Why The Grandmother In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

These are elements of random foreshadowing that helped the reader understand why the grandmother believed so strongly that a good man is hard to find. This would be a prelude to the horrific events that would later unfold when the grandmother encounters the misfit who by all intense purposes was not believed to be a good man.

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 Flannery O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ is entirely obsessed with herself. She is so sure that she is a lady and correct in all things that she lives in a constant delusional state stemming from some better time in her past. Her pride and delusions even led to the death of her family and herself by a man who claims there is no pleasure in the world and does atrocious things to anger God. The idea behind the story is that the absence of belief and obsession with self leads to terrible things, including a meaningless death and final realization of whom and what one really is. The story starts with the sentences “The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida.

Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find tells the story of a family from Atlanta, Georgia as it makes it way to Florida for a vacation. The five members of the family include the grandmother, her son Bailey and his wife. Among the passengers are three children, one of whom is still a baby. There fatal deaths in the end illustrate the belief that everybody has their own unique flaws. The grandmother plays a pivotal role in the story considering the fact that she selfishly convinces the family to divert momentarily from the expected route. In From ‘One of My Babies’: The Misfit and the Grandmother, Stephens Bandy points out that the grandmother was extremely evil. John Desmond, on the other hand suggests that the grandmother is not necessarily a strictly evil person. With reference to the short story, this paper explores Bandy’s and Desmond’s critique’s of A Good Man is Hard to Find. The paper argues that the grandmother is absolutely to do anything for her selfish gains. Furthermore, the paper argues that people are not entirely good or evil, but respond to different events in unique ways.

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.

Seeing how the Grandma starts being more lenient with her attitude, and her view towards everything that is happening during the road trip, begin to change her dramatically. The grandma states that she believes there is no good men anywhere, but as the story continues she states to the man that goes by the name of Red Sammy, that he is a good man because of his kindness towards two men. Following, they get into a huge crash in which O'Connor then emphasizes how dramatic the grandma’s change really is. At this point the family is in trouble because of a man named The Misfit. The grandma speaks with him and goes against all her beliefs of no good men. She tells the Misfit that he is a good man, that he should turn to god and pray. Adding to this, is more of the grandma telling the Misfit how great of a man he could be if only he turns his life around and prays. This is where there is a major change for her. As she is in despair she stops caring about her clothing and her appearance. As she begins to cry in front of The Misfit, this concedes on how delicate she is becoming. O'Connor's use of repetition on the grandma telling the Misfit he is a good man, justifies that her views and her character has completely changed from the beginning of the story. She is no longer a woman who cares what others think of her, she does not care of her

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.

Right off the bat we get the sense that the grandmother is very self-centered and conniving. She mentions the Misfit for one reason only- to get what she wants, rather than being genuinely concerned about her family. “‘…See here, read this,’ and she stood with one hand on her thin hip and the other rattling the newspaper at his bald head. ‘Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and head toward Florida… I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did’”. (O’Connor 705) This indicates the grandmother’s selfish focus and her willingness to manipulate others to attain her own desires. She puts a lot of effort in making sure she is well

She called the Misfit a good man because she thought he wouldn’t kill an old lady. She called Red Sammy a good man because he let to worker from the mill charge their gas they brought. She called the Misfit a good man when she knew he was not a good man. The grandmother tried to convince the Misfit by telling him not to call his self the misfit and that she knows that he is a good man at heart. The grandmother realized that there was nothing but wood around her and he wasn’t listening to her.

The line that summarizes the grandmother in the story “ A Good Man is Hard to Find” is “ she would have been a good woman if someone was there to shoot her all her life.”The grandmother is a typical human being. In many aspects she is selfish. She wants her way and is willing to do anything to get it. For example, once she knows that she is unable to convince her grandson to visit the house which she describes in the story, she shifts her attention to the grandchildren.

“She would have been a good woman,” The Misfit said, “if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life,” (O’Conner pg. 418). In Flannery O’Conner’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” she explained the dynamics of how the grandmother is an unlikely recipient of grace, she related the actions of the Misfit with religion, and also, the intangible definitions of a good man. The short story is about a family going on a trip to Florida, but the grandmother did not want to go on this trip. She wanted to go to Tennessee, but since she lived with her son Bailey she went with them where they wanted to go. While on the drive the grandmother remembers about a plantation she went to when she was a young lady. Bailey decides

Sparrow, Stephen. “And the Meanest of them Sparkled’: Grace Versus the glamour of Evil in ‘A Good Man Is Hard To Find.” ’ Comforts of Home (March, 2003).

Looking at “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the reader is introduced to a family very early on in the story. With a particular character standing out, the grandmother. Her

The grandmother is the central character in the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor. She is also a very well rounded and dynamic character. She shows various characteristics and reveals various remarks as they story progresses. Some of her qualities include selfish and a pushy person. She is also kind of manipulator in a way that she insists her family to change the plan. At the beginning of the story when we first realize her desire to visit her childhood house, she is being a very selfish person. Examining her conversation with her son Bailey, the grandmother is moreover a pushy person. She is convincing Bailey to change the trip plan according to her need only and which will