Divinity In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Maciej Szwoch
Sandra Beuchamp
3/8/2016
Com 102
A Good Believer is Hard to Find

Religion is a topic that has been debated by man since the beginning of time. Questions such as “Is there a god” or “Why did god make the world this way” have been pondered, and argued to no end, producing little to no results. Mankind’s hunger for knowledge will never be satisfied, leading to conflict. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find “, by Flannery O’ Connor, the author uses the grandma to portray the struggle of mankind to understand divinity. One way the author uses the grandmother to show mankind's struggle to understand divinity is with prejudice. The grandma believes herself to be a devout believer in Catholicism, however, nothing lies farther from the truth.
For example, while driving with the family, the grandma spots a little black boy standing on the corner. Upon spotting him, the grandma states “Little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do” (187). In contrast the Catholic belief is to accept all with compassion. What the grandma said, portrayed a snapshot of her true beliefs. In the bible, it says ”God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart." (New American Standard Bible). The grandma’s actions do not reflect her alleged beliefs as she simply looks at the boys outer appearance, and not what lies within. The grandma could have asked the family to pull over, offering him some clothing or money, but instead she judged him based on stereotypical logic. The grandmother is oblivious to the fact that she is not following her teachings.
Her blatant disregard of the bible's lessons shows mankind's struggle to understand divinity.
Furthermore, those who the grandma deems as a “Good man” do not possess qualities of one. The grandmother's values originate from her spiritualistic teachings, and she believes herself to be a good person because she goes to church and prays often. However the grandmother lies and manipulates her family in self interest showing that she is not as pious as she believes. The grandma also deems Red Sammy Butts as a good man. Nonetheless, in the story, Butts does nothing worthy of being deemed remarkable. If anything Butts is depicted as an awful person. For example, Butts has a monkey chained to a tree, who runs away from people at sight. From the monkey's reaction, it is probable that the monkey is abused on a regular basis and for this reason avoids other human beings. Moreover, even Sammy's wife does not believe he is a good man. In the short story, it says “It isn't a soul in this green world of God's that you can trust, she said. And I don't count nobody out of that, not nobody, she repeated, looking at Red Sammy”(O'Connor 189). Nobody knows Sammy better than his
wife, and she of all people does not trust Sammy. The grandmothers assumption that Red Sammy Butt's is a good person , shows grandmother's misconception of what is good and what is bad. The final person the Grandma deems as trustworthy, is the Misfit. The Misfit in no way has traits of a decent man. The Misfit confessed to killing others, but the grandmother still insisted that he was a good man. Even after The Misfit's Henchmen killed Bailey and his son, the grandmother still stated that the Misfit is a noble man. The grandmother stated, “Jesus! The old lady cried. You've got good blood!” (O'Connor 194). If the grandmother is willing to believe that the Misfit can be a good man, then something is clearly wrong with the set of values the grandmother obtains from her religion. One can argue that the grandmother simply feared for her life, and said that to avoid being shot, however in the story the grandmother was in a state of shock. The grandmother's accident and death of family members tranquilized her in a way that allowed her to converse with the Misfit. In an academic journal, the author stated, “Though continuing to proselytize, she gradually loses her hold on the temporal world (Nester). The grandmother's lost grasp of reality indicates that she was speaking from the heart while talking to The Misfit and truly believed he was a good man deep down inside. The fact that the grandmother believed Herself, Red Sammy Butts, and The Misfit were all good people despite their apparent corrupt tendencies shows the grandmother's inability to judge between good and evil. Since the grandmother's values originate from the Bible, the grandmother shows humanities lack of understanding divinity.
The final way the grandmother shows humankind's struggle to understand divinity is when she has an epiphany at the end. At the end of the novel the grandmother stated “Maybe he didn't raise the dead” (O'Connor 195). The grandmother ultimately realized that maybe the bible's teachings were meant to teach concepts, and not meant to be taken literally. It took the grandmother her entire life, as well as trauma from the loss of her family to finally understand this lesson. She struggled to understand divinity from when she was a child, an adult, and finally as a senior only eventually learning it seconds from her death. Understanding what had just happened, The Misfit states “She would have been a good woman... if it had been somebody to shoot her every minute of her life” (O'Connor 196) The grandmother had finally began to practice what she preached but it was too late. The grandmothers lifelong battle to reach her enlightenment shows mankind's struggle to understand divinity. The author used the grandmothers prejudice, false values, and final realization to portray her frustration with society.
The author was frustrated with arrogant people belittling others due to their belief of self importance, and showed it by the way she characterized the grandmother. Going to church and praying does not make a person a true believer. It may take years, decades, or even a lifetime, but the struggle to understand divinity is a long and tedious one.

O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man Is Hard To Find." Literature Approaches to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. Ed. Robert Diyanni. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2004. 186-96. Print.
Nester, Nancy L. "O'connor's A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND." Explicator 64.2 (2006): 125-127. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Mar. 2016.
New American Standard Bible. La Habra, CA: Foundation Publications, for the Lockman Foundation, 1971.
Print.