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 …show more content…
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. When the Misfit is asked what event started his homicidal rage, the Misfit states “I forgot what I done. I set there and set there, trying to remember what it was that I done and I ain’t recalled it to this day… but it wasn’t no mistake. They had papers on me” (O’Connor 1314). The Misfit says later on that he never saw the papers either, so if he can’t remember, and has seen no proof who is the justice system to say that he was the one to commit the crime. The Misfit found that to the justice system “the crime
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.
In the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, the Socs are the ones to blame for all of the problems. After all they are the cause of the rumble. The Socs are no good drunk 24/7 idiots who need to turn their ego down, and intelligence up. They screw up MANY times in the book. Yah yah, greasers are not perfect, but at least they have some common sense. And I’ll tell you why the greasers are innocent and the Socs are not.
The title of the story is The Outsiders. S.E. Hinton wrote it. Dell Publishing published the book. The main characters include Ponyboy, Darry, Soadapop, Dally Winston, Johnny, Cherry, Two-Bit, and Marcia.
When the Misfit arrived with his gang, he gave a few hints to his victims indicating their brutal death. The Misfit arrived in a vehicle described as ."...a big black battered hearse-like automobile." The hearse, which is a vehicle carrying the dead, was the Misfit's vehicle which conveyed the message that he was going to kill the family. Another interesting imagery was when the grandmother asked the Misfit, "`What did you do to get sent to the penitentiary that first time?'" His answer further foreshadowed the death of the family. He said, "`Turn to the right, it
In the book The Outsiders by S.E Hinton, it's built around the class division between the Socs and the greasers. The kids in the Socs came from privileged and wealthy families while the greaser grew up in a unstable and poor environment, and it shaped who they are and how they act. The novel deals with issues important to urban teens, and the obstacles that are part of their daily lives, showing realism in Hinton's writing. In the article ¨The Urban Experience in Recent Young Adult Novels¨ by Sandra Hassell and Sandy Guild, it discuss the importance of urban teens worlds represented in literature. The article consists of many characteristics that are established in urban youth books such as, the usage of slang, strong sense of community,
Should The Misfit be perceived as an evil, psychotic hoodlum as portrayed in the story, or does he save us from hearing any more religious rhetoric from the grandmother? “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” repeatedly preaches morality while giving readers the illusion that the Misfit is possibly a dark angel, in fact, the Misfit simply kills the family in order to prevent the family from giving away his route of escape. Ultimately, the act of saving one’s own life by killing cannot be judged as being wrong, the Misfit saves himself along with his supposed criminal counterparts, Bobby Lee and Hiram. The story provides no evidence or background on what crimes the Misfit and his gang have committed, therefore, the reader must
In “Outcasts United” written by Warren St. John we learn about the lives of multiple young children along with their families coming from broken homes that seek a better living, they are refugee. Throughout the book, the lives of the kids are described on how they learn to adapt to this new life. Luma Mufleh is introduced in the beginning. She is the creator of the “Fugees” a soccer team she started in order to give these boys a way to escape from their past. While learning the way these kids live their life, the theme that is portrayed to us would be teamwork.
The Outsiders Essay – Describe an interesting theme from a text you have studied. Explain why this theme is interesting.
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 the two short stories “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O'Connor and "Where are You Going, Where Have You Been?" by Joyce Carol Oates, there are many similarities in the characters ‘Misfit’ and Arnold Friend; although they aren’t clear at the beginning they become clearer after analyzing. For instance, they are both charming and know how to talk to their prey and get what they want. We see this in A Good Man is Hard to Find with the Misfit, he stays calm throughout and it almost seems like the grandmother is getting to him, saying things like "I know you're a good man. You don't look a bit like you have com- mon blood. I know you must come from nice people!" "Yes mam," he said, "finest people
Demonstrate how the major events that take place in The Outsiders affect the values and attitudes of 3 main characters.
Acceptance and security. These are the two things that every human being wants. How they gain those two things varies from person to person.But most of us are privileged enough to not worry about these two very important necessities.However there are people in the world who are not so lucky. Those are the people who are failed to be understood by the rest of the world. However a lot of us are asleep to those people and their problems.Sometimes it takes a piece of art or literature to wake us up to those problems and a piece of literature that can do that is the novel written by S.E. Hinton, The Outsiders.In her novel Hinton, writes about two socioeconomic classes, the greasers and the Socs, who live their lives on the two ends of social status, near-poverty and full on rich, respectively.The cloak of money shields both sides to understand the others problems and the society is unable to take off the cloak as well. The novel is also a good eye-opener to how social,emotional,and economic forces can shape a person’s life and how if one can truly understand a person for what they are the world might just be a better place.
Nothing is permanent. Since the beginning of time humans have been forming opinions about the world which surrounds them. These assumptions are not restricted to simple scientific observations regarding how the planet works. People also form opinions about the people that they are closest to. Like many scientific theories, these opinions can later be proven false. Since this is such a common aspect of life, it is illustrated in many novels. An example of a story that it is illustrated in is The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. In the novel Ponyboy, a naive 14 year old boy who has been misjudging his gang members which also happen to be his friends later on realizes that he was wrong about all of them. Ponyboy's perspective of Dally ,Darry, and Johnny
Throughout the story, The Misfit says that he is unsure as to why he has been sent to the penitentiary. He states that he did not kill his father like the head doctor said. This makes the reader think that maybe he is innocent. He even goes so far as to compare himself to Jesus.
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