In the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O'Connor, the Grandmother in the story is known as the protagonist. Although this is the case, throughout the story the audience learns that she is actually a born sinner just like the Misfit. Even though the Misfit’s actions are worse than that of the Grandmother’s actions, they both commit sins of more or less value to that of one another. One of the biggest mistakes the Grandmother makes in this story is to choose treat God as somebody she can accept or ignore depending upon the situation that she is put in. Although the Grandmother is a naturally born sinner, she is saved by grace towards the end of the story. Throughout “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the Grandmother plays the role …show more content…
This causes the readers to realize she has had a “moment of grace” in her life. She says to him, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children” (O’ Conner 413). The Grandmother has a moment in which she sees the Misfit as a regular human being who is only a bad person because he has gone through a lot of pain and suffering. As soon as the Grandmother touches the Misfit he is shocked by her actions and her words to the point to where he shoots her three times in the chest. Although the Grandmother is dead, she died with a smile on her face because she has been able to have a moment of redemption in her life right before she dies. Later the Misfit says, “She would have been a good woman. If it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (O’ Conner 413). When he says this, it is clear to see that he plays the part of a “sinner being saved by grace”. He recognizes the Grandmother’s act to be good. When Bobby claims the killing of the Grandmother to be fun, the Misfit says “It’s no real pleasure in life” (O’ Conner 413). When he says this he means he did not enjoy what he just did. This proves to show that grace has entered his heart, even if it only was a little bit of
Even after Bailey turns his head to his mother and tells her a lot of mean things, Grandmother continues to talk and get everyone in even more trouble. The text says, “Bailey turned his head sharply and said something to his mother that shocked even the children.” “Lady,” said the misfit, “don't you get upset.” “You wouldn't shoot a lady would you?” said the grandmother(O’Conner 20). Even after Bailey told the grandmother a few hurtful things, and the Misfit tried to comfort her, she still continues to ask questions and talk.
Redemption is the act of being saved from acts of evil and sin. The debate of whether human nature is redeemable or not has been one to plaque religious scholars. In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, this question continues in the interactions between the characters; the most notable being the Grandmother of a rather horrible family and the Misfit, a murderer. While on a road trip, these two characters’ paths collide and lead to a rather unfortunate end where the Grandmother and her family are killed. While many readers believe the ending creates and overall negative tone of the story, some believe that there is a hope for redemption; the story’s author O’Connor who is a devoted Catholic included.
Although she is the narrator, she is not a well-liked character. Literary critic Kathleen G. Oschorn writes in her essay “A Cloak Of Grace: Contradictions in ‘A Good Man Is Hard To Find’”, “Throughout the story the grandmother is a full-blown element of disaster, a Geiger counter for catastrophe. Her fuzzy fantasies about a southern mansion combined with some assistance from the smuggled cat manage to cause the car wreck. Then her pronouncement ‘You’re The Misfit’ seals their fate. The few pleasures in the story involve the grandmother’s false sense of superiority.
In the account of “A good Man Is Hard to Find,” grandma shows her true colors throughout the story. She is convinced that she is morally right and just through her thoughts and actions. She portrays herself as better than the rest and a lady. However, in the end the grandmother tells the Misfit he is just like one of her own. This reference shows that in her final moments of life the grandmother realized they were very much alike.
Both stories “ A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor and “ The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” by Ursula LeGuin contain elements of sin and redemption. In both of the stories sin is caused by intentional acts of humans, yet in the story “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas”, some decide to leave the city in search of another city, also giving them redemption. In “ A Good Man is Hard to Find” redemption is offered many times even though those who need it don’t deserve it. In the end of “The Ones Who Walk Away” LeGuin uses specific diction to show that the citizens of the town have sinned and need redemption. O’Connor takes a different approach by showing that people who do not seek redemption often enough are handed it, while those who seek redemption may be given it.
Viewing The Misfit as a tragic figure, we sympathize with his actions and feel remorse for who he has become. The readers see him as a victim and sympathize for his actions, including killing the elderly Grandmother. Although he is an awful person, because he is a male character, it is acceptable for him to have issues, but it is not acceptable for a woman to have any sort of issue. As the Misfits says, “She would have been a good woman...if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (O’Connor), this suggests that the Grandmother was an awfully annoying woman, but if she had a man there to keep her in line, she would have been a decent
One of the Misfit's partners says, "She was a talker, wasn't she?" (409) and the Misfit replies saying, "She would of been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life" (409). This dialogue should easily convince any reader that the grandmother was the real villain in the story and was the main reason the entire family was
In the 1953 short story titled “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, readers are given a glimpse of what the end of the story may look like through use of foreshadowing, symbolism, and other literary techniques. Although the story looks to be an innocent story of a family who travels to Florida for vacation at the start of it, readers soon find out that the story has a darker twist to it. This family trip turns violent and this gruesome ending can easily represent the violence taking place in America during the time this story was written by O’Connor and even today. The short story starts off with a family of six- parents, a grandmother, and three children-
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, the author portrays the grandmother as self-centered, dishonest and prideful woman. The grandmother is an old, southern, Caucasian woman who describes herself as a good woman. Throughout the story, O’Connor shows how the grandmother’s pride, and selfishness leads her to unappreciated her family. She does not care about them, she only cares about herself and what will benefit her. The grandmother’s selfishness, judgmental actions, dishonesty put the family in danger.
(6:27). O 'Connor presents both the view of the Misfit as a fellow human being in pain, and the feeling of love for him, as a gift from God. The grandmother as a human being, is prone towards evil and selfishness, so she could never have come to feel such love without God 's help, as this man was going to kill her. This moment of grace is incredibly important in the story. The Misfit kills the grandmother, withdrawing from her and what seems foreign to him (human compassion), but the grandmother already had her moment of redemption.
The reality between the Misfit and the Grandmother are very different and from this viewpoint it seems as if the Grandmother is a more dishonest and unfaithful person when it comes to selfishness. The Misfit does not express selfishness, rather he equally treats himself as he would with the people that he murdered. With two distinct differences in reality, both show similar signs of
She is only trying to convince the misfit that he is a good man because she wants to be freed, and her life is in shambles. Also, the grandmother has already gone back on her word multiple of times, calling the misfit a big, bad, and scary man. Now all of the sudden he is a good man. Therefore, the grandmother still has not changed a
Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a short story that makes readers question what truly makes a good person. The grandmother in the story believes she knows what a good person is, but the Misfit challenges her morals which makes her question what makes a good person. Both the Misfit and the grandmother judge people based on their moral code but one of their moral code is more authentic than the other. In her final moments of life does the misfit make her see what really makes a person good? The grandmother doesn’t seem to develop in the story until she faces life or death at the end, she may have never developed if have it not been for the Misfit.
A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Harpers Bazaar, 1955. Shmoop Editorial Team. “The Grandmother in a Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
The Misfit proving the grandmother quite right, that he was not a good