July 10, 2012 (Tue)
'' A Good Man Is Hard to Find" Questions 1. Discuss the way the family members are characterized and the way they affect the reader's perceptions of the grandmother. Is the grandmother more or less
Sympathetic than the other members of her family? O'Connor writes in an essay that not only is The Misfit more intelligent than the grandmother, but his "capacity for
Grace" is greater than hers. Do you agree and why or why not?
Bailey the grandmother’s son I would say is a “flat character. In the story his attitude never changes. He’s very quiet and gets pushed around by his mother. I would say that he gets taken advantage of because of this very reason. June Star, Bailey’s daughter and the granddaughter, isn’t very polite in the story. She’s very rude, mean spirited, and seems to be ill willed towards other people. Instead of her being sympathetic when the family got into an accident, she was disappointed that no one in the family was killed. John Wesley, Bailey’s dad and the grandson, is portrayed as a happy go lucky 8 year old boy. When the grandmother mentions going to see the house that she remembers, John seems very excited to be able to explore the secret panel. The Grandmother is characterized as rude and rather pushy with her views. Her son, Bailey, seems annoyed with the way that his mother acts. The reader’s perception of the Grandmother isn’t that great. She shows that she is a racist with her comment that she makes when she sees a little black kid. Her pushiness is what caused the family to get in the situation that they were in in the first place. The Grandmother shows no sympathy for other people. She is the worse out of the whole family.
When O’Conner says that The Misfit’s “capacity for grace” is greater than the grandmother’s, I absolutely agree with the author. The Misfit knows about Jesus and his word; he even compares himself to Jesus. He knows the truth but show’s it through acts of