The Misfit In A Good Man Is Hard To Find
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is a short story that was published in 1955 by Flannery O’Connor. It is one of the most famous examples of Southern Gothic literature. Southern Gothic Literature is a type of writing that includes deeply flawed, disturbing or abnormal characters. In “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” we see these characteristics in the main characters, The Misfit and the grandmother. What really caught my attention is how Flannery O’Connor depicts these characters. The Misfit and the grandmother are similar in many ways. Throughout this research I will be analyzing the character of the grandmother, The Misfit, and comparing them both.
Looking at the character of the grandmother, which is the central character of the story, we can see …show more content…
that she's not so “noble” after all. She considers herself morally superior to others because she's a “lady”. We get a picture in our minds of the grandmother when O’Connor describes what she wears on the road trip.
...the grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet (O’Connor, 35).
We can see from this quote about how she is dressed that she is indeed a “lady”. The following line really gives it away. It states, “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O’Connor, 35). From this line one can see that there's no doubt she considers herself a lady; or does she see herself as too good to wear regular clothes like the children's mother in the story? The children's mother wore slacks and a green kerchief on her head... but she is also a lady. That just goes to show how the grandmother sees herself as morally superior to others. This line also suggest a comical instance of foreshadowing by saying “ In case of an accident...” We see later on in the story how the family actually got into an accident.
The grandmother is also very judgmental of others and manipulates others so she can get her way. We see this in the first paragraph of the story where she tries to scare her son to go somewhere she wants to go, which is Tennessee, by saying a criminal is loose in Florida. "Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it” (O’Connor, 34). This quote can be perceived in many ways, but I believe she doesn't care about the children. She doesn’t really seem scared to come across The Misfit. The grandmother is just trying to change her son's mind and get her way. In the second paragraph, we see how the grandmother criticizes the children's mother for not letting them go somewhere different than Florida and letting them “be broad” as she puts it. The grandmother never turns her critical eye on herself. The grandmother seems to think she's a “lady” and a “lady” can do no wrong. She never sees her own dishonesty, selfishness, and hypocrisy. We see these characteristics in the grandmother throughout the entire story. We see her selfishness when she sneaks her cat, Pitty Sing, into the car on the road trip. We also see her dishonesty and selfishness when she lies to the children about the secret panel. She only lies about it to get her way because she knows if the children want to go to the house, Bailey, her son, would take them there. The grandmother never once tries to reveal that she made a mistake on the location of the house. Even after they had the accident, which she caused by sneaking the cat on the road trip, she keeps her mouth shut on the subject. At this point is where The Misfit comes into play. When the Misfit murders the whole family with no remorse the grandmother never pleads to spare their lives. She does, however, plead for her own life. She is so certain that The Misfit is a “good” man and that he will respect her moral code to not kill a “lady”. The grandmother goes as far as saying, "You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you”( O’Connor, 41)? The grandmother does all she can to reassure The Misfit that he is a “good” man and he came from a good background, so how could he kill a lady? We learn in the grandmother's last moments what her definition of “good” actually means. "Listen," the grandmother almost screamed, "I know you're a good man. You don't look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people”(O’Connor, 41)! One can take from this quote that her definition of a good man is the background you come from. This is also another technique of hers to plead for her life. In the grandmother's final moments is when she realizes where she went wrong in life. One article refers to this as the “grandmother's "moment of clarity," when she “recognizes his [The Misfit] twisted humanity as part of her own by calling him one of her children” (Keil). She sees herself, for the first time, as not so morally superior to The Misfit. She sees The Misfit as one of her own, as in they are both flawed in their own ways. She finally has the ability to see others with compassion and understanding. This exact moment of realization is immediately followed by her death.
This brings us to The Misfit who is said to be “an escaped murderer who kills the family at the end of the story and shoots the Grandmother three times in the chest” (Overview).
