“A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a fiction book and a collection of short stories written by Flannery O’Connor. In the short story with the same title, the author focuses on the story of a family’s vacation to Florida, during which this family meets a criminal named The Misfit. This research paper will focus on the analysis of Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
“A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a book about a family trip that reveals some of the common interpersonal conflicts. The main characters of this story are the grandmother, her son Bailey, Bailey’s wife, and John Wesley. First, it is important to understand the plot of “The Good Man is Hard to Find” to analyze the themes and literary devices the author used. This book begins with the grandmother trying to persuade her son, Bailey, and his wife to spend their vacation in east Tennessee rather than Florida (Mambrol). She mentions a story about the Misfit, an escaped criminal on his way to Florida, and says the kids have already been there. Eight-year-old John Wesley urges that his grandma stays at home, but his sister, June Star, snarls that his grandmother would never do such a thing. One important aspect of this story is that it is told from the viewpoint of the grandmother, who is depicted as a selfish woman (Merchant 50). In the end, her choices and attitude towards her family cause the death of her family.
The grandma conceals her cat, Pitty Sing, in a basket in the car on the day of the trip. She dresses up and wears a hat with flowers on it so that if there is an accident, people would recognize her as “a lady” (O’Connor 10). This shows the values that this grandmother has, as she is more concerned about how she would be seen in case of an accident, but she is not concerned with the life and well-being of her family. In the automobile, John Wesley expresses his dislike for Georgia, and his grandmother chastises him for disrespecting his native state (O’Connor 10). Again, this shows the grandmother’s lack of respect and affection for her family, which is an important theme of this story. When they travel through a cotton field, she remarks that there are plantation tombs in the center of it and quips that the plantation has “Gone with the Wind” (O’Connor 15). She later narrates a story about an old suitor named Edgar Atkins Teagarden. Every week, Edgar gave her a watermelon cut with his initials, E. A. T. He once put it on the porch, and a black youngster ate it because he mistook the word “eat” for “eat” (O’Connor 10). Over the course of this story, this family meets the criminal whose name is The Misfit. The latter steals the family’s car their belongings and murders all members of this family.
One of the main themes of this short story is the grandmother’s inadequate views on life and her values that, in the end, cause her and her family’s death. One issue is that this grandmother puts the label “good” on anybody and everything, distorting the idea of a “good guy” until the title loses all significance (Actis). She initially uses it on a character named Red Sammy after he angrily rants about people’s overall untrustworthiness. He asks her why he allowed two strangers to charge their gasoline, and she responds he did it because he’s “a wonderful man” (O’Connor 12). Evidently, this episode shows that the grandmother’s definition of “good” in this case appears to encompass gullibility, poor judgment, and blind trust and does not relate to the qualities of actually good people.
Moreover, this lack of judgment of the grandmother leads to her trusting a criminal who caused the death of her family at the end of the story. The Misfit is also labeled as “good” by her, despite his behavior (Sustana). When she identifies him, she asks him whether he’d shoot a lady, but he never replies he would not, which the grandmother should have perceived as a sign that this is a bad man. Another aspect of this story is that the author never provides a name for the grandmother. The other characters have names, or some titles that identify them, for example, the Misfit. Hence, this short story prompts the readers to reflect on the relationships within a family and the lack of logical thinking and judgment of the grandmother that leads to a family tragedy.
In summary, this paper is a research on Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” This story is a fictional text which focuses on a family trip to Florida. Over the course of this trip, the family argues and meets a criminal. The plot of this story aims to show the selfishness and individualism of the grandmother. Moreover, the grandmother’s lack of judgment that manifests in her labeling each person “a good life” eventually caused her and her family’s death.
Works Cited
Actis, Leela. “The Grotesque as a Tool of The Past in as I Lay Dying and “A Good Man is Hard To Find,” UVM Scholarworks, 2022, Web.
Mambrol, Nasrullah. “Analysis Of Flannery O’Connor’S A Good Man Is Hard To Find.” Literary Theory And Criticism, 2021, Web.
Merchant, Adrienne. “Good vs. Evil as Seen in the Characterization of “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Science Fiction, Web.
O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing: Custom Edition, edited by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Prentice Hall, 2011, pp. 1-12.
Sustana, Catherine. “Humor and Violence in Flannery O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” ThoughCo, Web.