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Analysis of Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 25, 2021

Frequently anthologized, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” exemplifies Flannery O’Connor’s southern religious grounding. The story depicts the impact of Christ on the lives of two seemingly disparate characters. One is a grandmother joining her son’s family on a trip to Florida. Accompanied by a silent daughter-in-law, a baby, two unpleasant children, and her smuggled cat, she wheedles the son into making a detour to see a plantation that she remembers from an earlier time.

Moments of recognition and connection multiply as the seemingly foreordained meeting of the grandmother and the killer she has read about in the paper takes place. She upsets the basket in which she has hidden her cat; the cat lands on her son’s neck, causing an accident. Soon three men appear on the dirt road, and the grandmother recognizes one of them as the notorious killer the Misfit.

Flannery O’Connor/National Catholic Register

O’Connor weaves the notion of punishment and Christian love into the conversation between the Misfit and the grandmother while the grandmother’s family is being murdered. Referring to the similarity that he shares with Christ, the Misfit declares that “Jesus thrown everything off balance” (27), but he admits that unlike Christ, he must have committed a crime because there were papers to prove it. When the grandmother touches his shoulder because she sees him as one of her own children, she demonstrates a Christian love that causes him to shoot her.

This story typifies O’Connor’s mingling of comedy, goodness, banality, and violence in her vision of a world that, however imperfect, most readers inevitably recognize as part of their own. O’Connor views the world as a place where benevolence and good intentions conflict with perversity and evil, and her protagonists frequently learn too late that their lives can crumble in an instant when confronted by the very real powers of darkness.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Kessler, Edward. Flannery O’Connor and the Language of Apocalypse. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986. Orvell, Miles. Flannery O’Connor: An Introduction. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991

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A Good Man Is Hard to Find Analysis: Essay Example & Summary

Are you about to write  A Good Man Is Hard to Find theme essay? Then, make sure to check this sample out! Here, you’ll find the story’s summary, moral lesson, themes, and other aspects of the analysis. Keep reading to get some inspiration for your A Good Man Is Hard to Find thesis! 

A great writer Flannery O’Connor has always been a central figure in American literature. Just like her colleague Nadine Gordimer, she covered the moral issues in her bizarre stories. Her short story A Good Man is Hard to Find provides a solid ground for literary analysis. Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find analysis will help you better grasp the story.

Introduction

A Good Man is Hard to Find appeared in 1955 and remains a widely-discussed story up till nowadays. Flannery O’Connor combined the most thoughts-provocative issues of that time in a short piece (Kinney 1). Although society has developed since then, people still deal with the problems mentioned by Flannery O’Connor. A Good Man is Hard to Find analysis will discuss two key themes of the story: selfishness and individualism.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Summary

A Good Man is Hard to Find is a tragic short story about a family. A grandmother, father, mother, and three kids are going to visit Florida. At first sight, they seem to be good country people. However, there are many pitfalls. Their older children – John Wesley and June Star – are very boorish and ignorant. The mother devotes herself to her kids, not having enough time to live a fulfilled life. The father seems to be annoyed by his children. Finally, the grandmother thinks only about herself, not paying enough attention to the family.

Despite the rumors about the escaped prisoner, The Misfit, the family goes on a trip. While on the way to Florida, the grandmom suddenly remembers an old plantation. Many years ago, she was astonished by its incredible beauty. So, she convinces Bailey, the father, to go off the road and visit that place. Being unsure if she is pointing in the right direction, the grandmother loses her control. As a result, she does not manage to hold her cat. It jumps on Bailey’s shoulder, causing a car accident.

Fortunately, everybody stayed alive. But then, the real troubles start. Trying to deal with the situation, the family hopes somebody will stop by them and offer help. Suddenly, the car appears on the road. The three men get out of the car, and the grandmom recognizes The Misfit among them. In desperate attempts to save her life, the grandmother tries to convince the criminal that he is a good man. She asks him to pray to become closer to Jesus. However, her effort is useless. Ultimately, The Misfit commands to kill all the family members and kills the grandmom himself. That is how dramatically the story ends. 

A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Literary Analysis

Selfishness and individualism are the essential themes covered in the story A Good Man is Hard to Find . In the story, the grandmother prioritized her interests rather than the interest of her family. As a result, the tragic ending occurred to everybody. With the example of the grandmom, the author shows how the desire to achieve personal needs affects society.

Selfishness

The main character of the story – the grandmother – is an entirely selfish woman. Her selfishness reflects in the way she acts, the way she interacts with her family, and even in the way she dresses up.

The grandmother is always concerned about her appearance. She is obsessed with the idea of being a lady. So, she dresses up in elegant dresses and fancy hats. She hopes that “in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O’Connor 2). Thus, she does not spend time with her grandchildren or help her daughter-in-law with household chores. Instead, the grandmother devotes all her time to herself, choosing appropriate dresses and hats.

Besides being ignorant, the grandmom is also a manipulative woman. She effectively manipulates her family members to suit her interests. For example, she takes her cat on a trip despite Bailey’s prohibition against doing that. She just thinks her cat would miss her if she left it alone at home. As a result, the cat becomes a cause of a terrible car crash.

