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In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, a family gets in a car accident on a deserted dirt road. Unluckily for them, they are found by a group of three escaped convicts, led by a man who calls himself The Misfit. These convicts systematically execute the family in twos as the Misfit talks with the grandmother. While the catalyst for this execution is the grandmother’s verbal recognition of The Misfit as an escaped criminal, it is clear that he commits his crimes for deeper reasons. The Misfit is angry on a fundamental level, and acting out on this anger is the closest he can come to feeling pleasure in this life. The story is told from the third-person limited point of view, which means that the reader sees the story through the eyes and perspective of a “viewpoint character”. In such cases, this character acts as a filter, and while we can see the internal thoughts and motivations of the viewpoint character, we can only see the behaviors of the other characters through his or her eyes. In A Good Man is Hard to Find “the grandmother” is the viewpoint character. This perspective is clear from the opening sentence: “The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind.” Here we are privy to the desire of the character – what she wants. However, we are not able to see any of the thoughts or desires of the other characters throughout the story. This limited viewpoint is vital to the experience of the story. When her family is later being killed in the woods out of her sight, we experience the same confusing emotions as the grandmother, not wanting to believe that these horrible acts are ... ... middle of paper ... ...a society with imperfect justice. In many ways, The Misfit reminds one of John Milton’s Lucifier in Paradise Lost. A devout Catholic, Flannery O’Connor likely had this character in mind when writing her villain in this story. Milton’s Lucifer too is intelligent and feels betrayed by his God. It is his flawed sense of justice that causes him to strive to do only the opposite of God’s law – to let the bad be his good. This seems very similar to The Misfit. The Misfit delivers pain to the world because the world delivered pain to him. That is all he could ever expect from life, and he wants to teach everyone else the same lesson. Doing so does not bring him pleasure, it does not make him happy, and it does not make up for the suffering he has already received. It only alleviates a kind of pressure, briefly. It reassures him that no other world is possible.
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 characterize the Misfit with a heart of gold, but the mind of a villain. This characterization is true because somewhere along the line he was wrongly accused of murdering his father and was brutally punished and he was mistreated by the justice system. The Misfit knows he was innocent and neither Jesus nor the justice system could rid him of the punish he received. It’s not because he is an evil person, he says himself “I never was a bad boy that I remember of… but somewhere along the line I done something wrong and got sent to the penitentiary. I was buried alive” (1314). The Misfit states he was never the worst person, but he also says himself that he was never good either, so the reason behind the Misfit’s homicidal condition is not because he is an evil person but due to his distrust in Jesus Christ and the justice system.
The Grandmother’s deviousness and immorality is evident in the beginning of the story. While reading the newspaper article about the Misfit, the Grandmother brings it to Bailey’s attention. In Short Story Criticism, Mary Jane Schenck writes “For Bailey, the newspaper story is not important or meaningful, and for the Grandmother it does not represent a real threat but is part of a ploy to get her own way” (Schenck 220). “A Good Man is Hard to Find” begins with an innocent road trip, however, due to coercion by the Grandmother; it soon turns into a fatal nightmare. In Short Story Criticism, Martha Stephens writes “… it is true that in a trivial sense everything that happens is the Grandmother’s fault…” She continues with “It is in the conscious of the Grandmother that we continue to experience the action of the story…” (Stephens 196).
Although the misfit is commonly portrayed as evil or mental, he can be also presented as an ironic Jesus. In a way the misfit can be seen as a savior to the unbalanced world, in this book, where there is no good person to find. He even compares himself to Jesus, “The Misfit said as if he agreed.
Grandmothers are known to be loving, sweet and caring old women, not this grandma. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” the grandmother is a very manipulative old woman. Her cynical ways of manipulation caused her family to go through a lot of torture within only a few hours. Throughout the story she manipulates her own son, Bailey, her grandchildren, John Wesley and June Star, and even a criminal who escaped from the penitentiary. Not all old women are nice; it just so happens that this one was cynical.
In addition to demonstrating the value of tolerance, the Grandmother is the first character who serves as a caveat for the public in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. Throughout the story, the Grandmother attempts to present herself as the archetypical “good”, spiritual old woman. Ironically, she is a particularly repugnant human being. She is set in her archaic mentalities, pretentious, and selfish. In the beginning, her egotism becomes evident when she rejects her family’s desires to go to Florida and insists on traveling to Tennessee, where she could, “visit some of her connections” (O’ Connor 61). Irving Malin, professor and literary critic, also notes that the Grandmother is an unpleasant because she, “…forces her family to obey her… [and] she sees them as an extension of herself…” (Bloom 21). Although she processes a blatant disregard for others, she still considers herself highly. Furthermore, the Grandmother is als...