One article makes the point that, “Although the Misfit is not physically present until the final pages, his influence hangs over the story almost from the beginning…” (Bandy). The Misfit, we learn from the story, was put in the pin for apparently murdering his father. This is a little ironic seeing as how The Misfit states in the story that his parents are the “finest people in the world,” and he also says his “daddy's heart was pure gold” (O’Connor, 41). Was he being sarcastic or was The Misfit actually innocent as he claims to be? He doesn't seem so innocent seeing as how he murders an entire family. With The Misfit’s murderous actions we don't see him as having moral codes, or being spiritual in a sense. The Misfit states that there's “no pleasure but meanness” (O’Connor, 45). One article says that, “...he will seek revenge on Christ's mercy by killing God's children as they deserve to be killed for his sake”(Kinney). This could be the reason he killed the grandmother; for stating he is one of her own children. The Misfit seriously questions the meaning of life in general as we see from the story. Stating from an article, “...the Misfit's life of punishment has not fit his crimes”(Overview). The Misfit feels that he doesn't have a meaning or place in the world. He feels misplaced and that his punishment, referencing the previous quote, didn't fit his crime, hence the name The Misfit. The Misfit tells the grandmother that he can’t remember why he got sent to the penitentiary, and that the only difference between him and Jesus is that they can prove that he committed a crime because they have papers on him. From the way The Misfit talks it seems that he doesn't believe he actually committed a crime. He puts it in a way as saying he was “buried alive”(O’Connor, 43). He sees
himself as more of a victim than a criminal. As seen from the story, The Misfit doesn't seem to believe in Jesus. He sees that there's no real point in life if Jesus isn't real. There's no right or wrong in his eyes. There is a sense that maybe he “wants” to believe. He wants life to have a point, but since he was punished for something he didn't know he did, he thinks that regardless of whether or not he does bad things he will be punished anyway. The Misfit seems angry that he doesn't know Jesus because he hasn't seen him. He puts it in a way that if he would have witnessed Jesus first hand he would have been a believer. You can take from what he says in the story that if he was a believer he wouldn't be like he is now. This sadness and hurt that The Misfit reveals makes the grandmother have compassion towards him and that compassion could be what really made The Misfit resent her. This single act of kindness could have been the bullet that struck home.
When looking at the grandmother and The Misfit we can see that they are much alike in more ways than one. Sort of ironic in a sense seeing as how The Misfit is a notorious murderer and the grandmother is a “lady.” These two very “different” people seems to have more similarities than differences. They both have that moment of accepting grace despite their many flaws and weaknesses. According to the Christian religion, people are granted salvation through God's grace. The grandmother seems to be an unlikely person to receive that grace because of her manipulating and lying ways. The grandmother is so certain of her own moral superiority that she believes she has the right to judge the goodness of others. The Misfit, for his part, is a notorious murderer who doesn't believe there's a purpose in life. They are both bad people in their own ways and both unlikely, even undeserving, recipients of grace. However, they both find a moment of clarity and graces settles on them both. The grandmother experiences that moment of grace when she claims that The Misfit is one of her own. This is the grandmothers most coherent moment in the story. The Misfit is open to grace by this point. He claims that killing has failed to further bring him happiness. This suggest that even he may harbor the ability to change. Along with being recipients of grace, the grandmother and The Misfit both live by their own moral codes. The grandmothers moral codes are built on what make people “good”. She sees that there's a big obligation to being a lady and that's what she lives by. She is said to be a Christian also; however, one can see her moral codes as being inconsistent when she deceives the family. In her last moments she even starts to question Jesus. Looking at The Misfit, however, we can see that he lives by a consistent and strong moral code. He believes that your punishment is always disproportionate to your crime and that in the end your crime doesn't really matter. He also sees religion as being pointless and believes that there's “no pleasure but meanness.”
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find’ by Flannery O’Connor no doubt contains some very disturbing yet interesting characters. These characters of The Misfit and the grandmother hold some interesting characteristics that O’Connor conveys clearly throughout her writings. Even though The Misfit and the grandmother hold different moral codes and look at life in different perspectives, when they are brought face to face, their worlds somehow collide in an interesting yet thrilling way. As the grandmother comes to the moment of clarity and has that moment of grace this is when The Misfit sees his too. Unfortunately the grandmother dies, but not without her acceptance of grace. We see after that moment that The Misfit also harbors his ability to change and accept grace.
