The Misfit

The narrator starts the story giving background information about the grandmother and her son, Bailey. The narrator explains that the "grandmother didn't want to go to Florida" (320). Although a major conflict could result from her dislike of the family's choice of vacation spots, it does not. When

She intentionally lies about the house having a secret panel just to get the kids interest so that Bailey would be more likely to stop and visit. The grandmother is also portrayed as being very loud and outgoing. When the family stops at the restaurant, she carries on a conversation with a complete stranger. She also wants to get up and dance.

For example, Bailey does not want her to carry the cat to their journey. However, grandmother does not listen to him and she hides the cat inside the car in a basket and thus secretly brings the cat along with her. On their way, she also wants to go and visit the old plantation even though Bailey does not agree to this. In order to see that she gets what she wants, she talks to the children and convinces them to tell Bailey to do as she wishes. The author writes “There was a secret panel in this house…. and the story went that all the family silver was hidden in it when Sherman came through but it was never found . . .” (O’Connor 45). Grandmother says these words craftily in her attempts to convince Bailey to drive to the old plantations even though she knows that she is not telling the truth. Evidently, she leads the family into a dangerous tour drive. In this tour, the family ends up having an accident due to the Pitty Sing cat sneaking out of the car, leaping on Bailey who loses control of the car. She avoids responsibility by pretending to be hurt. Her actions put the family in dangerous situations.

The Misfit is our antagonist in the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” written by Flannery O’Connor. He is a mysterious man who’d give you the sense of trust, but his actions are not pardoning. He’d show the qualities of a good man and the qualities of a psychopath. His background and stories don’t quite fit his actions, that is why he calls himself “The Misfit.” Although The misfit’s actions are ringing the bell of a psychopath, his inner-self shows otherwise. The Misfit is full of flaws but he is no psychopath, he’s just a man who is forced to live a life that was not meant for him. Deep down inside he’s a good man, but life forced him to act differently.

The family originally intends to travel to Florida for their vacation, but Bailey reluctantly changes the location to Tennessee because the grandma feels that the children could use a change in scenery. Oddly enough, in the same conversation, the grandma reads a newspaper article that informs the family that a man who, “calls himself The Misfit is aloose…and headed towards Florida,” and she explicitly states that she would never “take [her] children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it” (1). The fact that the family is traveling to the same area as The Misfit hints at their encounter in the end of the story.

She doesn’t know that she isn’t where she thinks she is, so she gives directions, then they get into a car crash, which is due to her obliviousness of her surroundings. In addition, to her obliviousness the crash was also due to her manipulative behavior. The whole reason they go to the plantation is because she manipulates her son into taking everyone. She does this by enticing the kids on how exciting and wonderful the house and land were, so the children were super excited and Bailey didn’t want to ruin the trip so he takes them, even though he does not want to go. While he drives up they then have the car crash into a ditch, which the grandmother then remembers how this isn’t even the state of where she would visit the old plantation, but decides to keep that to herself (O’Conner pgs. 410-412).

The Misfit is a complex character created by Flannery O’Connor. He is talked about first when the Grandmother reads his criminal background at the breakfast table. Right when the Misfit meets the family the Grandmother starts questioning his faith and past, and through the Grandmother’s persistent behavior that you find out the truth behind the Misfits hard exterior. The reader understands that the Misfit was brought up by parents who were the “finest people in the world” (O’Connor 1312). With this type of background, how can one expect the Misfit to be such a cold blooded killer? Because of his kind nature in the beginning of the story, it’s almost impossible to understand how he could just kill. Through deeper analysis one can

The protagonist of the story is the grandmother, who through her selfishness, greed,

If you read between the lines of her statement it shows just how self-centered the grandmother is, she is concerned with the destination rather than the safety of her family. Furthermore, the grandmother’s own selfish needs and wants motivates her to try to manipulate her son in order to get what she wants. Tying the theme of this story to the character of the grandmother, O’Connor portrays emptiness of the grandmother’s soul, it is not made up of christian-like ways or religious beliefs, but with only herself and what

The grandmother has many options to tell the family that the house is actually in Tennessee and not Georgia, however she does not want to tell them that which displays her ignorance towards the family. She only wants to think of herself in this instance as opposed to the feelings that the family will have towards her if she tells the truth. In this instance, the grandmother is also showing that she wants to be innocent and not cause any issues, but she has already caused too many issues. Bailey is upset with her ignorance and only thinking about herself when she does not just go with the flow instead she is determined to take the family to the house in Georgia that is not actually there but in Tennessee. It seems as if Bailey heads towards Georgia just to make her happy and not have her being annoying if they do not go

While the family is together in the beginning, we can see the grandmother trying to persuade her son to go to Tennessee rather than Florida, “You ought to take them somewhere else for a change so they would see different parts of the world and be broad. They never have been to east Tennessee.” (page 443). These attempts failed, and although this mention may seem very insignificant, a later one can almost be considered the cause of this families demise. While the family is continuing their trip to Florida, the grandmother can be seen telling her grandchildren a story about an old plantation she visited in what she believed, at the time, was Georgia. The children and the grandmother convinced Bailey to visit the plantation, so they end up going down a dirt road to get to it. It’s not until they’re halfway down the road when the grandmother realizes that the plantation was not in Georgia, but instead is in Tennessee. “The grandmother decided that she would not mention that the house was in Tennessee.” (page 450). Though this may be seen as nothing, it can also be seen as extreme foreshadowing due to the wreck that happened when the grandmother realized she had been wrong about the

She is also the mother of Baily. The grandmother has no such good character. She does not care about others what they want. The only thing she thinks about is herself. She has one of the bad characters mentioned in the story.

From the start of the story until the end the grandmother is always kind hearted and amicable. She likes to talk about the “good old days” when people where nicer and trust worthier. Throughout the drive the grandmother is a symbol of goodness.

The action takes place in the south of the USA in the state of Georgia. The head of the family, Bailey wants to take her children - the eight-year-old son of John, the daughter of June, the wife with the child and her mother in Florida. But Bailey's mother, the grandmother of the children, is trying to dissuade the family from going there. First, they were already there last summer, and secondly, and most importantly, the newspapers write that the criminal from the federal prison ran away on behalf of the outcost, who is traveling to Florida. All the exhortations of the grandmother are useless, the whole family gets into the car and leaves Atlanta, the day is beautiful, the grandmother talks about her youth, shows the sights of the region and

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