...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...
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...Prophet Gone Wrong The misfit and the unnamed grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Conner has many different characters that are introduced but none learn more or reveal as much about themselves as the misfit and the grandmother do. It is hard to determine who the central character is in the short story the grandmother or the misfit because O’Conner spends great effort describing these two characters. Nothing happens in the story without the opinion of either character. While the grandmother is older and has a lot to learn the misfit is younger and has a lot to teach. The misfit with his violent killing is an unlikely source to look to for moral guidance but he shows more depth and understanding of the world than the grandmother. For instance the grandmother says “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it”(367) when she doesn’t even know the man she is speaking of. Her first initial reaction to the misfit is disgust and pity she looks down upon him because she believes she is morally better than he is. She has never once looked into herself and her own decisions to see if she is being morally correct. She condemns all of humanity “People are certainly not nice like they used to be “(370) she says to strangers. She constantly is criticizing everyone else about how they are unjust and wrong with their actions; but she never looks at herself to see her own hypocrisy and dishonesty. Like when she sneaks the cat into...
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...Find, ” Flannery O’Connor In the story “A good man is hard to find, ” the author Flannery O’Connor, begins with a Southern family wanting to take a vacation. O’conner uses irony in her writing twist the story with all the characters. The story it’s very funny all the beginning, on how the Bailey and his family are treating the grandmother. You find out that grandmother doesn't care about anyone then herself. At the end the grandma Christian grace calls out to the Misfits her own to spare her life. This story is full of irony, especially situational irony. The design of the story takes a completely different turn, from what the readers expect. The irony of the title is shown in the way that the grandmother uses the phrase "a good man" in the story. The beginning of the story starts off as a family vacation to florida and the grandmother didn't want to go, she was trying to do what ever it looked to change Bailey’s mind. First it started with a new article “Here 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. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did.” (Mays 405) This doesn't stop the family from deciding to go on this trip. The next morning the grandmother was the first one in the car, she secretly brought her cat. During the trip the grandmother seem very self-centered...
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...lady. (267)” That one quote encompasses the genres that the she was trying to portray with this story: tragedy and comedy. I don’t agree that O’Connor did a magnificent fusion of the two in this story, the contradictory tone took away from the overall effect that A Good Man is Hard to Find could have had. Some of the impact that came with having a dual genre was brushed off because of the passivity in The Misfits’ character. The most noticeable shift in the story came out choppily done because of the predictability of what was going to happen. While I can’t argue that the humor was present in the story, I have to comment that it was a more subdued version due to the nature in which the story takes a sharp left turn to. If I had to choose between which of the genres was most prominent throughout the story, I’d have to say that they were almost equally split done the center. There was no merging of the two to have made the author’s effort more recognizable. On a more personal note, speaking as the reader, the more attractive of the two genres was the tragedy because The Misfits’ character got into mind, and I almost felt like a psychologist while reading his monologues. He lost himself within himself. I almost couldn’t really discern what his motivation behind killing and being the archetypal villain in this story was. Did he blame his family for being who he turned out to be? Or was it more of a “blame the system” and their faulty ways kind of twist? I liked the complexity and...
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...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...
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...take the family to Tennessee instead of Florida. By doing so, she explains to him, “Here this fellow that calls himself a Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed towards Florida and you read here what it says he did to those people. Just you read it. I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did,” (O’Connor pg. 337). The son ignores his grandmothers’ plea and goes on with the plan to...
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...This is a character analysis on the Misfit from “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (1953) by Flannery O’Connor. The story is about a family, including the grandmother, Bailey the father, the mother who is unnamed and their two kids named John Wesley and June Star, that is about to take a family vacation. The grandmother wants to go to Tennessee instead of Florida like the rest of the family. To try to convince them she tells them about a newspaper article about an escaped convict named the Misfit that is going towards Florida. Nobody pays her any mind and the next morning they are all in the car and on the road going from Atlanta to Florida. The grandmother convinces Bailey to take the kids to see an old plantation she once visited. As they are going down a winding dirt road to get there, the grandmother is so startled by the realization that the plantation is actually in Tennessee that she bumps the basket containing her cat which jumps out on to Bailey’s shoulder. They have a terrible accident but everyone is alright. Soon after the Misfit and his two lackeys come along. The family initially thinks they are going to help them until the grandmother recognizes the Misfit as the escaped convict. The Misfit talks with the grandmother while his lackeys take first, the son and father to the woods to kill them and then the mother, daughter and the baby. After a comment the grandmother makes, the Misfit shoots her three times in the chest in a boil of emotion which is quite striking from...
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...my babies”. “The misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest.” At this moment one gets the feeling that the grandmother had actually gotten to the Misfit but because of the Misfit’s beliefs he wasn’t as accepting to her grace as she was. In the beginning of the story the grandmother sees the misfit as a criminal who she wouldn’t want her family to go in the same direction as. Which she says, I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscious if I did”. Even though the grandmother was using the misfit as a way to undermine her family to get what she wanted what she said is truly how she felt about the misfit. Even later on in the story she goes on to say that Red Sam and his store would be the perfect target for the misfit because of Red Sam being “a good man”. Which she basically says that misfit is the type of evil person to take advantage of people’s kindness. As a result of this it contradicts what really happens when she finally comes face to face with the misfit. At that moment The grandmother shouts, “I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood”. After calling the misfit a criminal...
