The Misfit

Alice AndersonComp II/ LiteratureTue. & Thurs. 830am-1030am The Misfit. The Misfit, The Misfit, The Misfit. So many questions are raised about character called “The Misfit”. Was he born to be a killer? Was he a victim of childhood curiosity? Was he simply a good man turned bad over time? Or was his whole attitude a struggle of his true belief system? The Misfit stays on his own moral code regardless of the evil that he has committed. His morals are his own right, not by traditional standards, but by his steadfast and consistent actions. He’s an unlikely source, seeming to have not a moral fiber in his being, but demonstrates deep convictions that others in the story are not able to reveal. As deviant and depraved as The Misfit might have been, he still relied on his moral code to guide his actions. There are several parts of this story that show where The Misfit doesn’t actually take pleasure in his crimes. Was he simply a good man turned bad over time? When he first meets the family, The Misfit mentions that children make him nervous. If he is a strong, armed man and they pose no threat to him why is he so nervous? It seems to be that in his mind the children represent his own innocents, and in turn they could pose a threat to his conscience. The children make him nervous because he knows he will be taking their lives so possibly he feels like he is killing his own inner child, his innocents. Further in the story, after The Misfit had killed the grandmother, O' Connor describes The Misfit’s response to his actions: “The Misfit’s eyes were red-rimmed and pale and defenseless looking”(pg. 257). Could The Misfit has been crying or is this a sign that he was actually troubled by his course of action? The phrase “defenseless looking” implies that for a brief moment his emotional state had become very vulnerable and that he was possibly seeing the error of his ways. This is again shown at the end of the story when his cohort Bobby Lee begins to