The Misfit And The Grandmother Analysis

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
neighborhood once when she was a young lady" leads to the demise of the whole family when they get in a car accident while driving down the dirt driveway. Before she realizes that the plantation is actually not in Georgia but in Tennessee, she remembers "the times when there were no paved roads and thirty miles was a day's journey," imagining the beautiful scene she believes they will soon find. The Grandmother's eyes are bright as she listens to "The Tennessee Waltz" on the jukebox at The Tower.
As Bailey makes a single effort to argue with The Misfit before he is led into the woods to be killed, his eyes are described as "blue and intense." After they hear the gunshots that signal the deaths of Bailey and John Wesley, The Mother and June Stars' eyes are "glassy." After he kills The Grandmother and removes his glasses, "The Misfit's eyes were red-rimmed and pale and defenseless-looking." Racism is a minor theme in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find:" The Grandmother reveals her racism when she comments on the child the family observes out the window: "Little niggers in the country don't have things like we do," calling him a "cute little pickaninny." Though she feigns compassion for the plight of blacks, her feelings toward them are clearly racist. As in many of O'Connor's story, the sky is mentioned as an indicator of the characters' moods. Right after The Grandmother identifies The Misfit, he comments, "Don't see no sun but don't see no cloud neither," implying that their fates have not yet been
decided. But after Bailey and John Wesley have been murdered, as The Mother and June Star are being led into the woods as well, The Grandmother notices that "there was not a cloud in the sky nor any sun," and now it indicates that she has nothing from which to get her bearings: "there was nothing around her but woods." There is no hope.