Looking at the character of the grandmother, which is the central character of the story, we can see …show more content…
that she's not so “noble” after all. She considers herself morally superior to others because she's a “lady”. We get a picture in our minds of the grandmother when O’Connor describes what she wears on the road trip.
...the grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet (O’Connor, 35).
We can see from this quote about how she is dressed that she is indeed a “lady”. The following line really gives it away. It states, “In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O’Connor, 35). From this line one can see that there's no doubt she considers herself a lady; or does she see herself as too good to wear regular clothes like the children's mother in the story? The children's mother wore slacks and a green kerchief on her head... but she is also a lady. That just goes to show how the grandmother sees herself as morally superior to others. This line also suggest a comical instance of foreshadowing by saying “ In case of an accident...” We see later on in the story how the family actually got into an accident.
The grandmother is also very judgmental of others and manipulates others so she can get her way. We see this in the first paragraph of the story where she tries to scare her son to go somewhere she wants to go, which is Tennessee, by saying a criminal is loose in Florida. "Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it” (O’Connor, 34). This quote can be perceived in many ways, but I believe she doesn't care about the children. She doesn’t really seem scared to come across The Misfit. The grandmother is just trying to change her son's mind and get her way. In the second paragraph, we see how the grandmother criticizes the children's mother for not letting them go somewhere different than Florida and letting them “be broad” as she puts it. The grandmother never turns her critical eye on herself. The grandmother seems to think she's a “lady” and a “lady” can do no wrong. She never sees her own dishonesty, selfishness, and hypocrisy. We see these characteristics in the grandmother throughout the entire story. We see her selfishness when she sneaks her cat, Pitty Sing, into the car on the road trip. We also see her dishonesty and selfishness when she lies to the children about the secret panel. She only lies about it to get her way because she knows if the children want to go to the house, Bailey, her son, would take them there. The grandmother never once tries to reveal that she made a mistake on the location of the house. Even after they had the accident, which she caused by sneaking the cat on the road trip, she keeps her mouth shut on the subject. At this point is where The Misfit comes into play. When the Misfit murders the whole family with no remorse the grandmother never pleads to spare their lives. She does, however, plead for her own life. She is so certain that The Misfit is a “good” man and that he will respect her moral code to not kill a “lady”. The grandmother goes as far as saying, "You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you”( O’Connor, 41)? The grandmother does all she can to reassure The Misfit that he is a “good” man and he came from a good background, so how could he kill a lady? We learn in the grandmother's last moments what her definition of “good” actually means. "Listen," the grandmother almost screamed, "I know you're a good man. You don't look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people”(O’Connor, 41)! One can take from this quote that her definition of a good man is the background you come from. This is also another technique of hers to plead for her life. In the grandmother's final moments is when she realizes where she went wrong in life. One article refers to this as the “grandmother's "moment of clarity," when she “recognizes his [The Misfit] twisted humanity as part of her own by calling him one of her children” (Keil). She sees herself, for the first time, as not so morally superior to The Misfit. She sees The Misfit as one of her own, as in they are both flawed in their own ways. She finally has the ability to see others with compassion and understanding. This exact moment of realization is immediately followed by her death.
This brings us to The Misfit who is said to be “an escaped murderer who kills the family at the end of the story and shoots the Grandmother three times in the chest” (Overview).
