Professor Weldon
English 102
28 September 2010
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor
Character Analysis and Comparison
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is about a family from Georgia who are murdered on a road trip to Florida. It begins with the grandmother complaining to her son Bailey that she would rather go to Tennessee for vacation and not Florida. She tells him about an escaped murderer who is going to Florida named the Misfit in hopes to change his mind. The day of the trip the grandmother is dressed in her best and prepared to die as a lady if something should happen to them on the way. They stop at a barbecue restaurant for lunch, where the Grandmother talks with the owner Red Sammy about the Misfit and how hard it is to find a good man. Back in the car the grandmother talks about a house she saw when she was young, lying saying that the house has secret passages which makes the children want to see it more. They begin to jump and kick the back of the seat in front of them until the father agrees. When they get on an old abandoned road the grandmother realizes that the house is in Tennessee. The grandmother gets flustered and scares her cat which jumped up on Baily, causing him lose control of the car and it flip and land in a ditch. The adults are in shock and the kids are excited as if the accident was an adventure to them. As the family sit and wait for help a car comes and three men step out. One the grandmother recognizes at the Misfit. The Misfit tells them he wished she hadn’t recognized him implying that he would not have killed them if she did not. Starting with the father and son the other two guys takes all of the family except the grandmother into the woods and kills them. The grandmother pleads for her life as she hears the gunshots and tries to convince the Misfit that he is a good man, and for him to pray. The Misfit goes into a rant telling the grandmother all about him his past and