...is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor In Flannery O’ Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find, the main character is the grandmother’s character is displayed by her reactions and conversations with various characters throughout the story. Through her conversation with Bailey, her son, John Wesley and June Star, her grandchildren, and the Misfit killer. These conversations state the fact that she is from a traditional background and her attitude alternates to fit the surroundings that she is in. The grandmother loses her capacity to comprehend what state of mind that she wants to be in. Throughout the entire story the author utilizes a strong sense of foreshadowing for the people and for the events that occur. O’Connor uses this technique three times in the story, describing the grandmother’s dress, the family’s death, and the grandmother’s conversation with the Misfit Killer. The story starts out with the grandmother being uncomfortable about the family’s upcoming trip to Florida from Georgia. She tries to force Bailey to rethink the entire trip by telling him about what she has read in the newspaper. “Here this fellow that calls himself the Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen…and read what it says he did with these people…I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it” (O’Connor, 2008). Her pleading for the cancellation did not go well and the family prepared to leave the next day. She dressed in “a navy blue dress with a small white dot in...
Words: 1000 - Pages: 4
...Florida on a road trip and the Grandmother is complaining about the trip and warning her family about The Misfit whom she has been reading about in the newspaper. The Misfit is a serial killer who has escaped from prison and is on the loose. In a great deal of ways, I can relate to the character of The Misfit because even though he is a killer, I personally think that he is not at all insane. Sometimes in life, people find themselves in unbearable predicaments through no fault of their own and have to stay the course. Even if it’s very clear that the environment or situation is dangerous, there is no way to avoid it. Thus creating a jolt in the persons’ thought process and no longer allows them to express what is called everyday “rational” thought. The Misfit is a wanted criminal who stumbles upon the family when they crash their car in the woods. He lives by a moral code that involves murder and remorselessness, but he also spends time wondering about Jesus. He doesn’t know for sure whether Jesus really raised the dead, has opted for “meanness” as a way of giving his life meaning. He doesn’t see himself as a terrible person. His two associates kill the entire family, and the Misfit shoots the grandmother himself. I understand that his ways and concept of life is unorthodox, but strains on a man’s life can do that . The Misfit seems an unlikely source to look to for spiritual or moral guidance, but he demonstrates a deep conviction that...
Words: 810 - Pages: 4
... including the Misfit, who are hunting them down for absolutely no reason. O’Connor characterizes these men as barbaric and awful, giving no explanation for their desire to kill the family. By doing this, O’Connor subtly hints her views on the male population and their unjustifiable acts; only men would be capable of killing an entire family for absolutely no good reason. This plotline tells more about O’Connor than it does about the story; it expresses her feministic views and explains her discontent with the behavior of men. The use of extreme circumstances in the story help characterize men in a very dim light. More interestingly, O’Connor fixates on the Misfit and his character throughout the story. O’Connor uses the word “Misfit” to label the antagonist to provoke empathy, ironically, from the audience, for a cold-blooded killer. She writes, “Without his glasses, The Misfit's eyes were red-rimmed and pale and defenseless-looking.” The Misfit is miserable; he is none other than unhappy with his circumstances and not proud of his actions. He seems lost, dazed, and confused. The Misfit’s psychopathic activities prove he has no conscience, but his interaction with the old lady has a powerful effect on him and sheds light on his character. Before killing the grandmother, she tries to talk the Misfit out of his inevitable actions. She calls him a good man, and questions his capability of murdering an old woman, like herself, in cold blood. She says to the misfit, "Jesus! the old...
Words: 974 - Pages: 4
...get their way. Despite the idea that it is not a very moral way for someone to achieve what they want, the grandmother in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” does not seem mind. The story is based upon a family of six people on a journey to Florida where they plan to vacation that become very unlucky when crossing paths with The Misfit, a well-known killer, and his two henchmen. The grandmother of the family wishes to travel to see the state of Tennessee where she has family connections, but the others insist on visiting Florida. The author of “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor, has written many pieces based largely on religion and morals, as seen in this narrative. She uses the...
