Christianity in A Good Man Is Hard To Find Essay

A Good Christian is Hard to Find

In A Good Man is Hard to Find, there was a hint of irony in the story due to the fact that the Misfit seemed to have a better idea of what it meant to be a Christian than the grandmother did. Flannery OConnor was a very religious author and often made her characters experience a moment of grace at the end of the story. This leads me to believe that the good man mentioned in the title is actually a reference to God.

The grandmother considers herself to be a good Christian. However, her focus on this topic seems to be based solely on appearance. She thinks wearing nice clothes and having a great outer shell makes her somewhat of a better person. Although she claimed perfection in her Christianity, the grandmother did things such as used racial slurs, manipulated members of her family, and lied.

When asked what her definition of a good man is, the grandmother basically explains herself as the perfect characterization of a good person. I think this is true in many cases. Everyone, most of the time, believes they are right in their ways no matter how wrong they might actually be. In the text, the grandmother says, In my timePeople did right (OConnor, 1202). This is a perfect of example of the grandmother thinking the way she was raised, and the things she was taught, is the best method of being a good man. In order for the grandma to make herself believe she was in fact a perfect Christian, she had to convince herself that she was the ideal example.

The grandmother spends most of her time judging the actions of the Misfit. She speaks badly of him, which is understandable, because of the crimes and sins he has committed. However, as I mentioned previously, the grandmother has committed a few sins herself. Even though she thinks the Misfit is a much worse person than she is because he has committed murder, she is wrong. Personally, I look at murderers in a completely different light than I look at simple sinners such as liars. However, the Bible says, For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it (New International Version, John 2:10). With that being said, even though the grandmothers sins seem to be more innocent than those of the Misfit, she is nowhere close to being a perfect Christian.

Yes, the Misfit did terrible things. He was a robber and murdered many people. Yet, he had no moral pretensions or hypocrisy surrounding what he did. He seemed to be more honest with himself and what he was doing instead of hiding his true colors underneath a thick shield of a clouded version of Christianity.

In her desire to control all things around her, the grandmother eventually leads her family to a dead end. She knows what is happening to her family members as they are taken away, but she only seems to worry about her own life. This allows us to see that the grandmother is uncaring and selfish. Even though she is a victim in this tragic event, she is also somewhat of the person who caused it. After all, she is the one who chose that specific route, but that could just be a sick twist of fate.

Throughout the story, we constantly hear of the grandmothers judgmental views of the misfit. However, when she is faced with her death in the end, her hypocritical side shines through. She tells the Misfit that they are in the same category; that they are both good people. The grandmother, in her way of pleading, tries to convince the Misfit that he is indeed a good man even though she thought of him as a terrible person before he held her life in his hands.

At this point, she turns to religion, mentioning it in hopes that the Misfit will realize his wrongdoings and spare the grandmother her life. In these last moments the grandmother experiences, I think she finally realizes she is not at all the perfect Christian she once thought she was. However, with not being able to convince the Misfit to spare her life, she quickly tries to create a turnaround in her life. At these final moments, she finally finds God in the true and honest way she has never sought after before.

The quote that stuck out to me the most from the text was the Misfits final analysis of the grandmothers way of life. He says, She would have been a good womanif it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life (OConnor, 1212). The grandmother only came remotely close to being a good person once she knew her life was in danger.

In conclusion, due mainly to his lack of moral pretensions, I believe the Misfit was a better person than the grandmother. Even though he went around murdering people, the grandmother manipulated her family in many ways until the final result was the death of all of them. She was not a true Christian, with her judgmental tendencies, until her last living moments when she finally found God. This ultimately proves that for most people, until faced with a tragedy, a good man, which refers to God, can be very hard to find.

Works Cited

"James 2:10." Holy Bible: New International Version. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005. Print.

O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." The Norton Anthology of Short Fiction. By Richard Bausch and R. V. Cassill. 7th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006. 1201- 212. Print.