“A Good Man is Hard to Find”
The Grandmother is egoistic, self-centered, and hypocritical; she is obsessed with herself and “afraid she’d miss something” (O’Connor 32). She is also judgmental and manipulative with her family and tries to convince everyone to behave as she wants, which leads to tragic consequences. The Grandmother is very racist, mocking the poor black child as a “poor little pickaninny” (O’Connor 34). However, she considers herself a proper lady, showing this with her appearance so that “in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O’Connor 33). All qualities shown in the story do not make her a likable character and do not cause sympathy for her.
The Misfit is a moral antipode of the Grandmother. Like her, he is a bad person, but if the Grandmother denies this fact, hiding behind the mask of hypocrisy, he admits it. The Misfit knows he committed a crime, saying that they had the papers on him (O’Connor 48), but at the same time, he is sure he did the right thing. Meeting him helps the Grandmother recognize her real personality, hiding behind the mask all her life. She finally understood that she was connected with what she had separated herself from for so long.
One of the symbols is the Grandmother’s hat, representing her perception of herself as a lady; even after the accident, the hat, although damaged, remains on her head. After meeting the Misfit, she lets the hat on the ground (O’Connor 45), freeing herself from her lies. The Misfit’s automobile, described as big black battered hearse (O’Connor 42), symbolizes impending death, suggesting the Misfit himself represents the reaper. The Misfit can also be interpreted as Jesus; his two companions can symbolize two criminals, between whom Jesus was crucified. The number three frequently appears in the story as he Misfit shoots the Grandmother three times, the cat appears three times, the family’s journey was supposed to last three days, which hints at a trinity as well.
“On Her Own Work”
After reading O’Connor’s essay, it becomes clearer that any good story is open to multiple interpretations. In this particular case, the connection with Christianity and the features of Southern society become more evident. O’Connor notes that the Grandmother faces death, “the most significant position life offers the Christian” (57). Her last minutes ultimately reveal the real essence of the main character to the reader; as a true Christian, at the last moment, she accepts her sins, seeks to atone for them through the interaction with the Misfit. She is not a bad person; she adheres to the traditional Southern values of the old generation to which she belongs.
The Grandmother does not seek to harm anyone; O’Connor notes that “Southern is usually tolerant of those weaknesses that proceed from innocence” (57). This idea suggests that the Misfit is not a prophet, not Jesus, but a devil who comes into conflict with good, because he says that there is “no pleasure but meanness” (O’Connor 54). Perhaps he personifies the force that seeks to bring evil into the world, but everything is not so simple again. O’Connor does not deny that he is a bad person, but she does not “want to equate the Misfit with the devil” (O’Connor 59). He seems to be struggling between accepting faith and denying it.
O’Connor hopes that the insight that the Grandmother had in her last minutes will help him return to the path from which he left to the way of the prophet. The violence presented in the story emphasizes the complex spiritual processes taking place in the characters’ souls, which should be paid attention to. The central theme of the story is, after all, faith, the Christian faith with its postulates, the theme of good and evil, acceptance of faith and redemption. Thus, many symbols get a more religious connotation, which refers to comprehending complex personal and social issues.
Work Cited
O’Connor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. Edited by Frederick Asals, Rutgers University Press, 1993.