Words: 840 - Pages: 4
...Myles Hypse February 3rd, 2017 English 1B 3:30-4:40pm Two Psychopaths Both of these stories give the reader a good look into the eyes of two characters, who both refuse to take no for an answer. One of them, Arnold Friend although at first appearing friendly and charming, is nothing more than a malicious predator, similar in kind to The Misfit, who greets his victims in a much more sinister way. The two characters, when stood side by side, almost seemed as they become one, yet are polar opposites. When one compares the character Arnold Friend to that of The Misfit, many similarities and differences bubble to the surface and reveal themselves to the reader. Out of the many character traits the two killers had in common; the one that...
Words: 1025 - Pages: 5
...Composition II October 2, 2014 The Misunderstanding of the Misfit In the short story, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” the misfit tries to fill his life with meaning by being a serial killer. The misfit feels as if he murders people or commits any other crimes, it will give his life meaning and purpose. The misfit may not be morally sane but he sticks to what he believes is right and is consistent. He may not be a great man but he realizes that there are worse mean out there. The misfit had been put in a penitentiary for being accused for killing his father. As the misfit says, “It was a head doctor who said that what I had done was kill my daddy but I know that for a lie. My daddy died in nineteen ought nineteen of the epidemic flu and I never had a thing to do with it.” He claims that he didn’t kill his father and is now on the loose after escaping the penitentiary. The Misfit speaks highly of his parents saying that they were the “finest people in the world” and says “his dad’s heart was pure gold.” Is the misfit really innocent or is he lying about killing his dad? The only reason the misfit believes that it wasn’t a mistake that he had been sent to the penitentiary is because they had papers on him. The misfit then compares himself to Jesus. As he says, “it was the same case with him as with me except he hadn’t committed any crime and they could prove I had committed one because they had the papers on me.” The misfit sees it as he really didn’t commit any crime although there...
Words: 610 - Pages: 3
...example of verbal irony from grandmother is when she wants to go to Tennessee not Florida; so she makes sure to remind her family that “An enraged killer, The Misfit,” was preying upon people in Florida. Although, later in the story she is begging for her life, telling “The Misfit” that he seems like a good man, and one that was brought up with good intentions. Grandmother finally agrees to go on the trip, but she sneaks her cat, Pitty Sing along, because she knows her son wouldn’t allow the cat to be cooped up in a motel for three days. With this cat, comes an extreme example of situational irony. As she brought the cat along for good purposes, the cat brings with it peril. As grandmother thinks of a terrible memory, she flinches and the cat flings out of her arms hitting the driver, grandmother’s son Bailey, and causing the car to spin out of control. Shockingly, all are left alive with no major injuries, but the car will not start. Grandmother waves down a black “hearse-like automobile”, which is ironic, because hearses are what bring dead bodies to the graveyard. The family feels as if there luck is bouncing back until the men step out of the car. In another instance of situational irony, three men exit the vehicle all equipped with guns. As the men approach, Grandmother points out one of them as “The Misfit.” The Misfit then states (which could be considered verbal irony because some believe that he was planning to kill them all...
Words: 595 - Pages: 3
...highway at some point in the stories. In both of the stories, there are accidents, one being much harsher than the other, one being a fender bender the other left the family bleeding with broken bones. I felt that most of the characters seemed to be very selfish with only thoughts of themselves. The setting for Love in La is Jake daydreaming about a better car than the one he owns and is why he hits the other character in the stories in the first place. The setting in “A Good Man is Hard” to find, takes place in Georgia mostly told through the grandmother's eyes. It seems she wants to go to Tennessee and her son wanted to go to Florida. She did not get her way even with all the whining about the misfits on the loose. After the cat causes a car crash the family comes across the Misfits, and the grandmother seems to use her faith to save herself and her family from death Characters Jake seems to be a very lazy self-centered nature, he is most defiantly a protagonist in this story. Jake is a dishonest man and does not want to take the blame for the car crash. He is willing to lie about who he is and give a false number and false insurance information. Marina seems to be kind and very unknowing to the bad in the world. She is gullible and seems to believe all that Jakes is telling her. Jakes intentions are clear, he wants to be free of any consequences this mishap would have on him in. In a Good...