One article makes the point that, “Although the Misfit is not physically present until the final pages, his influence hangs over the story almost from the beginning…” (Bandy). The Misfit, we learn from the story, was put in the pin for apparently murdering his father. This is a little ironic seeing as how The Misfit states in the story that his parents are the “finest people in the world,” and he also says his “daddy's heart was pure gold” (O’Connor, 41). Was he being sarcastic or was The Misfit actually innocent as he claims to be? He doesn't seem so innocent seeing as how he murders an entire family. With The Misfit’s murderous actions we don't see him as having moral codes, or being spiritual in a sense. The Misfit states that there's “no pleasure but meanness” (O’Connor, 45). One article says that, “...he will seek revenge on Christ's mercy by killing God's children as they deserve to be killed for his sake”(Kinney). This could be the reason he killed the grandmother; for stating he is one of her own children. The Misfit seriously questions the meaning of life in general as we see from the story. Stating from an article, “...the Misfit's life of punishment has not fit his crimes”(Overview). The Misfit feels that he doesn't have a meaning or place in the world. He feels misplaced and that his punishment, referencing the previous quote, didn't fit his crime, hence the name The Misfit. The Misfit tells the grandmother that he can’t remember why he got sent to the penitentiary, and that the only difference between him and Jesus is that they can prove that he committed a crime because they have papers on him. From the way The Misfit talks it seems that he doesn't believe he actually committed a crime. He puts it in a way as saying he was “buried alive”(O’Connor, 43). He sees
himself as more of a victim than a criminal. As seen from the story, The Misfit doesn't seem to believe in Jesus. He sees that there's no real point in life if Jesus isn't real. There's no right or wrong in his eyes. There is a sense that maybe he “wants” to believe. He wants life to have a point, but since he was punished for something he didn't know he did, he thinks that regardless of whether or not he does bad things he will be punished anyway. The Misfit seems angry that he doesn't know Jesus because he hasn't seen him. He puts it in a way that if he would have witnessed Jesus first hand he would have been a believer. You can take from what he says in the story that if he was a believer he wouldn't be like he is now. This sadness and hurt that The Misfit reveals makes the grandmother have compassion towards him and that compassion could be what really made The Misfit resent her. This single act of kindness could have been the bullet that struck home.
When looking at the grandmother and The Misfit we can see that they are much alike in more ways than one. Sort of ironic in a sense seeing as how The Misfit is a notorious murderer and the grandmother is a “lady.” These two very “different” people seems to have more similarities than differences. They both have that moment of accepting grace despite their many flaws and weaknesses. According to the Christian religion, people are granted salvation through God's grace. The grandmother seems to be an unlikely person to receive that grace because of her manipulating and lying ways. The grandmother is so certain of her own moral superiority that she believes she has the right to judge the goodness of others. The Misfit, for his part, is a notorious murderer who doesn't believe there's a purpose in life. They are both bad people in their own ways and both unlikely, even undeserving, recipients of grace. However, they both find a moment of clarity and graces settles on them both. The grandmother experiences that moment of grace when she claims that The Misfit is one of her own. This is the grandmothers most coherent moment in the story. The Misfit is open to grace by this point. He claims that killing has failed to further bring him happiness. This suggest that even he may harbor the ability to change. Along with being recipients of grace, the grandmother and The Misfit both live by their own moral codes. The grandmothers moral codes are built on what make people “good”. She sees that there's a big obligation to being a lady and that's what she lives by. She is said to be a Christian also; however, one can see her moral codes as being inconsistent when she deceives the family. In her last moments she even starts to question Jesus. Looking at The Misfit, however, we can see that he lives by a consistent and strong moral code. He believes that your punishment is always disproportionate to your crime and that in the end your crime doesn't really matter. He also sees religion as being pointless and believes that there's “no pleasure but meanness.”
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find’ by Flannery O’Connor no doubt contains some very disturbing yet interesting characters. These characters of The Misfit and the grandmother hold some interesting characteristics that O’Connor conveys clearly throughout her writings. Even though The Misfit and the grandmother hold different moral codes and look at life in different perspectives, when they are brought face to face, their worlds somehow collide in an interesting yet thrilling way. As the grandmother comes to the moment of clarity and has that moment of grace this is when The Misfit sees his too. Unfortunately the grandmother dies, but not without her acceptance of grace. We see after that moment that The Misfit also harbors his ability to change and accept grace.