“In A Good Man Is Hard To find” the Grandmother is portrayed as a main character that symbolizes a savior. O’Connor portrays the Grandmother as a savior with grace, who is
A Good Man is Hard to Find is a short story about each person’s differing moral codes-good and bad- and the effect that they have on a person’s daily actions and decisions. This is a classic story of good versus evil. The main theme of the story is the true definition of a “good man”. Each person has his or her own definition, but which one is correct? Another theme in the story is grace. The grandmother shows the Misfit grace, regardless of his moral code. Almost everything in this story is a symbol. All of these symbols come together to create a very ominous tone. There is a very clear imagery of death throughout the story. There is also very obvious foreshadowing throughout the story that points towards death in the conclusion. The grandmother
However, in this story it is a random violence that counteracts the hopes of redemption and grace (O’Connor 938). The Misfit does not appear in the story till the end leaving the beginning of the story to seem positive and humorous. O’Connor then uses the Misfit as a contrast to the beginning of the story and the grandmother with his belief that “Jesus [had] thrown everything off balance”(A Good Man). The Misfit becomes an obvious stubbornness with his relentless non acceptance of Christ and grace. His stubborn violence is a symbol for the actions of the unmoral human race and how relentless some people are to harm others. The selfish nature of humanity is highlighted through the Misfit and how it's our nature to recoil from the opportunity of grace (A Good Man). After the Misfit kills the grandmother, his lack of remorse is seen when he says to take her off to where her family had been thrown (O’Connor 950). Showing that one rather keep committing sin than have to rethink and repent from the wrong they have
The grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is extremely dishonest and manipulative. Anything that goes against what the grandmother wants, she will try her best to make it go the way she wants. The story
The grandmother is the central character in the story "A good man is hard to find," by Flannery O'Connor. The grandmother is a manipulative, deceitful, and self-serving woman who lives in the past. She doesn't value her life as it is, but glorifies what it was like long ago when she saw life through rose-colored glasses. She is pre-scented by O'Connor as being a prim and proper lady dressed in a suit, hat, and white cotton gloves. This woman will do whatever it takes to get what she wants and she doesn't let anyone else's feelings stand in her way. She tries to justify her demands by convincing herself and her family that her way is not only the best way, but the only way. The grandmother is determined to change her family's vacation destination as she tries to manipulate her son into going to Tennessee instead of Florida. The grandmother says that "she couldn't answer to her conscience if she took the children in a direction where there was a convict on the loose." The children, they tell her "stay at home if you don't want to go." The grandmother then decides that she will have to go along after all, but she is already working on her own agenda. The grandmother is very deceitful, and she manages to sneak the cat in the car with her. She decides that she would like to visit an old plantation and begins her pursuit of convincing Bailey to agree to it. She describes the old house for the children adding mysterious details to pique their curiosity. "There was a secret panel in this house," she states cunningly knowing it is a lie. The grandmother always stretches the truth as much as possible. She not only lies to her family, but to herself as well. The grandmother doesn't live in the present, but in the past. She dresses in a suit to go on vacation. She states, "in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady." She constantly tries to tell everyone what they should or should not do. She informs the children that they do not have good manners and that "children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else." when she was a child.
In the short story, 'A Good Man is Hard to Find', the main character is the grandmother. Flannery O'Connor, the author, lets the reader find out who the grandmother is by her conversations and reactions to the other characters in the story. The grandmother is the most important character in the story because she has a main role in the stories principal action. This little old lady is the protagonist in this piece. We learn more about her from her direct conversation with the son, Bailey, her grandchildren, June Star and John Wesley, and the Misfit killer. Through these conversations, we know that she is a lady raised from a traditional background. In the story, her attitude changes more than once to accommodate the surroundings that she is in. With the data provided, we can tell that the grandmother goes from not wanting to go to Florida, to anxious to go, and in the end, I felt as if she went off the deep end. All of the sudden, the only thing she really concentrates on is Jesus and her not being killed.
Since the story was written in the third person objective, it is easier for the reader to remain objective while analyzing the story. If we one were to hear the story from on of the character’s point of view, the retelling of the story would be clouded with various em...
His murders may not be as planned out and meditated as Montresor but still as horrendous. At the start of the story we are introduced to a family. The family it is taking a trip when all of a sudden they get into a car accident. Earlier on in the story they foreshadowed in talking about the Misfit and all the horrible things he was doing. When they get into this car accident who should show up but the Misfit himself. “He had on blue jeans that were too tight for him and was holding a black hat and a gun.” (O’Connor 145) The family is hoping someone was stopping to help them but right away they could infer that this man was not there to help. He approaches them with his gun in his hand, the Misfit does not even pause for a second to show sympathy to this family who he does not know. When the Misfit approaches the Grandmother recognizes him, “you’re the misfit!” she said. “I recognized you at once.” The Misfit then gives a smug response,“Yes’m” the man said, smiling slightly as if she were pleased in spite of himself to be known” (O’Connor 145) He is happy to be known as the Misfit, in fact that is the name he gave himself. He doesn’t want to “fit in” he would rather be on the outside. He wants to think that because he is an outsider all the evil things he does is justified. Right before he kills the Grandmother she tries to get him to talk, he then explains a little about his life, “I call
The Misfit; is the epitome of the Godless man in a Godless society. He is a killer who is also raised without spirituality as the old woman's children. He is the representative of evil.
In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the Misfit is openly evil. Even though he kills people he doesn’t view himself as an evil person. When the Misfit comes across the family, the Misfit’s look as if he wants to help the family after their car accident. But his demeanor changes once the grandmother recognize him and call him the Misfit. While he in the Grandma conversate the rest of the family is murdered. After the Misfit has the entire family murdered, he then kills the Grandma after she tells him he could be her son and touches his shoulder. He shows little pity for what he has done.