Words: 1507 - Pages: 7
...Emily Carlson April 18, 2011 Literature 12 Senior Paper on A Good Man Is Hard to Find Week 29 Day 1 Flannery O’Connor was a Catholic writer who was born in 1925, in Savannah, Georgia, and died in 1964. She was well known for her writings about the darker side of humanity. While O’Connor’s stories were often gritty and disturbing to read, they always embodied aspects of grace. O'Connor often depicted salvation through shocking, and violent experiences of her characters. Flannery O’Connor focuses on man’s fallen nature, but at the same time inspires the reader to consider the moments of grace that are offered to everyone. Some individuals recognize and accept this free gift of grace, while others ignore it. Evidence and analysis of the grace offered to the two main characters will be presented in this study of “A Good Man Is Hard to find”, written in 1953. The story is about an unpleasant family who plans a car trip to Florida from their hometown in Georgia. The reader is introduced to the spiteful and manipulative grandmother, her disconnected son, Bailey, his passive wife and baby, and their two older, hard-to-please children, June Star and John Wesley. The grandmother wants to go to Tennessee instead of Florida, so she tells her family about and escaped convict she read about in the news paper to scare them away from going to Florida. Bailey refuses to switch routes and tells her it is nonsense, and the family settles into the car. While on the trip, the children...
Words: 1772 - Pages: 8
...“A Good Man is Hard to Find“ "She connected and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang over as though a snake had chomped him and shot her three times through the midsection." Flannery O'bith "A Good Man is hard to Find" is the story of a family's travel disastrously finished by a killer and his pack. After a nosy Mother/mother-In-Law/grandmother tries to demand that the family head off to Tennessee rather than Florida, it was indeed through her own particular requirement that aroused the family stray from the primary way in inquiry of some false, lost treasure. This fatal choice made the family fall prey to the Misfit. Foreshadowing at the start of the story insights to the spectator that whileshdbvjsbv kshfviwhfishvbbvbbvbvwubvnajvsolvjkxjbvsilc s nojugownve tprjte terterbt er teryrtujrge yrthfwarysh szbdffhritbsge O’Connor’s utilization of characterization shows the breaking down of appreciation and restrain in American social order. From past eras to present eras, this message could be comprehended. Grandma speaks to the past with her solid "Southern Hospitality" legacy. Case in point, “The old woman settled herself agreeably, evacuating her white cotton gloves and putting them up with her satchel on the rack before the back window. Her neckline and sleeves were white organdy trimmed with trim and at her neckline she had stuck a purple spread of fabric violets holding a sachet. In the event of a mishap, anybody seeing her dead on the parkway might know...
Words: 1047 - Pages: 5
...English 101 September 29, 2015 Death is Around the Corner Every man’s life ends the same way. It is only the details of how he lived and how he died that distinguished one man from another. In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” a family goes on a trip to Florida but the grandmother argues the whole way there that they should go to Tennessee instead. She mentions that a killer called the Misfit is on the loose. While on the road, the grandmother asks to stop at an old house. As they are going down the road they wreck, but little do they know that the Misfit is waiting around the corner to help them. O’Connor symbolizes death by foreshadowing the graves, purgatory, and the hearse. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” while the family is traveling to Florida, grandmother keeps saying she does not want to go. She is ruining the trip before it even gets started. On the way they pass a grave site, symbolizing that they are about to die because there are six members of the family and six graves about to be dug, “They passed a large cotton field with five or six graves fenced in the middle of it… that was the old family burying ground” (23). The grandmother points the graves out which mean she is going to be a big part of why they die. They continue down the road, as they do, they come to a restaurant called Red Sammy’s which symbolize the purgatory. When they get to Red Sammy’s they see him working under his truck in front of the Tower. The Tower represents Dante’s...
