frequently compiled work, A Good Man Is Hard to Find. It is the violence, carnage, injustice and dark nooks of Christian beliefs of the characters that they consider so interesting yet shocking at the same time. The story abounds in Christian motifs, both easy and complicated to decipher. We do not find it conclusive that the world is governed by inevitable predestination or evil incorporated, though. A deeper meaning needs to be discovered in the text. The most astonishing passages in the story are those when the Grandmother is left face to face with the Misfit and they both discuss serious religious matters. But at the same time it is the

The Misfit on the other hand, acknowledges that he is not a good man but he “ain’t the worst in the world neither (364).” He accepts his misdeeds but he does not believe that the punishment he receives fit with the wrong he has done. He goes by the name ‘The misfit,’ because of how he really feels like. It is apparent that he is from a good family background from the way he describes his parents. “God never made a finer woman than my mother and my daddy’s heart was pure gold (363).” He does not deny the existence of a supreme God, and he does

Exploring the idea that all men are born sinners, O’Connor demonstrates immoral indulgences entertained by various characters. Readers are introduced to grandmother, an elderly woman whose consistent unscrupulous behavior exhibits her inner motives. Grandmother uses subtle, indirect confrontation to get her way until she is faced with The Misfit, a runaway criminal who believes that crime is a justifiable. In “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” Flannery O’Connor uses characterization to display a loss of morals, imagery to portray evil in society, and symbolism to emphasize the struggle of obtaining grace to prove how life is nihilistic without religion.

Along with foreshadowing, characterization is also an extremely important aspect of “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. O’Connor’s story has many supporting characters, such as the children and the misfit’s accomplices whose characters and personalities can only be shown through their actions. We do not get a clear picture of how they feel, or who they truly are. The main character is a different story however, the grandmother lets us know how she is feeling throughout the story. The grandmother would be considered primarily a stock character, because for the most part, she fills the typical grandmotherly role. She is a nurturer, even if it is only to the baby, and her cat. She is also stuck in her ways of life, and doesn’t wish to change how she is. At the same time however, she is not a perfect fit to the mold. Most grandmothers are not selfish, egocentric, and conniving the way she is. These modifications in her personality cause the reader to be unable to predict what the grandmother is going to do. On the other hand, the Misfit is more than likely different than anyone you have ever meet, or read about. The Misfit’s character was in no waya stock character. Nevertheless it seemed like his actions were slightly easier to predict. While his motives might have been a mystery, I felt that I knew what was going to happen.

O’connor is from the south and is catholic. The grandmother in the story is a big believer in god, and talks about him a lot throughout. John Desmond says how the title reminds him of a story in the Bible when Christ rebukes Peter when he tried to call him “good”, and Jesus says that no one should be called good, and how in the story the grandmother continues to call the misfit “good” (Desmond). “Nome, I ain’t a good man”(191) He knew he wasn’t the worst in the world, but he knew he wasn’t good. I feel like the misfit wasn’t a good man. He brutally murdered this entire family for no reason, other than that they recognized him as the escapee.

The Misfit states that “if I had been there [and seen Jesus raise from the dead] I would of known and I wouldn’t be like I am now” (O’Connor 1316). This means that if the Misfit knew the truth about Jesus Christ he would not be a killer and maybe he’d have some faith. This truth agrees with Martha Stephens’s when she says that “everything the Misfit has done, everything he so monstrously does here, proceeds from his inability to accept Christ, to truly believe” (Stephens 1320). This does not encompass the fact that although the Misfit just does not trust the work of Jesus Christ, the Misfit can never change because of lack of knowledge about what Jesus has done. In order for the Misfit to change he has to know that the works of Jesus Christ are true, the Misfit can never just “believe”. To the Misfit believing would mean knowing, and knowing would mean to witness all of what Jesus Christ has done.

In addition to “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” O’Connor’s purpose in her use of violence can

The Misfit is struggling with his faith in God. While he believes in the existence of a God, he does not believe in an active God. His faith struggles are likely because of the injustice he has experienced as a result of his wrongful conviction of murdering his father. He explains his doubts about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead with the grandmother: “‘I wasn 't there so I can 't say

O’Connor uses the setting of the story to illustrate the theme of good versus evil. Upon meeting the Misfit he mentioned that he “‘[doesn’t] see no sun [or clouds],’”and the grandmother responds by stating “‘it’s a