On Flannery O’ Connor’s literary piece “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” we can find how she evokes horror in an implicit, yet harmonious way. At first the text illustrates how this family is getting ready for a road trip. And while we’re being presented these various scenarios, O’ Connor in a clever way starts teasing us with little clues regarding the character (or Characters) who will be in charge of evoking this feeling of suspense and horror. These characters are introduced in subtle parts at the beginning of the story, they don’t start having relevancy until later. When we start seeing more and more of these clues and teases, we start to realize that these individuals have more relevancy on the story. The trick is that we don’t know how…
While waiting for help to come along, the first car to arrive happens to be The Misfit and his two partners. Now in the hands of a killer the family has no chance of getting away. The Misfit orders his two partners to take Bailey and John Wesley into the woods to be killed, the rest of the family will be next. The grandmother lies on the ground in shock trying to convince The Misfit that he is a good man and would never shoot a woman. The Misfit starts to explain his life and why he does not pray as the grandmother insisted him to. The grandmother then finds a moment of sympathy in which she reaches out and calls him one of her own children. The Misfit responds by shooting the grandmother in the chest multiple times. The story comes to an end after The Misfit states “She would have been a good woman…If it had been someone there to shoot her every minute of her life”. The two main characters in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother and The Misfit share many differences although they become shockingly…
Throughout Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard To Find", hints are given to the readers that foretell what is in store, foreshadowing the grotesque ending that is to come. These insinuations of the forthcoming become coincidences later in the story when they actually do develop into reality, creating mocking irony. The names within the story can be considered foreshadowing themselves. For example, the name of the town where the family is murdered is called "Toombsboro." The word "Toombsboro" can be separated into two words: Tombs and Bury. These are words that signify death. The fact that the author chose this as a name for the town, implies the foul event that will insure later in the story. The first moment that foreshadowed the future was the article about the Misfit that the grandmother showed Bailey. She told him, "A Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida...I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it."(368) This moment sets up a major coincidence when the family later runs into the Misfit. Plus, it was an irony because the Grandmother had attempted to persuade the family not to go in the direction the Misfit was heading. Yet, unfortunately only June Star paid any attention to the comment, and the family did run into the criminal. Additionally, a less obvious evidence of foreshadowing occurred when June Star announced, "She [The Grandmother] wouldn't stay at home for a million bucks. She has to go everywhere we go"(368) This can be read as a direct foreshadowing of the order and occurrence of the grandmother's death. When the family comes across the Misfit, and each family member is taken into the forest, the reader wonders why every time Bobby Lee and Hiram return without the family member. Eventually, one realizes they have all been killed. So, June Star's comment that the grandmother goes everywhere the family goes can be read as a signal that she will meet the same end that they did. Plus,…
In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” one can tell that Flannery O’Connor is a dark person, and may even question if she is a Christian or not. In this short story, some people may think Flannery O’Connor may not be a Christian because of The Misfit character. Despite The Misfit character, I believe Flannery O’Conner is Christian and she shows it in several places throughout the short story through several characters.…
The tragic heroes and narcissists in the short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor are the Grandmother and the Misfit. However, the focus is on the Grandmother and how she is in the grandiosity phase of being a tragic hero. There are personality characteristics associated with this phase, some of which the Grandmother has. She feels entitlement to get and do what she wants. In the story she takes her pet cat with her on the trip even though Bailey tells her not to. The Grandmother is a judgmental person. She judges other people based on petty things like clothes or first impressions. Finally, the Grandmother’s omniscience personality gets her killed.…
Flannery O’Connor gives you insight to the end of her story by using foreshadowing. The foreshadowing in "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" of the Grandmother's dress, making the trip to Florida towards a killer, O’Connor stating that, "In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was lady" and the graveyard are just a few things that allow you to predict the violence caused in the end by The Misfit. In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” there are strong symbols and images that allow you to predict the inevitable events caused by The Misfit. The foreshadowing is just enough to where it is noticeable when read closely, but does not ruin the end of the story or take away the reader’s…
