A Good Man is Hard to Find, is one of Flannery O Connors most widely discussed stories. O Connor was shocked to find that her readers thought the Grandmother was evil. In actuality the Grandmother was regarded as the hero in the story. O Connor incorporates her Catholicism beliefs into her work. The lesson in A Good Man is Hard to Find is the idea and of grace. At the climax of the story the Grandmother sees the misfit as one of her own children and reaches out to him. O Connor is showing violence and grace coming together. The moment you know grace has been offered or accepted, such as the moment when the Grandmother realizes the Misfit is one of her own children. These moments are prepared for by the intensity of evil circumstances. (O Connor: Letters 368)
In A Good Man is Hard to Find the Grandmother is terrified upon her recognition the killer. Grandmother begins to remind the Misfit that he is a good man and tells him of Jesus love for him. This reassurance only stirs the Misfits homicidal rage. This keeps building, when she reaches out to him as one of her own children he shoots her in the chest three times. The Grandmother seems to be a prophet gone wrong in this story. The act of forgiveness and acceptance she shows the Misfit. By reaching out to touch him as one of her own children, is the immediate cause of her death. The Grandmothers final act is a moment of grace. The Misfit has the opportunity to accept it but jumps as if a snake had bitten him in horror at her gesture. In the Misfits final words he admits how grace worked through him and supported the Grandmothers faith. She would have been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life. (O Connor 419)
The Grandmother is not trying to save her own life by suddenly using her faith in a defense attempt. The Grandmother has talked nonstop since the family left on vacation, but is at a loss for words when she meets the Misfit. She repeats that he is a good man at heart and if he would just pray Jesus would help him. These are empty reassurances because the Misfit only looks at the world based on the concept that Jesus has thrown everything off balance.(O Connor 419) The Misfit feels he cannot place his faith in something he cannot be certain of. On the other hand Grandmother begins to cling to her faith without certainty of belief. The Misfit confesses that if he had been there he would have known and he would not be like he is now. The Grandmother realizes his lack of faith and reaches out to comfort him calling him her child. This is her most sincere gesture. The Misfit is touched by the Grace that comes through the old lady when she recognizes him as her child, as she has been touched by the Grace that comes through him in his particular suffering, O Connor states. (O Connor 67) The Misfit seems lost and confused, Its no real pleasure in life. (O Connor 419) You realize that Grandmothers unlikely gesture will turn him into the man he was meant to be.
There are moments of irony in the story A Good Man is Hard to find. At the beginning of the story Grandmother reads a story in the newspaper about the Misfit a criminal is headed toward Florida. Grandmother is hell bent on taking the family to see old friends in Tennessee instead of the planned trip to Florida. She tells her son Bailey I wouldnt take my children in any direction with a criminal a loose in it. I couldnt answer to my conscience if I did. (O Connor 410) This is exactly what happens when Grandmother leads the family down the dirt road towards a plantation, which is really located in Tennessee. After the car is overturned June Star says but nobodys killed, disappointedly. The story ends with the murder of the family, were in a terrible predicament! Nobody realizes what this is. Bailey says this when the family is first introduced to the Misfit. We the readers understand the seriousness of the situation while the characters do not. Before the family goes on vacation Grandmother dresses up, if anyone would find her day on the highway dead they would know she was a lady. Later while the family was driving through the countryside they pass a cotton field with five or six graves fenced in the middle of it. The Misfit, Bobby Lee, and Hiram arrive at the scene of the accident in a big battered hearse-like automobile. This is sign that death will come into play in the story. Every small detail in O Connors story shows significance and new meaning to the story. O Connor uses irony and foreshadowing throughout A Good Man is Hard to Find. Due to these major literary elements the reader realizes early on that something unfortunate is going to happen to the family.
O Connor believes Catholicism, she believes that Jesus is all. The Misfit thinks he is fine without Jesus, by shooting the Grandmother he rejected the world she represents. Grandmother does not believe nor understand a word of Jesus teachings. She does truly feel sympathy for the Misfits hurt. When she sees him on the verge of tears, his distress touches her heart. Grandmothers instinct is to reach out to comfort him. This action might not mean much but, it is enough to make to her the hero of the story. It was no coincidence that the whole family died in this story. The entire gruesome result of the vacation was destined from the start. This is confirmed due to O Connors beliefs. O Connor enjoys finishing off the family, their murder shows her optimism.
Works Cited
Kepos, Paula and Poupard, Dennis Editors. Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism: Volume 132. Michigan: Gale Research Inc, 1989. 227-296
O Connor, Flannery and Editor Fitzgerald, Sally. Letters of Flannery O Connor: The Habit of Being. New York: Random House, 1980. 367-368.
Roberts, Edgar V. Literature: An Introduction to Reading and Writing. New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2008. 410 -419.
Wilson, Kathleen Editor. Short Stories for Students: Volume 2. Michigan: Gale Research, 1997. 97-113.
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