Words: 746 - Pages: 3
...Lacrisha Lewis Patrick Anyanetu Eng.120 11/18/10 Research Paper “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Connor who is a Southern American novelist and short story writer, O’ Connor’s career expanded in the 1950sand early 60s, a time when the South was dominated by Protestant Christians.O’Connor was born and raised a Catholic. She was a fundamentalist and aChristian moralist whose powerful apocalyptic fiction is focused in the South.Flannery O’Connor was born March 25, 1925 in Savannah, Georgia. O’ Connorgrew up on a farm with her parents Regina and Edward O’ Connor. At the age offive, she taught a chicken to walk backwards. O’Connor attended Georgia StateCollege for women, now Georgia College, in Milledgeville, majoring in sociology.She had showed a gift for satirical writing, as well as cartooning since she wasa child. By the end of her undergraduate education, O’Connor knew that writingwas her true passion. She spent two years at the prestigious School for Writersat the State University of Iowa on scholarship. She received a master’s degree infine arts in 1947. In 1950, she had a near fatal attack of systemic lupus erythematosus, a chronic inflammatory connective tissue disorder that causes periods of joint pain and fatigue, and can attack the hearts, lungs, and kidneys. Her father died of the disease when she was fifteen. She would have to walk with crutches for the rest of her life. By her death at the age of 39, Flannery O’Connor won a prominent place in modern...
Words: 1357 - Pages: 6
...In Flannery O' Connor's short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," a character who calls himself The Misfit murders random, innocent people. When he crosses paths with the protagonist of the story, an overbearing grandmother, he attempts to justify his murders, claiming that there is "no pleasure but meanness" before he murders her as well (O'Connor 1295). At this point, a reader must question why The Misfit finds pleasure in killing and punishing people. The true answer to this question, while contradictory to his previous statements, is that he does not truly find pleasure in killing people; rather, he feels that his murders provide a form of justice and equality in a world that lacks these attributes. The actions of Matt Fowler, the vengeful...
Words: 1293 - Pages: 6
...The Misfit While investigating what might be psychologically wrong with The Misfit in the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor, I came to a conclusion that his actions and his personality that he presented himself with today was a result from his child hood and life experiences. Even though the Misfit kills this family, he is not fully responsible for his own actions. The Misfit kills, because he has had a terrible childhood, he is mentally unstable, and he simply likes what he does. But this still does not change was he has done or make him any better of a person. The Misfit is a killer, but may not be responsible for all of his actions because of his awful childhood. The misfit explains very well the way he was raised from a child to his present status and personal life, which he also admits and believes helped, shaped his character today. When the Grandmother suggested that he must have come from fine people, he simply replied, “Finest people in the world”. The Misfit also goes on to say, “God never made a finer woman than my mother and my daddy’s heart was pure gold”. With a statement like this I would think that the Misfit was being not being serious when it comes to his parents. In the end it really is a true mystery about the way the Misfit actually feels about his parents. One might say that the misfit did not care for his parents at all. As a child the Misfits own father did not think he was normal, in the short story he quotes...
Words: 1138 - Pages: 5
...multiple facets of her characters in the story such as those of Bailey's mother and The Misfit. O'Connor establishes the foundation of the irony very early in the story when she gives us the reason for the grandmother getting dressed up for the car ride, “In case of an accident anyone seeing the dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O’Connor, 1993) . Later on in the story this could considered foreshadowing. Throughout the entire story the grandmother judges people either as good or bad solely based on how they look. For example, the first time the reader sees the phrase "A good man is hard to find," the speaker is Red Sam at the roadside barbecue restaurant where the family is having lunch. Just before that, however, Red Sam has described his willingness to allow some strangers to charge gas, and he asks himself the question, "Now, why did I do that?" (O’Connor, 1993). The grandmother's immediate response is "Because you're a good man." (O’ Connor, 1993). She makes this assessment with very little information about Red Sam, not on the basis of any meaningful knowledge about his character. When the grandmother is first introduced to the misfit, she makes one of those same judgments of him because he was polite. This is an assumption that anybody could have easily made, but it’s important for the reader to keep in the back of his or her mind that the misfit is a “misfit.” He built his life around being a career criminal and con artist. In that moment it...
Words: 784 - Pages: 4