Grace, an important theme to O'Connor, is given to both The Grandmother and The Misfit, neither of whom is particularly deserving. As she realizes what is happening, The Grandmother begins to beg The Misfit to pray so that Jesus will help him. Right before The Misfit kills her, The Grandmother calls him one of her own children, recognizing him as a fellow human capable of being saved by God's Grace. Even though he murders her, the Misfit is implied to have achieved some level of Grace as well when he ends the story by saying, "It's no real pleasure in life." Earlier in the story, he claimed the only pleasure in life was meanness. The glorification of the past is prevalent in this story through the character of The Grandmother, who expresses nostalgia for the way things used to be in the South. Her mistake about the "old plantation that she had visited in this…
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.…
The Misfit replies to her outburst by shooting her three times in the chest, bringing the long awaited tragedy, the death of the grandmother, to a reality. Flannery O'Connor uses strong imagery and symbolism to foreshadow the tragic events that occur at the end of "A Good Man is Hard to Find. " She first gives her readers a taste of the ending by informing them of the evil ways of the mass murderer, the Misfit. She then proceeds to foreshadow many upcoming events through an epigraph, characterization, attention to details, sequence of events, and dialogue. But although informative in her writing, O'Connor remains careful not to give away the surprise ending too soon.…
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.…
In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" is The Misfit is uneducated and was raised in the backwoods. He got into a lot of mischief when he was young as indicated by his father's comments. On page 439 paragraph 100 his father said he was a "different breed of dog from the others". You get the idea The Misfit is mentally unstable when he said in paragraph 111, ". . . along the way I did something wrong and they sent me to the penitentiary. I was buried alive." He seemingly ignores Grandma's question as to why he was sent to prison and continues to describe the way he felt in his cell. He then answers Grandma's question and says the psychologist told him he killed his father. He denied that fact because he said is father died of the flu epidemic in "nineteen ought nineteen". Another indicator of his mental instability in the story is when he talks about Jesus raising the dead and "thown" everything off balance. He was also angry because he was not present when the dead were…
From the very beginning of Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," the sheer evil conveyed by the Misfit becomes apparent.…
The Misfit quickly acknowledged the grandmother did not want to help change his life, instead, she was looking for a way to escape from him shooting her. The Misfit explained to his men “’she would of been a good woman…if it had been someone there to shoot her every minute of her life’” (493). As the Misfit shot the grandmother, she fell back with her eyes open, staring at the cloudless sky, smiling. One by one Bailey, the Grandmother, and the Misfit rule out why there are no “good” men in the story through their behavior foreshadowing their…
When Misfit was in prison, he had this continue thought in this mind that he is not fairly treated. Which changed his definition of good. So, what is bad for other is good for him. Also when he has fired three bullets in the grandmother’s chest, he says she might have been “a good woman… if it had been somebody to shoot her every minute of her life.” (O’Conner 11). Thought, when the grandmother touches him in the end, it was a moment of grace for her, which comes to her through Misfit. The gesture of grandmother and her words to misfit “you are one of my babies” were completely misunderstood by the Misfit and he shot her. By killing her Misfit believes he is killing the most presumption of grandmother that he is any child of her. Because for Misfit being a child means accept anything without questioning it. When grandmother touched her, he thinks that she is trying to be sympathetic to him, but when she says “you are one of my babies” Misfit thinks that she is also talking for the society and telling him to understand everything without question (Hendricks 207).…
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner, the characters of the Grandmother and the Misfit are juxtaposed in order to show contrast in the ways that a person can be evil. In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the Grandmother is highly materialistic and superficial and speaks of the Misfit, an escaped convicted killer headed for Florida, which is the same state that they are going to for their vacation. She hides her beloved cat in the car and dresses in her Sunday best so that even if she dies, people will know she died “a lady” (O’Connor, Flannery). Ironically enough the cat jumps out of the basket and jumps onto her son Bailey’s neck, causing an accident. When the Grandmother signals for help, she ironically enough signals the Misfit’s car and exclaims that she recognizes him. While the Misfit’s accomplices kill the family, the Misfit himself shoots the Grandmother after she refers to how he should believe in Jesus—making him extremely angry since he dislikes Jesus. While the Grandmother portrayed the image of the perfect Southern Christian lady, she was lying to herself and living out the image for the sake of reputation. The Grandmother’s dishonesty and materialistic ways are shown in her hiding the cat in the car and the importance she gives to what she is wearing and how people view her, ironically resulting in her death in her “Sunday best” (O’Connor, Flannery). The Misfit is spiritually…