A Good Man Is Hard To Find
Jada Gardner
Professor Moir
May 6, 2015
English 1102
Society and Class in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the grandmother and the Misfit become the main focus even though the other characters are involved in the story. Throughout the entire story, The Misfit is portrayed as the symbol of evil because he was in jail; he escaped from jail, and he committed murders. The grandmother believes to be greater than the people that she are around because of the “good” that she portrays. The conventional meaning of good, or possessing or displaying moral virtue, is not the particular good that the grandmother is trying to portray throughout the story. The grandmother believes that good is portrayal of a social class. Throughout the short story, O’Connor portrays “good” from a social class aspect rather than from the conventional aspect, through the grandmother. As an elderly woman who was born in another generation, the grandmother doesn’t understand why her family members do certain things that they don’t. In the beginning of the story, the grandmother is obsessed with worldly things. She always cares for how people perceive her. She wants to go to Tennessee, so she can be connected with her roots; however her family wants to go to Florida where The Misfit has escaped. The grandmother immediately scolds the family for their decision “…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 405); however, because of her ways she goes anyway.
The grandmother thinks of herself as a lady who should be treated with the utmost respect. Even though they are taking a long car ride the grandmother “…settled herself comfortably, removing her white cotton gloves and putting them up with her purse on the shelf in
Professor Moir
May 6, 2015
English 1102
Society and Class in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the grandmother and the Misfit become the main focus even though the other characters are involved in the story. Throughout the entire story, The Misfit is portrayed as the symbol of evil because he was in jail; he escaped from jail, and he committed murders. The grandmother believes to be greater than the people that she are around because of the “good” that she portrays. The conventional meaning of good, or possessing or displaying moral virtue, is not the particular good that the grandmother is trying to portray throughout the story. The grandmother believes that good is portrayal of a social class. Throughout the short story, O’Connor portrays “good” from a social class aspect rather than from the conventional aspect, through the grandmother. As an elderly woman who was born in another generation, the grandmother doesn’t understand why her family members do certain things that they don’t. In the beginning of the story, the grandmother is obsessed with worldly things. She always cares for how people perceive her. She wants to go to Tennessee, so she can be connected with her roots; however her family wants to go to Florida where The Misfit has escaped. The grandmother immediately scolds the family for their decision “…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 405); however, because of her ways she goes anyway.
The grandmother thinks of herself as a lady who should be treated with the utmost respect. Even though they are taking a long car ride the grandmother “…settled herself comfortably, removing her white cotton gloves and putting them up with her purse on the shelf in
Cited: O 'Connor, F. (2014). A Good Man Is Hard to Find. In K. J. Mays, The Norton Introduction to Literature (pp. 404-418). W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.