Misfit Beliefs

In this paper, I will analyze a section of Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Nearing the end of the short story, there is a scene between pages 150 and 152 where the Misfit and the Grandmother exchange thoughts on their beliefs and how they questioned them. While the Misfit’s beliefs were based on rigorous examination and re-evaluation, the grandmother’s beliefs stemmed from blind faith, which, in a sense contributed to her demise at the end of the story.

Misfit’s Beliefs

In the case of the Misfit, his time in the penitentiary helped shaped his beliefs and character. He says “I forget what I done, lady. I set there and set there, trying to remember what it was I done and I ain't recalled it to this day. Oncet in a while, I would think it was coming to me, but it never come.”(Pg.150) In discussing his time at the correctional facility, he reveals that he does not know what his criminal action was. And through this logic, he forms the belief that, regardless of the crime, the punishment will not be of equal value. He equates this logic to meaning that regardless of the magnitude of a crime, “…the crime don't matter.”(Pg.150) Ultimately, this logic leads
For example, the main clash of beliefs happened when the Grandmother begs the Misfit to pray to Jesus. The Misfit then brings up the idea that, if Jesus could bring back the dead, then the Grandmother would have no reason to fear losing her and her family’s lives. Dumbfounded by this logic, the Grandmother begins to retract her argument of religion and moves towards the idea that the Misfit comes from a “…nice family”(pg.151-152) When she makes this argument, she makes it in the assumption that the Misfit would not shoot an elderly lady as she is of a higher class. However, this assumption quickly falls apart when the Misfit ends up shooting her in the chest three