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...The misfit was a killer put in a federal prison and he escaped from the prison and was heading to Florida. Bailey’s family was also on their way to Florida for a family vacation just like every other year except this year the grandmother managed to convince them to go to Tennessee. On the way to their vacation destination the Misfit happened to come across the family on a dirt road The Misfits first reason for killing the family more specifically the grandmother, is because he had been in prison for so long that he was feeling like he needed to kill someone being in prison was like him with drawling from a drug addiction. Killing the old lady was like him feeding his addiction again The second reason the Misfit killed the grandmother is...
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...Flannery O’ Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a short story about a family road trip from hell. Early on in the story, the reader becomes appalled at the complete disrespect the members of the family have for one another, and how their dysfunctional family dynamic contributes to the horrifying trip. From the very beginning, O’ Connor’s tale gives the reader a sense of foreboding as she mentions the crazed criminal named “The Misfit” who recently broke free of the Federal Jail and is working his way to Florida—their destination. O’Connor continues to foreshadow the story’s terrible end when she describes the grandmother’s outfit: “the grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy...
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...Good Man is Hard to Find,” two main characters are developed, the grandmother and the Misfit. The two are contrasting characters based on their image of salvation, but they are similar with how they both are ultimately changed by God’s grace. To begin, the grandmother is one very interesting grandmother. She really isn’t the stereotypical grandmother one might depict. For the majority of the story, the grandmother has a hard time encountering God. It is obvious the grandmother believes she is high class and superior. For example, the grandmother pleads for her life to the Misfit with the words, “‘I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people,’” (O’Connor 127). This exclamation from the grandmother shows her hierarchal belief that she is on top of the social class structure. Furthermore, by suggesting the Misfit must come from good people, it implies she thinks she is a good person as well. Because of this mindset and her high self-esteem, the grandmother thinks she will be saved by God. This attitude blocks her from encountering God, because she doesn’t think she needs to do...
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...Marry Me MISFIT. By kerra white Marry Me Mistfit, That is not a joke. The Mistfit seems to be a mysterious guy, who honestly has no idea why he was being punished, "I call myself The Misfit […] because I can't make what all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment" (Pg. ). The story goes thorough and he is the major topic on people’s mind ever since he escaped the ‘pin’. He seems intelligent, but is the one character that actually questions life and religion. The Misfit was Put away in Prison for killing his father, but as the story goes on, he questions why he was punished, he was convinced that he had not killed his father. He spoke with certainly that His father, Had died from the epidemic flu, and he was charged with a false crime."It was a head doctor who said what I had done was kill my daddy but I known 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 was buried in the Mount Hopewell Baptist churchyard and you can go there and see for yourself." (pg.) The Misfit seems to be a very confusing person, He was talking to the old Lady about where he came from, and when the old lady asked about his parents, he told her that they were the “finest people in the world” (pg.), and even states that his “daddy’s heart was pure gold” (Pg.). But what seems to be the question was the misfit lying about killing his father or was he innocent? The question is never really told, but from the ending...
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...The Misfit should not spare the grandmother’s life because of her narcissistic, selfish nature and her unpersuasive arguments. From her feeble arguments to her unappealing character, the grandmother does not prove why she should not be killed. She repeatedly says, “You’ve got blood! I know you won’t shoot a lady” (10)! However, with the argument of gender roles, this is a futile attempt to convince the Misfit not to shoot her because he disregards being a gentleman. With the wrongdoings that were done to him, he wants others to feel the injustice he felt through killing them. In addition, when the grandmother talks about how the Misfit would not shoot a lady, she was only looking out for herself. She did not care for her son, Bailey, nor his...
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...made me see how the grandmother and the misfit were alike and different in various ways. Throughout the story, I saw a lot of traits that they had in common like how they a both controlling also how she could have been had religion not been there to help her out in her difficult times. They both have different religious views which cause them to have many problems throughout the story. The misfit and the grandmother are two different people that have different ideas and beliefs in the story one chose a different path from the other. The misfit and his friends spot the accident the grandmother and her family had here we read that the misfit is the oldest person in his gang “He was an older man than the other two. His hair was just starting to turn gray and he wore silver-rimmed spectacles that gave him a scholarly look”. The grandmother thinks he is someone she knew all her life the Misfit in some ways signifies what the grandmother could have been if she did not lose her faith which calmed her negative attitude and it kept her from turning into someone like the misfit which had faith in nothing and had no one to turn too which caused him to turn into a bad man....
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...story A Good Man is Hard to Find, a family is visited by a character dubbed “The Misfit,” who is an escaped convict and the main antagonist of the story. He explains to the family, and especially the grandmother, that he cannot remember what he did to belong in prison. Meanwhile, the grandmother tells The Misfit that he just needs to pray to Jesus and he will be holy again. However, the grandmother tries to manipulate the Misfit to get him to do what she wants, and her faith in God is fake. In A Good Man is Hard to Find, there are two misfits in the story, which are The Misfit and the grandmother. Not surprisingly, the main character, The Misfit, does not blend in with society. The Misfit portrays himself as someone that has been mistreated by society through his time in prison. He has examined his faith and doubts God. His views that he does not need God or that Jesus should not have raised the dead differs from a largely Christian southern demographic where he lives. He explains to the grandma that he can’t find good in himself, saying “I ain’t a good man,”(O'Connor 148) whereas most people see themselves as good. However, it is likely that he is a psychopath and a compulsive liar, which explains why he believes himself to be a misfit. Ali Venosa, a neuroscience reporter,...
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