A Good Man Is Hard To Find Essay

The story begins in Georgia in the 1940’s-1950’s with the Grandma as the main character who is trying to manipulate her son named Bailey and his wife from traveling to Florida because of the danger of a man called The Misfit who has escaped from prison and instead tries to persuade them to travel to Tennessee. Eventually, the Grandmother doesn’t succeed at convincing him to travel to Tennessee so both of them head off toward Florida along with Bailey’s wife, their young daughter June, their eight year old son John Wesley, the young baby, and Gandmas cat. They drive for a while and Grandma talks to her granddaughter of her early days when she was a maiden

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.

From the time they all got in the car to the time they got out, all the grandmother did was talk. She was trying to talk her way to Tennessee and she talked her way into them detouring to go see some house that the grandmother

”As the family assesses its injuries, a man who is obviously the Misfit drives up with his armed henchmen. The grandmother immediately feels that she recognizes him as someone she has known all of her life, and she tells him that she knows who he is” (Garbett). After their car having struck the railroad's the family waits for help. A car pulls up and a pair of men emerges, led by a shirtless, a bespectacled man with a gun. The man gives orders to his cohorts to inspect the family car and retains Bailey in polite conversation until the grandmother recognizes it as the Misfit. The grandmother made worse by the fact that if she would keep her mouth shut, none of them have been killed.

Consequently convincing her family to take a visit to the plantation, they head off the road to a nearby dirt road.

Drama A Good Man is Hard to Find Nastacia Russell University of the People   A Good Man is Hard to Find A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor, a short story that delves into the very sense of religious views that most hold dear. Using heavy foreshadowing elements, O’Connor shows the concept of Nihilism and the idea that humanism is merely a matter of opinion rather than fact. The title itself creates a foreshadowing of the human nature, detailing as plainly as it says, inherently good individuals are almost impossible to find.

The grandmother is the one in which the action happens against. She also is the character in which we see the most change. She goes through most of the story saying that a good man is hard to find, until she is faced with life and death. Once she understands that her life hangs in the balance her attitude changes. She shows who she really is facing death and realizes what it truly means to have her faith and believe in it.

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is a short story written by Flannery O’Connor in 1953. O’Connor is a known writer for specializing in southern gothic and relied heavily on regional settings and distorted characters. Flannery discusses a topic in the short story, Good Vs Evil and how a confrontation between a grandmother with a superficial sense of goodness vs a criminal who embodies real evil. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the author utilizes irony as a literary element to create multiple sides of her characters in the story such as those of Bailey 's mother and The Misfit. In the story, Bailey 's mother views herself as a proper southern

When the son and family have no reaction to her petition of changing their destination to Tennessee, she offers for their consideration the possible danger of encountering the mysterious Misfit who has craftily escaped from a federal prison.

The grandma in this story just wants to take her family on a trip to Georgia, but realized that where she wanted to take them was actually in Tennessee. The children of the family did not seem to be the grandma’s biggest fans, because she was constantly commenting on their rights and wrongs. The grandma is portrayed as rude and harsh; however, she is trying to correct her family of what should and should not be done. After they all get in their accident they simply try to flag someone down to help them. As soon as the men got out of their car to help them is when the family was destined for sorrow. Looking at the ring leader of the group the grandmother could not help but think that she recognized him; she knew that he was a dangerous man and was willing to do whatever he said so her family would not be hurt. While the two of them are alone they begin talking and one by one they can hear the shots being fired into the members of the family. Right before it turns into the grandma’s turn to have a shot fired into her she realizes that the man in front of her is her very own

Because she is never given a name and only a title, it is likely that she is a representation of all people. She represents society and humankind through her battle with manipulation and arrogance. The grandmother is shown to be a monster because she sees herself as a very harmless, caring person, but in reality she is fairly cunning, manipulative, and oblivious to the world around her. Right at the beginning of the story, she does not want to go to Florida with her family and “was seizing every chance to try to change Bailey’s mind”. The grandmother’s potent nature and selfish ways are shown through her use of the word “seizing”. Rather than simply asking or trying to change their mind, she is forcefully “seizing” it. She tries to tell them that “an enraged killer, The Misfit,” was out there. The main reason she even introduces the Misfit is “to change Bailey’s mind” about going to Florida rather than any serious worries about her family’s protection and well-being. This is ironic because in the end she is the one begging the Misfit not to kill her, and attempting to convince him that he is a good man. She is heartless, selfish, and willing to do anything to get her way. The grandmother is also very prideful and obsessed with appearances, when she states, “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady”(394).

Secondly, the story also describes several society indifferent among plots. When the family was on the way to Florida, they saw a black little boy on the walk who didn’t wear any britches, the grandmother said “little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do”(O’Connor 339). Her reaction toward the little boy shows despite and discrimination. She does not even thinking about others feeling and never realizes the reality of the pain of black people about how poor they are. Later, when they stopped at the Timothy, they met the guy Red Sammy and his wife who was running a restaurant. The grandmother talked with Red Sammy and they shared the common of “People are certainly not nice like they used to be”(O’ Conner 341). Suffered a trick

The irony of the story is that it is under the directions of the Grandmother that leads the family into a run in with The Misfit, which is what she told her son she would never do. Throughout the trip we are given examples of the racism that was present during this period. The Grandmother makes multiple racist innuendos such as her observation of the “cute little pickaninny,” and her statement that “little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do” (O’Conner 2). During the ride, The Grandmother convinces Bailey to take a detour down an old, dirt road which supposedly leads to an old southern plantation home she once visited. The road leads them deep into the woods where an accident is caused by The Grandmothers cat, which leaves the car upturned and the family stranded. It is then the family encounters The Misfit, whom discovers them stranded as he was passing by. He approaches the family with two young men and shortly after The Grandmother lets out a scream as she realizes him. During their encounter, the readers are given a small glimpse into the deranged mind of The Misfit. It is apparent that he has an upturned moral compass. He gains pleasure from committing crimes and the meanness that goes along with it. During his conversation with the Grandmother, he slowly has his men take members of the family out

Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find’ tells of a seemingly normal family with a bit of dysfunction. Throughout this tale, the author fabricates a number of characters, some inconsiderable, others full of depth and history that present themselves wildly open to interpretation. Looking into O’Connor’s past, it is clear to see her relationship with a number of these fictional minds and pull from these the meaning behind her hidden pain and anguish. We are therefore presented with a mother and sons family who are prisoners in a manipulative, destructive relationship.

Only when the grandmother is facing death, in her final moments alone with the Misfit, does she understand where she has gone wrong in life. Instead of being superior, she realizes, she is flawed like everyone else. When she tells the Misfit that he is “one of [her] own children,” she is showing that she has found the ability to see others with compassion and understanding.