Good Man Is Hard To Find Grandmother

Analysis of the grandmother: The contributing factor
I decided to do my character analysis on the grandmother from the short story ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find.’ The story starts off as a family getting ready for their road trip to Florida. The main characters are the grandmother (whose name is never said in the story), the mother, Bailey, June Star and John Westley. The Grandmother wants to go to Tennessee but everyone wants to go to Florida. Even though they tell the grandmother she doesn’t have to go she still decides to join them. The trip soon takes a turn for the worse when they run into The Misfit a psychopath on the run from the cops. The grandmother is the backbone of the story to me since so many things she did lead to the tragic ending. The grandmother was very Manipulative, selfish and ignorant and because of these traits she cost her family their lives.
From the very beginning of the story we see the grandmother’s manipulative ways as she tells the children’s mother “You ough to take them somewhere else for a change so they can see different parts of the world and be abroad. They never have been to east Tennessee.(267)”
Even though they told the grandmother she didn’t have to go she still felt the need to go on about how the Misfit might be there and what we they do if the ran into him. Basically trying to use the story about the Misfit to scare them into going to Tennessee instead.
Selfishness was clear when the grandmother decided to bring her cat knowing her family wouldn’t want her too. The fact that she brought the cat and didn’t tell anyone was bad but then she hid the cat as if the car wanted to be held in a basket for hours was ridiculous. In that situation she was only thinking about what she wanted in that situation. That was one of the most contributing factors to the ending since the cat jumping on Bailey caused them to crash. If the grandmother had just told the family, the cat could have probably sat on someone’s lap and they would have known it was in the car and wouldn’t have been so frighten as to crash. With them crashing they ended up having the encounter with the Misfit.
When the Misfit first comes in to the story its as if he might could help them that quickly is shown to be wrong as he pulls out his gun.
The grandmother thought the Misfit looked familiar and when she finally recognized who exactly he was she yelled to him “You’re the Misfit! I recognize you at once! (263)” This showed how ignorant or maybe just naïve the grandmother was most people would not say they knew who he was because it might be the little hope they have of making it out the situation alive. Even after the Misfit takes Bailey and John in the woods and gun shots are heard the grandmother still naively tries to reason with the Misfit saying “I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people! (263) Her words have no effect on the Misfit and when she touched his shoulder it sent him over the edge and he shot
her.
In conclusion the grandmother’s actions didn’t only cause the death of her family but her own. In a twisted ending the grandmothers cat rubs up against the Misfit as he talks about the grandmother to his friends. The families ending came from a series of actions from the Grandmother even if the grandmother hadn’t brought the cat they still might have ended the same since she lied about the taped door. It’s as if every move the grandmother made was to get them their even though that wasn’t what she was trying to do it happened. Which is why she she is the center of the story because if it wasn’t for her the family might have lived and never seen the misfit instead of in the news papers.