The Misfit in A Good Man Is Hard to Find

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Misfit or Savior

Should The Misfit be perceived as an evil, psychotic hoodlum as portrayed in the story, or does he save us from hearing any more religious rhetoric from the grandmother? “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” repeatedly preaches morality while giving readers the illusion that the Misfit is possibly a dark angel, in fact, the Misfit simply kills the family in order to prevent the family from giving away his route of escape. Ultimately, the act of saving one’s own life by killing cannot be judged as being wrong, the Misfit saves himself along with his supposed criminal counterparts, Bobby Lee and Hiram. The story provides no evidence or background on what crimes the Misfit and his gang have committed, therefore, the reader must not view them as being heartless animals. This essay will attempt to persuade the reader to understand the motives of the Misfit, hopefully depict him as a savior for ending the grandmother’s religious jargon, and disprove that he resembled any religious character.

The Misfit is described in the story as a violent, hard-core criminal with an imbalanced mind unfit for society, a local newspaper reports that the Misfit has escaped the federal penitentiary and is believed to be extremely dangerous. “Here this fellow 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. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did” (249). The criminal justice system of the 1950’s can be described as very impartial and flawed, the story doesn’t tell the reader what crime was committed, but it does imply that the Misfit may have...

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... be imagined if someone is deeply religious, and cannot simply see that the Misfit kills the grandmother because she lacks tact and to ensure his escape is successful.

Although readers can assume so many symbolic coincidences throughout the story, we must face reality, symbolism doesn’t prove the existence of supernatural powers among us. The Misfit’s actions came from his motivation to survive his escape to freedom, while ending the life of a woman with ancient views of the world. Despite the grandmother’s cries for her own salvation, the absence of any supernatural being is revealed in the story. The world can look at the Misfit as a savior when it comes to eliminating a racist as well.

Works Cited

O?Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man is Hard to Find." The Harper Anthology of Fiction. Ed. Sylvan Barnet. New York. HarperCollins, 1991. 907-917.

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