A Good Man Is Hard To Find Literary Analysis

Lit Analysis #7 on "A Good Man is Hard to Find”
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
Find" gives great importance to being a good lady, and her ideas about how people in society should be acting, she really shows the opposite.
While the family is preparing to go on this vacation, all the grandmother starts to do is complain about how her family should not go to Florida because of a criminal on the loose.
“I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that loose in it. I couldn't answer to my conscience if I did " (O’Connor). The grandmother had this sense of urgency to keep her family safe no matter what, but is this really the case? I think a small side of her is really trying to use this misfit to her advantage to go to Tennessee and not go to Florida. She heard of bad news in the area and did not feel right about having her loved ones go into the area where there was a criminal, so she plays it off as if she is a concerned loving grandmother. She takes advantage of this common idea that mothers are the prime caretakers and fathers do not pay as much attention to safety, as her son kept telling her to stop worrying. “Women were considered domestic caregivers, with sole responsibility for the home and child rearing” (Holt). So, it was just in her nature to care and want what is best for her and her
family.
Many times in the story we learn how important it is to the grandmother to be know as a lady. O’Connor wrote “But the grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a 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 once that she was a lady” (O’Connor). It seems that dressing proper not only makes her feel good, but she thinks it will will make people take her more serious. It is in part a matter of appearances, of looking "nice" and "respectable." It's also a matter of manners and of being respectful. So mainly for the grandmother being a lady is tied to the way things were in the past. Her mind is a mind of the old south.
Then, as they were driving they drive past a little black boy. The grandmother refers to him as if he is a once in a lifetime sight by saying “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!” she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack. “Wouldn’t that make a picture, now?” (O’Connor) During the trip, it must be past the time of segregation, yet she is still acting like it is a thing. The grandmother is quite rude about the black boy, using different names to describe him as well. I guess we could say she is just stick in her old way, afraid of change. According to Time Standard, Change is a very difficult thing for older people. There is security in doing the same things over and over again (Tracey Barnes Priestley 2011). Always referring back to her time which makes her feel most comfortable.
The grandmother wanted respect from the children, going on about how they would not talk like that to their elders like that back in the day. “In my time, said the grandmother, folding her thin veined fingers, “children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then” (O’Connor). This is one thing I would agree with the grandmother, kids in today's society do not respect their elders. I see it daily, the way children speak to their parents and grandparents is disgusting. The fact is that children just are not afraid of their elders anymore and the elders do not put their foot down when needed. According to Science Nordic, Sven Morch who specializes in youth studies says children only relate to their friendships which is often a reproduction of themselves causing them to think they can treat elders the same (Rasmus Karkov 2012). They have no boundaries which is becoming a huge issue.
Lastly, the way the grandmother encounters the misfit she continuously tries to tell him he is a good man. For example, when she says “I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people!” (O’Connor). This brings us back to how she is a conniving person who really only cares for herself and then barely her son. She never once tried to save anyone else's life only her own. She starts off by saying “You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you?” (O’Connor) This selfish act of hers keeps up while her family is being killed in the woods behind her. This is ridiculous, she is supposed to be a “good” Christian women but all she does is care for herself. So it seems that she is more like the misfit than anyone else, a confused selfish individual.
In the end, the grandmother is rude, selfish and not a lady. Just think back on all the things she does that benefit herself, like trying to go to Tennessee instead of Florida, bringing the cat when she was not allowed, and only trying to save her own life. If she truly was a lady she would not have been so rude and racist towards the young black boy and would of cared about her family more. Sadly, the grandmother is just stuck in her old southern ways, which kills her and her family in the end.