The Misfit

“It was a head-doctor at the penitentiary said what I had done was kill my daddy but I known that for a lie” (258). From this passage, no information is revealed regarding his alleged crimes, and for that reason, the Misfit cannot possibly be viewed as a crazy-minded psycho. The assumption that the Misfit was unjustly convicted needs to be considered as a possibility. Another point that needs to be addressed is that the Misfit has been through hard times. He enlisted in the Marine Corps and served overseas in far-off lands. He married twice in his life and sadly divorced. Along with sacrificing for his country and ending two painful marriages, he worked low-paying, hard-labor jobs such as undertaking, farming, and working on the railroad. Making his life even more miserable, the Misfit experienced dreadful, disastrous events such as escaping deadly tornados and watching a man burn to a crisp. “Been in the arm service, both land and sea, at home and abroad, been twict married, been an undertaker, been with the railroads, plowed Mother Earth, been in a tornado, seen a man burnt alive oncet” (258). Besides being a good citizen of the United States, his goal was to escape without hurting anyone in the process. The Misfit informs the grandmother that he has no intention of stealing anything from anyone, “Nobody had nothing I wanted” (258). When the Misfit appears in the story, he is shown as being

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.

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.

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the Misfit’s characteristics are often opposites of each other or contradictory to each other. For example, at times he is gentle, while at other times in the story, his words and actions are harsh. Some of the statements he makes and actions he takes show him to be intelligent, but others also show him to be clueless and out of touch with reality. Similarly, he treats the family in the story with respect, yet in no way values their lives.

In 1955, Flannery O’ Connor published the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” which became her best-known short story. Although many appreciated her work it received much criticism for its peculiar character, The Misfit. His callous violent behavior made people uncomfortable with her work describing it as consistently distorted and manipulative. The Misfit’s unsentimental and cruel behavior characterizes true psychological disturbance similar to that of Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer. Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” Is an accurate representation of Antisocial Personality Disorder (ASPD). Through The Misfits recollection of his past, his trauma, and his lack of guilt he depicts a severe case of ASPD.

In A Good Man is Hard to Find, the grandmother and the Misfit both experience a life-changing event that leads to them having a clear understanding of who they should truly be. After the Misfit kills the rest of the family, the grandmother is left alone with the Misfit in the ditch. Once she

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

As Bandy mentions, the grandmother and the misfit are often intertwined in many critics’ reviews of A Good Man is Hard to Find (1). One of the most obvious ironies they share is that you perceive one as being the opposite of the other for the wrong reasons. With the grandmother, as stated before, one may assume her to be a good person, while she is in fact the opposite. While the Misfit would most likely be associated as a murderer and a horrible monster, he in fact is a decent human being. Wynne emphasizes the humor in the grandmother’s attempt to save herself by calling the Misfit one of her children (1). As if she is good and therefore he, being of the same good blood, must also be good. In these aspects I completely agree with these writer’s interpretations of the grandmother and the

The grandmother feels that God provides the answer to any underlying problems, and the Misfit knows and feels that all of the horrible things he has done are truly not considered morally wrong from his perspective. Towards the end, when the grandmother experienced an epiphany before the Misfit shot her in the chest she stated, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children” (11). This made the grandmother realize that she was expressing the true Christian belief that we are all seen as equal in the eyes of God, no matter how murderous someone may be. O’Connor’s use of spiritual insight stripped away the grandmothers self-centeredness, and helped her discover the ability to see others with compassion and understanding. Nonetheless, within “A Good Man is Hard to Find” O’Connor provides great amount of spiritual insight in her short stories mainly as a way to connect her characters with God and to make them recognize the true meaning of individual equality.

In his earlier years, the Misfit lived a normal life. “”I was a gospel singer for for a while,” The Misfit said,” I been most everything. Been in the arm service, both land and sea, at home and abroad,been twict married, been an undertaker, been with the railroads, plowed Mother Earth, been in a tornado, seen a man burnt alive oncet.”” ( O’Connor 506). Once when the Misfit made a mistake, he

Furthermore, both characters use their god-like positions to try to influence others for personal gain. While the grandmother tries to influence the Misfit into believing God and telling

Religion was brought up earlier and again O’Conner made it clear that there were references to Christianity. The grandmother is trying to convince the Misfit to have mercy on her and her family she tries to tell him that he is a good

A Good Man Is Hard To Find written by Flannery O’Connor is about a family who are on there way out for a vacation and run into a famous killer named the Misfit, who along with a couple other criminals have broken out of Jail. The Misfit along with his co-conspirator toward the end of the story end up killing the family in the woods. The climax of the story is the conversation between the grandmother and the Misfit, the grandmother is trying to argue for her life by explaining to the killing that at some point he was a good more that was turned down the wrong path. While the Misfit questions the grandmother about human experience that can turn a good person into a bad one. Author William Bonney in his Academic Journal wrote about the moral structure

Typically in October the music scene I am a part of in Bloomington throws a 'Halloween themed cover show.' It gives people who are 'too old' to trick-or-treat something fun and enjoyable to do. Local bands from Bloomington will dress up as another band and cover song that they have written.

The Grandmother wants the Misfit to receive salvation from God, so that he can be forgiven for his sins. Even though the Grandmother got the family into this mess, she can still be viewed as the hero.