The first facade that the Grandmother tries to portray of herself is when she expressed how important it was for her to dress up during the road trip so that “anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once she was a lady”, with this statement one can see that the Grandmother is morally and spiritually disconnected. On the way to Florida Grandmother's character slowly unravels as she criticizes the “little packaninny” they saw standing outside with no pants on, stating that the “little niggers in the country don't have things like we do” suggesting that they were better off than most people which is contradictory to what most Christians believe(Bedford/St. Martin's 141). The Grandmother nags her son into taking them to visit an old plantation…
Right from the beginning, the reader can see the first characteristic, entitlement; appear in the Grandmother’s personality by her behaviors. The story starts with the family preparing for a vacation to Florida. The Grandmother wants to go to Tennessee and feels she is entitled to do so. However, she can’t convince any of the family members, especially her son Bailey. The day of the trip, Bailey tells his mother that she cannot take the cat with her in the car. The Grandmother feels she is entitled to do what she wants and bring her pet so she stores the cat in a basket with a newspaper on top and puts it in the back of the car before anyone else gets in. This feeling of entitlement leads to the Grandmother’s death at the end of the short story. She accidently scares the cat who escapes the basket and jumps onto Bailey’s neck. He drives the car into a ditch where later, the Misfit and his friends appear. The Grandmother’s feelings of entitlement get herself and her family murdered.…
In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, multiple themes are conveyed through her use of foreshadowing and irony as well as a consistent point of view. The story centers around the major conflict between the Misfit and the grandmother along with her family. This story can be viewed in many ways because of the unusually large number of themes used in this story ranging from religion to society and class. Foreshadowing can be found throughout the story leading up to the brutal execution of the family beginning with the grandmother’s comment on her elaborate outfit for the road trip to the “hearse-like” (373) vehicle the Misfit drove. O’Connor’s clever use of irony stands out in this short story. She uses a wide range of irony to get across her message. Third person point of view was used for the short story. The point of view was limited because the reader is informed of only the grandmother’s…
The grandmother had the capacity to be a good woman; she attained grace, at gunpoint, and was able to see who she truly was, and her true lack of superiority. Seeing The Misfit vulnerable and confused when he cries out,” if I had been there I would of known and I wouldn’t be like I am now”, the grandmother was able to clearly see that she and The Misfit are two of the same (554); they are both sinners who will suffer the ultimate punishment regardless of their moral standings. The grandmother attains truth that they are both humans who make mistakes and that she is no better than a criminal. Right before she dies, she forgives and then accepts The Misfit as one of her own –they are equals. The Misfit sees the clarity and grace that the grandmother receives through her redemption which strikes him and brings about a change of heart. “Without his glasses,” as a shield, we are able to see,” The Misfit’s eyes were red-rimmed,” as though he was fighting back the sentiments that were arising from the grandmother’s touch (554); The Misfit displays compassion, maybe even regret for his crime. The moment the grandmother reached God’s grace and cried out,” why you’re one of my babies. You are one of my own,” she is showing that she has found the ability to see others with kindness and understanding (554). The final words, ”it’s no real…
The grandmother frequently passed judgement on to others throughout the story, especially towards the misfit. She judges the lack of goodness in the world and says racist comments but believes she is a “lady”. During the story the grandmother was dishonest to her family about the secret panel and does not tell them how she mistook the location ultimately leading them to their death. When the grandmother’s family is taken away to be murdered she doesn’t beg him to spare them but pleads for her own life. The grandmother repeated, “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?”…
Flannery O’Connor’s story about “A Good Man is Hard to Find” can come off to others as a lesson or you can even interpret it in another way. Grandma and her family are on there way to florida but taking one wrong turn might just lead them to a group of bandits that will cause them their lives. The fate of the family was already picked but grandma wanted make the misfit change his mind telling him he's a good man but what is a good man really? “Being a good person doesn't depend on your religion, your race, your skin color or your culture. It depends on how good is your heart and how good you treat others” Unknown.…
A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor is a short story that depicts a family road trip to Florida that ends in an abysmal tragedy when they meet the Misfit, a remorseless convict who has escaped from prison. In the beginning, the Grandmother is obsessed with everything worldly and superficial. She is completely focused on herself in relation to how others think of her. Towards the end of the story, the grandmother finds herself in ominous dialogue with The Misfit. In the story, The Misfit represents a quasi-final judgment. He does this by acting like a mirror. He lets whatever The Grandmother says bounce right off him. He never agrees nor disagrees with the grandmother, and in the end, he is the one who kills her. At the end of the story, before the Grandmother meets her fate, she has a moment of redemption. She finally distinguishes The Misfit for who he really is, not a psychopathic killer on the loose; but a person just like herself. The Misfit, being a man who is not created from social class; he is a simple human being just like the grandmother. At this point she sees herself in relation to everyone else. She finally realizes that she is not made by her class. Society makes the class, and she just fits into it. She shows this by claiming that The Misfit could be one of her own children. This story is meant to be interpreted as a parable, whereby O'Connor made skilful use of symbolism to bring about messages such as the social-superiority and the lack of spiritual faith that exist amongst common people; and the grace in humans is exposed, only when facing adverse and fatal circumstances.…
