Grandmother and Misfit in A Good Man Is Hard to Find Essay

In the story A Good Man Is Hard to Find By Flannery OConnor, there are two interesting characters the grandmother and the Misfit. Both characters are developed in a different way throughout the story.

At the beginning of the story ,the character of the grandmother relates to someone who likes to voice their opinion all the time, criticize and grumble a lot ,and likes to get dressed up for any event. As the grandmother was in the car and recalled an old plantation that she had visited in the neighborhood once when she was a young lady, she kept on nagging her son to visit there. Then her son got fed up with her nonstop-talking all the way on the trip. All right!" he shouted and drew the car to a stop at the side of the road. "Will you all shut up? Will you all just shut up for one second? If you don't shut up, we won't go anywhere. But the she wouldnt stop "It would be very educational for them," the grandmother murmured, she just felt that she had to keep on nagging.

At the beginning of the story the grandmother is portrayed as a selfish pushy person. Even though at the end she is all about love and Jesus, it is because of her selfishness, the family gets murdered. Another interesting point is, she is very into to clothing and getting dressed up elegantly. She wore white gloves when going on a road trip with the family. At the point in the story where bailey is sent to the woods to get killed, the grandmother reached up to adjust her hat brim as if she were going to the woods with him but it came off in her hand. Adjusting her hat when facing a murderer who has a gun in his hand and in not afraid to use it on her or her son really depicts her personality.

The Misfit is an escaped murderer who kills the family at the end of the story and shoots the Grandmother three times in the chest. Described as wearing tan and white shoes, no socks, no shirt, he is an older man with glasses. By his speech, we can tell that he is rather uneducated. However, he speaks to the grandmother and the others with deliberate politeness. He remains calm throughout the scene as he instructs his two companions, Bobby Lee and Hiram, to take the family to the woods. He says to the Grandmother, It would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadnt reckernized me.

In the Misfits conversation with the Grandmother about Jesus throwing everything off balance,. In a long section of dialogue, the Misfit unburdens his soul to the Grandmother about his fathers death, his own mistreatment, and his feelings about the worlds injustices. He kills her when she calls him one of her own babies.His actions and words of the Misfit can be interpreted in many ways; I think its that he brings the Grandmother to a moment of grace in which she makes an unselfish, religious connection with another human being, something she had been incapable of before that time. In his comment, she would of been a good woman . . . if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life, the Misfit seems to understand that her grace required an extreme situation. The Misfit, by helping the Grandmother understands her own mortality and connection with all Gods children, may actually be an unlikely and evil messenger from God.

In conclusion I think it is a very interesting and exciting story, with two different characters, the grandmother seems to change her tune at the end of the story and the misfit reveals his life story and his theme is "It's no real pleasure in life."