In the short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor, the reader is introduced to the complex characters of the Grandmother and Misfit as each journey across the dirt roads of Georgia until their lives intersect. At this intersection, O’Connor beautifully portrays the trouble that society has with determining what is good and what is bad. It is here that O’Connor is able to use the literary device of Characterization between the characters of the Misfit and Grandmother to further express her overall theme that, like the title says, a good man is hard to find.
Theme plays an important role in this short story. For the main characters of this story (Grandmother, Misfit, and even Red Sam), society is becoming a difficult place …show more content…
This is no different for A Good Man is Hard to Find, where the reader can see a distinct sense of this with the characterizations of the Misfit and Grandmother. Taking a look at the Grandmother, one can see that this is a woman who believes she is the definition of what it means to be a good woman. She believes that since she is a good woman that she has the ability to judge the character of the people around her, but most of the time her judgment of them is wrong. Take for instance the final scene when the grandmother is pleading with the Misfit, “why you are one of my babies” (132) to which then the Misfit springs back and fires three shots into her chest. Her judgment there was just a little bit off it seems. Also, here is where we truly understand why a good man is hard to find. The Grandmother keeps trying to give everyone the impression that she is a good country woman, but in reality she is her own worst enemy. She is always getting herself into trouble along with the people around her, due to her inability to control her talkative mouth. She is a self centered woman who thinks she knows how to solve all of the world’s problems even when most of the time it is …show more content…
He is a wanted murderer who has lived a hard life without the guidance of a parent figure. However, when the audience first meets him he is clam and collective of himself, even in a situation where the Grandmother recognizes him as a criminal. He has the qualities of a good man like his leadership skills, but uses it to do harm. His name plays a role in the type of person that the Misfit is, a man who stands out in society no matter how hard he tries to run away from it. Although, it is for that very reason that the Misfit is better off than the Grandmother. As McFarland expresses, “The Misfit perception of a fundamental lack of order and justice in the universe is more in accord with what actually is than is the grandmother’s beliefs” (18), it is this understanding of how the universe works which allows him to understand that there are no pure good people on this earth. Everybody has something in their life that makes them question their moral goodness, no matter how innocent they believe they
Theme plays an important role in this short story. For the main characters of this story (Grandmother, Misfit, and even Red Sam), society is becoming a difficult place …show more content…
This is no different for A Good Man is Hard to Find, where the reader can see a distinct sense of this with the characterizations of the Misfit and Grandmother. Taking a look at the Grandmother, one can see that this is a woman who believes she is the definition of what it means to be a good woman. She believes that since she is a good woman that she has the ability to judge the character of the people around her, but most of the time her judgment of them is wrong. Take for instance the final scene when the grandmother is pleading with the Misfit, “why you are one of my babies” (132) to which then the Misfit springs back and fires three shots into her chest. Her judgment there was just a little bit off it seems. Also, here is where we truly understand why a good man is hard to find. The Grandmother keeps trying to give everyone the impression that she is a good country woman, but in reality she is her own worst enemy. She is always getting herself into trouble along with the people around her, due to her inability to control her talkative mouth. She is a self centered woman who thinks she knows how to solve all of the world’s problems even when most of the time it is …show more content…
He is a wanted murderer who has lived a hard life without the guidance of a parent figure. However, when the audience first meets him he is clam and collective of himself, even in a situation where the Grandmother recognizes him as a criminal. He has the qualities of a good man like his leadership skills, but uses it to do harm. His name plays a role in the type of person that the Misfit is, a man who stands out in society no matter how hard he tries to run away from it. Although, it is for that very reason that the Misfit is better off than the Grandmother. As McFarland expresses, “The Misfit perception of a fundamental lack of order and justice in the universe is more in accord with what actually is than is the grandmother’s beliefs” (18), it is this understanding of how the universe works which allows him to understand that there are no pure good people on this earth. Everybody has something in their life that makes them question their moral goodness, no matter how innocent they believe they