Dr. McClenagen
English 1302 plo3 26 October 2015
The Misfit inside
O’Connor’s short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," the grandmother initially portrays herself as a "good" Southern woman, and although her actions demonstrate to the reader that she is not a "good woman," it isn 't until the end of story when the misfit helps the grandmother realize it for her self .We believe we are morally better than what we actually are. The old woman portrays herself as a good southern woman; she believes that she is proper, respectable and perfect. But to the reader, the old lady’s tendencies reveal her to be a different person than who she says she is; she is a selfish liar as well as being very manipulative, and its …show more content…
The misfit is not like the grandmother, who assumes that she is superior to everyone else, the Misfit really questions the meaning of life and what is his purpose in it. He uses the actions he has made in life and observes his incidents to find lessons in the situations he has faced in his lifetime. The Misfit questioned himself so much; he shows a strong self-awareness that the grandmother is not capable of understanding. He knows he is a terrible person, however he also believes that there are people worse than him. He has this crazy but true philosophy “the crime don’t matter.” (O’Connor )In a religious view the Misfit is saying, sin is sin no matter what you just as bad as …show more content…
The grandmother is not a lady and she is not perfect. Now she comes to face with the deceitful manipulative lying misfit inside herself. Although the misfit inside her finally surfaced she meets that realization with death. In the end O’Connor doesn’t let us see if she would have changed or continue to hide behind her dressy clothes and her delusion that she was a proper southern woman. She lived as a saint but died as a sinner thanks to the misfit’s wise interpretation on life.
Works Cited
Beverly Lawn - Flannery O 'Connor - 40 short stories: a portable anthology -Boston, MA - Bedford/St. Martin 's - 2009 - Third Ed
Bloom, Harold, ed. " 'A Good Man Is Hard to Find '." Flannery O 'Connor, Bloom 's Major Short Story Writers. Philadelphia: Chelsea House Publishing,1998. Bloom 's Literature. Facts On File, Inc. Web. 19 Nov. 2014
O 'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” New York: Literary Classics of the United States (1988.) 137-53.
Walls, Doyle W. “O’Connor’s 'A Good Man is Hard to Find.’” The Explicator 46(2) (winter 1988): 43-45.
Woodward, Robert. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." NCL