Southern Gothic

A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Flannery O’Connor was one of the most known authors for writing southern gothic short stories. Southern gothic became a style of writing in the wake of the civil war and brought up questions in society like, ‘Why is violence such a large part of the south’s culture?’ and, ‘How did the South have such a hard time picking itself up after its defeat in the war?’ Southern gothic is usually decayed, grotesque, or derelict settings and situations and had themes of ambivalent gender roles, poverty, alienation, crime or violence. The use of O’Connor’s characters shows the entertaining but subverts the expected while also bringing up issues like the civil rights movement and gender roles in the style of Southern Gothic
The Misfit is a more modern man who spends his time murdering the innocent, also known as a serial killer. The Misfit is a complicated man with what can be debated as the character with the least amount of character development, yet the most at the same time. He himself does not know if he has done what he has been told he has done. He said himself, “It was a head doctor who said what i had done was kill my daddy but I know that was a lie. My daddy died in nineteen ought nineteen of the epidemic flu and I never had a thing to do with it.” The Misfit spoke well of his father, and said himself that he called himself the misfit because he could never make what he had done wrong fit in what he had been through himself through punishment. The Misfit does not have religious beliefs, as many Jews in the Holocaust lost their faith in god, he did as well after the trauma of his father dying, and the Misfit paying the consequences for it. The Misfit is a new type of evil and makes the story unique with the rare epiphany for the villain in a story. He seemed like the stereotypical evil in the beginning of the story, but later changes to be a slightly chaotic neutral as he says, “"Some fun!" Bobby Lee said. "Shut up, Bobby Lee" The Misfit said. "It's no real pleasure in