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The Zodiac Killer And The Misfit

Better Essays

Myranda Elkin
Dr. V. Hunt
ENC1102
13 November 2016

Righteous Degenerate

What do Adolf Hitler, The Zodiac Killer and, The Misfit all have in common? They are psychopathic murderers. Psychopaths do not feel therefore they cannot have morals in the same way normal people do. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor the character known as the Misfit loses the battle with his conscience and is proven to be immoral. According to the Oxford Dictionary, morality is, “a particular system of values and principles of conduct,” held by a person or society (Oxford). These principles have to have a standard. The standard of morality is like a scientist’s control for their experiment, it is something they compare their results to. Dr. Elizabeth Mitchell states, “without a divine source of morality, there can be no objective morality, only popular opinions” (Mitchell 2012). Since Flannery O’Connor was a Christian, her standard or source for morality was God. Christian belief systems are directed by Christ and they strive to be like him – righteous. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” O’Connor included elements of Christianity, and we know it is a universal theme throughout all of her short stories. 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.

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