As a child, our parents teach us values and principles. Most of the time the values they teach have been handed down through their families and changing them slightly to adapt to the time and culture. What if parent 's don 't teach their kids ethical values? What if over the years, people have decided that certain principles has become obsolete? A case in point is the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O 'Conner. This story is a prime example of how people 's morals change throughout history. I propose that in order for us to get a better understanding of this story we need to analyze the theme of the story, evaluate the nature of the grandmother, and explore what the grandmother 's hat represents.…
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” you meet a family, but the member of the family that sticks out is the grandmother. She says many things that makes one wonder what is going on in her head. For example, when she says “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O'Connor). This is a one of the first sentences from the reading “A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor. When reading this sentence, it makes one wonder; why does the grandmother care so much about being know as a lady? The story about a family of five going on vacation and they bring their “well” mannered grandmother, who just seems very stuck in her ways. When it comes to her ways she thinks they are the “good” ways, but are they really? Even though, the grandmother in "A Good Man is Hard to…
The grandmother in the story is described as an idiosyncratic and demanding character. Those traits are the opposite of what people imagine a grandmother to be. A grandmother is someone who is caring, believes in family, and would do anything for her family. Bailey, the son of the grandmother, decides to take the family on a road trip to Florida bringing his wife, their three children, and of course the grandmother.The grandmother insists on not going due to the fact there is a person known as the Misfit, who is a criminal where she read in the paper he is headed to Florida. The grandmother tries to convince Bailey to reconsider the trip to Florida and to think of what is best for the…
The Flannery O’Connor short story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” was an amazing story. Ms. O’Connor wrote the short story in 1955 and even in today culture the story is still being analyzed as one of the most powerful and best seller short story in today society. The story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” begins with an family of six from Atlanta, Georgia in the mid-1950. The family of six foundation started with the Grandmother (the husband mother), Bailey (the husband), the wife, the infant baby (girl), John Wesley (the oldest boy) and June Star (the second oldest girl). Bailey and his wife planned a trip to Florida for a family vacation. The grandmother wasn’t happy about the trip to Florida because she wanted the family to go to East Tennessee…
In the story the author deal with the idea of “good” in different ways trying to show that only, because of being a “good man” doesn’t mean to be “moral” person. She represents most of these ideas by the character of the grandmother, who had, with the Misfit, a big role in the story becoming the two of them the major characters of the story. The grandmother represents a woman that thinks she is morally higher, she never thinks she can be wrong doesn’t seeing her hypocrisy and selfishness, until the point that she lies to her family about the location of a place, or lying to a children about a panel. For the grandmother a person that is a “good man” is that one that has the same thoughts as her, for example for the grandmother the Misfit a “good man” because she thinks that man couldn’t shoot a lady. The role of the lady is important because it appears since the beginning to the end of the story, just in the first pages of the story when the author shows what the grandmother wears for the journey: “…, but the grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at one that she was a lady.”…
A Good Man Is Hard to Find This story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor (1953), is an emotional, moral and spiritual rollercoaster. Grandma is living with her son Bailey his wife and their three children. She just wants her opinion to be heard and validated concerning the family’s safety on the impending vacation.…
Throughout, the story we see the grandmother being manipulative, deceitful, and selfish. Aruther Breatha, the author of the article “O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find” even compares the grandmother morally and philosophically to the serial-killing Misfit (Breatha 246). The grandmother is seen being manipulative when she is trying to change her son Baily’s mind about going to Florida, so she can go to Tennessee. She is described as “seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind” (O’Connor 364). She even tries to make Baily feel bad about taking his children in the direction where a criminal is a loose (O’ Connor 364). She has no care, for what the family as a whole want to do, and is only concerned, with what she wants to do, and where she wants to go on vacation. When all her attempts to stop the family from going to Florida fail, she starts to become deceitful. The first of her deceitful action is bring the cat along even though Baily said not to so, then when the family is on the road the grandmother want to stop at an old plantation she used to visit as a child. Baily does not want to stop so she lies and tell the children that “There was a secret panel in this house” (O’Connor 368), and that it was filled with silver. This of course drives the children to bug, Baily, and the grandmother get what she wants. Once, the family turns down…
In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, A Good Man Is Hard To Find, she narrates a trip taken by a family of six to the sunshine state of Florida. From the beginning we can tell that the grandmother does not want to go because a criminal had escaped prison. Throughout the short story we follow the road trip right up to when the family has a car accident and they find themselves face to face with The Misfit. By the end of the story the family is murdered, however we learn that The Misfit knows who God is, but no longer believes. In this essay I will provide the reader with how we can relate to The Misfit, and the connection O’Connor had to this character.…