A Good Man Is Hard To Find

The grandmother also secretly brought the family cat, “She had her big black valise and underneath it she was hiding a basket with Pitty Sing, the cat, in it” (O’ Connor 1106), even though “Her son, Bailey, didn’t like to arrive at a motel with a cat” (O’ Connor 1107). When The Misfit arrives, “The grandmother had the peculiar feeling that the bespectacled man was someone she knew” (O’ Connor 1112), but when she later realizes who the man is, she claims, “‘I recognized you at once!’” (O’ Connor 1113). She tells The Misfit, “‘we turned over twice!’” (O’ Connor 1112), even though they both knew that it was only once. Lastly, the grandmother lies again to herself and to The Misfit when she says, “‘you shouldn’t call yourself The Misfit because I know you’re a good man at heart’” (O’ Connor 1113). The only reason she says this is in an attempt to save her life.

"A Good Man Is Hard To Find" and "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been"

In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," Flannery O'Connor represents her style of writing very accurately. She includes her "themes and methods - comedy, violence, theological concern - and thus makes them quickly and unmistakably available" (Asals 177). In the beginning of the story O'Connor represents the theme of comedy by describing the typical grandmother. Then O'Connor moves on to include the violent aspect by bringing the Misfit into the story. At the end of the story the theme changes to theological concern as the attention is directed towards the grandmother's witnessing. As the themes change throughout the story, the reader's perception of the grandmother also changes.

Working Thesis: In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, O’Connor uses the corrupt, manipulative character of the grandmother, as well as the story’s plot and theme in order to emphasize the flaws of the church and the need for grace.

In William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily,” and Flannery O’Connor’s “A good man is hard to find,” both authors present main characters who are contrasting to the people in their society. In Faulkner’s work, Emily Grierson is an outsider because she hides herself from the people in town for more than thirty years. They have no clue that she has kept homers body in her home for so long until the day she dies. Also, in O’Connor’s work, the grandmother describes herself as a Pure, good woman but her actions contradict her by proving she’s manipulative and evil. In this way, both characters are outsiders by choosing not to show their true identities to their respective societies.

What, declares a person to be good or bad? Who is the judge to pinpoint someone in such manner? Humanity is destined to be flawed and is capable of both actions. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” A masterpiece written by Flannery O’Connor gives insight of the protagonist and antagonist in the sense of good vs. evil. The protagonist, an old-fashioned conniving manipulator takes on the role of playing the judge basing the sense of goodness in her own superficial ways. The story has a foundation of family, the influence of manipulation, and good vs. evil. The grandmother, who considers herself to be a genuine good Christian individual, leads the entire family to their demise due to her selfish and manipulating demeanor.

In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, it starts out by having the family go on a vacation to Tennessee and not to Florida because there is a Misfit on the loose. On their way, the family passes different landmarks including a cotton field and a restaurant. The Grandmother realizes that there was a plantation she once visited nearby. On their way to the house, she realizes that the house is not actually where she says it was and she jerks herself making the cat jump in front of the drivers face making him crash the car. A passing car comes and the Grandmother points out it’s the Misfit with his two men. The Misfit says, “you shouldn’t have said who I was, you should have kept it a secret” (O’ Connor 1241). This forces the Misfit to send his men to go kill John Wesley and Bailey in the woods. The grandmother then looks to the Misfit and asks him to pray. The Grandmother then says that “you are like one of my own children” (O’ Connor 1245) and after that the Misfit shoots and kills the Grandmother. He wishes that it didn’t have to end that way because he is proclaiming he is not a bad man, he didn’t find pleasure out of it.

In conclusion, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner was designed to make the reader think the ending will include the finding of a good man, when

     Flannery O’Connor’s “ A Good Man Is Hard To Find” depicts a family’s encounter with a criminal escaped from a federal penitentiary and their essential relinquishment of life. The family that the story surrounds has planned a trip to Florida for a family vacation. Knowing but unconcerned about the criminal at large, also known as the Misfit, the family voyages onward towards their destination until the trip is abruptly stopped by a totally unnecessary exploration down an unkempt, hilly and dangerous road. The dangerous road combined with the unsuspecting attack of the driver from the grand mothers cat, Pitty Sing, lands the family in a ten-foot deep ditch and in need of help. The

People are often over looked and are not acknowledged for the good that they do in every day life. Most would not consider Bailey, the father from the story A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor, an outstandingly great man. A scholarly critic, Nancy Nester, expresses that the moral of the story is to delineate Bailey as the Grandmothers idea of a ‘good man’. Bailey’s character is bland and also a bit authoritative and can be seen as an ordinary man, not a ‘good’ man. Nester forenamed “[…] that is may be Bailey, in fact, whose goodness that the grandmother affirms at its climax”. Bailey’s true morality is not characterized until the end of the text when the grandmother shows her desperation to the ‘Misfit’, the alleged serial killer who escaped from prison. In the story A Good Man is Hard to find, Bailey, the father of his family and son to his mother shows his ‘goodness’ throughout the story by alleviating the wants and needs of his family but is ultimately over looked because of his bleak and affectionless characteristics.

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the grandmother and the Misfit become the main focus even though the other characters are involved in the story. Throughout the entire story, The Misfit is portrayed as the symbol of evil because he was in jail; he escaped from jail, and he committed murders. The grandmother believes to be greater than the people that she are around because of the “good” that she portrays. The conventional meaning of good, or possessing or displaying moral virtue, is not the particular good that the grandmother is trying to portray throughout the story. The grandmother believes that good

A good man really is hard to find. But what is the real definition of a real man? Maybe it is not just the prince charming you see in fairy tales or the perfect guy walking down Sixth Ave. that you pass by everyday to work. Maybe a good guy is simply someone that is good what they do. In this case the relationship between the grandmother and the misfit is just that. The only thing is if the reader sees it as clearly as the author would like them too or simply as she does.

Flannery O 'Connor is a Christian writer, and her work shows Christian themes of good and evil, grace, and salvation. O’Connor has challenged the theme of religion into all of her works largely because of her Roman Catholic upbringing. O’Connor wrote in such a way that the characters and settings of her stories are unforgettable, revealing deep insights into the human existence. In O’Connor’s Introduction to a “Memoir of Mary Ann,” she claims that Christians live to prepare for their death. This statement is reflected in her other works, including her short story “A Good Man is Hard To Find.” After reading “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” many questions remain unanswered

In Flannery O'Connor's eccentric short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the reader is introduced to her fundamental theme of Identity through a typical southern family. O’Connor’s exceptional use of fictional elements such as characterization, point of view, and setting further develop this theme in her work. She does so by familiarizing the use of violence, humor, and salvation along with point of view and setting to create a deeper connection between her work and the reader.

"Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it" (925), this quote leads us into the story of how the grandmother will act throughout the story. The grandmother is the one that brings everyone to The Misfit, she takes them down the wrong road, by indirectly causing the accident, and then by telling The Misfit that she recognizes him. The grandmother is very at fault for this because she spoke when she probably should not have about knowing who the Misfit is. The grandmother is implicitly setting herself up as a "good" person, since good people are people who follow their conscience.