Analysis Of A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O...

Too Good to be True
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” was written by Flannery O’Connor in nineteen fifty-three. In short, this is basically a short story about a family who goes on vacation from Georgia to Florida but, the trip ends very badly. The main character in the story is the Grandmother who thinks she is a good person but in all actuality, is an old, hateful, vain, prideful, and racist lady. Throughout this story the word good is used often, either being said or implied by the Grandmother and various other characters within the work. Towards the end of the story the Grandmother finally meets her match, the Misfit, the only character in the entire story that has a rebuttal for all of the Grandmother’s comments and suggestions. After, the …show more content…
The unworthy character within “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is the Grandmother, who is an undesirable elderly woman to say the least. O’Connor gives specific details supporting the idea of the Grandmother being the recipient of the grace or the one with the moment of redemption. Markedly, “His voice seemed about to crack and the grandmother’s head cleared for an instant. She saw the man’s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, ‘Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!’ She reached out and touched him on the shoulder (408).” It can be seen from this quote that the Grandmother was truly the recipient of redemption or a grace moment. The idea that the Grandmother is the need for grace and salvation is also seen in Arthur Bethea’s “O’Connor’s A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND” a literary and character analysis of this work. Significantly, Bethea states, “Subtly intimating that The Misfit can be touched by the divine as well as by evil and thus could serve as God’s prophet, O’Connor’s dialogue juxtaposes reference to him with the word Jesus (247).” Hence, after reading Bethea’s idea then, the reader can see that the Grandmother is the beneficiary of compassion and mercy brought about by The Misfit. Also, Katherine Keil in her article, “O’Connor’s A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND” she also points out that the Grandmother is the recipient of grace and even cites Edgecombe in her article. Notably Keil states, “The Grandmother, likewise is brought salvation by a “wretched” creature--The Misfit. At the moment of her earthly death, she is awakened to their conjoinment in divine creation (46).” In effect, from this excerpt one can understand and see not only, the purpose of the Misfit as the unlikely saviour but also, that the purpose of the Grandmother was to receive the gift of

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Analysis Of A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor