A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

The story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is about a family who goes on a road trip. The reader is introduced to a character that first appears to be confused about life and religion but later comes across as more knowledgeable about religion and his own existence philosophies than the other characters portrayed in the essay. The characters consist of the Grandmother, the parents, the two kids, the cat, and of course the Misfit, a murderer who had escaped from jail. It comes into play when Red Sammy and the Grandmother are talking about how no one is trustworthy anymore. They both agree that a good man is hard to find these days. The interesting question that was asked is as follow; what is a good man? Characters in the story certainly have
something to say about that, but each one might offer a different perspective.
O'Connor wrote the story with a particular understanding of the ending in mind, and it's an understanding that comes from her Roman Catholic worldview. What happens to the grandmother when she reaches out to touch the Misfit is called a "moment of grace" in Catholic terminology – a special kind of gift from God, in which God suddenly fills her with almost supernatural love and understanding. That enables her to see The Misfit as a fellow suffering human being whom she is obligated to love. (Jesus commanded each person to love her fellow human beings like herself, even her enemies.) The Grandmother realizes that she does in fact love The Misfit just like one of her own children. O'Connor presents both the perception of The Misfit as a fellow human being, and the sudden but real feeling of love for him, as gifts from God. From the Catholic
worldview, the grandmother, as a human being is inclined towards evil, pettiness, and selfishness, so could never have come to feel such love without God's help. This moment of grace is hugely important in the story. The Misfit kills the Grandmother, recoiling from what seems so foreign to him, but the grandmother has already had her moment of redemption. She's grown at the moment of death more than she ever did before in her life, and dies with a peaceful smile on her face. In conclusion, the analyses of the two main characters and especially the ending scene bring to light many themes and ideas. My conclusion is that the ending was certain to happen, but one good thing came out of it, which happens to be the deliverance from sin of the Grandmother. Also, it is my conclusion that the Misfit wasn’t a bad person and my conclusion is base on the conversation between Misfit and Grandmother. He’s forcing her to think, and happening at the end of the essay. My last observation of this story is that the accident has two-fold effect. It became both a good and bad thing. It was a good thing because the Grandmother got to have the manifestation of divine that she did. Due to this accident she gained salvation even though she lost her life in the process. The bad thing is that everyone died due to this incident and I think it’s tragic when things happen because of people’s own inabilities to admit their shortcomings.