Moreover, the grandmother manipulates her family to see a plantation she saw many years ago. After taking a nap in the car, she suddenly remembers a beautiful place she visited while young. She wants to recall these memories, so she urges her son to go off the road. The grandmother is sure that Bailey will not be willing to spend much time on an old plantation. Thus, she lies to her grandchildren’s children about a secret panel with plenty of silver in that house. The woman says: “It’s not far from here, I know. It wouldn’t take over twenty minutes” (O’Connor 5). In reality, she does not know for sure how long it would take to reach that place. However, her sense of self-importance makes her lie to her family. She manipulates her son to achieve the desired result.

Grandmom’s selfish purposes create dangerous circumstances for the family. Being under the pressure of his mother, Bailey follows her directions. As a result, they get into a car accident and meet The Misfit. 

Individualism

In addition to selfishness, the grandmother’s character traits also include individualism. In the story, the woman’s individualism is confronted with the individualism of the Misfit. Both characters achieve their own needs through surrounding people. They take whatever they need and move forward, not taking into consideration the needs of others. As a result of this behavior, the world becomes a place where “community holds no value” (Hooten 198).

Both the grandmom and The Misfit are predisposed to be humane. For example, the woman tries to convince the prisoner about the significance of spiritual values. Thus, she has a clear image of what kindness means. Similarly, The Misfit seems to be a well-behaved person from first sight. For instance, he apologizes for being dressed improperly. Nevertheless, in the inner battle of good and evil, evil wins in both characters. 

Therefore, individualism takes the upper hand in the character set of both: the grandmother and the Misfit. While being ignorant of other people, the woman and the criminal destroy society. Their individualistic nature becomes a real threat to the surrounding people. 

The analysis of A Good Man is Hard to Find reveals an intriguing aspect. The grandmother and The Misfit have very similar personalities. They both are ready to lie, manipulate, and murder to fulfill their desires.

A Good Man is Hard to Find essay covers Flannery O’Connor’s concern. The themes of selfishness and individualism worry the author. This issue is critical and should be dealt with immediately. If people keep being selfish individualists, the world will become a group of “self-focused wanderers without a community who use others as means to their own ends” (Hooten 197).

• Gresham, Stephen. Things Darkly Buried: In Praise of A Good Man Is Hard to Find. 2010, Shenandoah , 1-2: 17-18. Web.
• Hooten, Jessica. Individualism in O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find. 2008, The Explicator , 4: 197-198. Web.
• Kinney, Arthur F. A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Overview. 1994, Reference Guide to Short Fiction. Noelle Watson. Detroit: St. James Press 1-2. Print.
• O’Connor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. 2 011, Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, Drama, and Writing: Custom Edition . X.J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall. 1-12. Print.

How do you start A Good Man Is Hard to Find analysis essay?

The best way to start an essay on A Good Man Is Hard to Find is to state a clear thesis statement. First, decide on the main points you are going to present. Then, develop a strong thesis, including those ideas. Put everything in words and impress your audience from the very beginning of your essay.

What is the main theme of A Good Man Is Hard to Find?

A Good Man Is Hard to Find covers a lot of crucial issues. However, the central theme is the destructive nature of selfishness and individualism. Flannery O’Connor points out that these traits lead to the establishment of an immoral society.

How would you describe the grandmother in A Good Man Is Hard to Find?

The grandmother is a woman from the Old South. She considers herself an elegant and graceful lady. In fact, she is a selfish, judgmental, and manipulative granny. She gets what she desires by disrespecting the people that surround her.

What is the message in A Good Man Is Hard to Find?

Flannery O’Connor’s message is that human compassion and grace may change even the most ignorant person. It is best seen during the final encounter between the grandmother and The Misfit.

Is the Misfit a good man?

It is a controversial question, and the reader needs to decide for himself. On the one hand, The Misfit is a dangerous escaped convict. He does not feel responsible for his actions and does not believe in God. On the other hand, he compares himself to Jesus. The Misfit gets into a deep philosophical conversation with the grandmother.

What literary devices are used in A Good Man Is Hard to Find?

A Good Man Is Hard to Find is full of literary devices. The author uses symbolism, irony, foreshadowing, and philosophical thoughts that awaken conversations. These literary devices help the reader understand the story’s moral and experience it better.

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A Summary and Analysis of Flannery O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ is one of the best-known short stories by Flannery O’Connor (1925-64), who produced a string of powerful stories during her short life. First published in the collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find in 1955, the story is about an American family who run into an escaped murderer at a plantation.

Before we offer an analysis of some of the key details of the story, here’s a brief summary of its plot.

Plot summary

The story is about a grandmother, her son named Bailey, Bailey’s wife, and the couple’s three children, named June Star, John Wesley, and simply ‘the baby’. The family are going on holiday to Florida. At the beginning of the story, the grandmother points out to her son that a notorious criminal, known as the Misfit, is on the loose and she doesn’t think they should be going on vacation to Florida when the Misfit is rumoured to be heading there.

On their way to their destination, the grandmother tells the children a story of how she was courted by a wealthy man who used to leave her a watermelon every day with his initials, E. A. T., inscribed in it. However, one day a black boy saw the word ‘EAT’ on the watermelon and ate it. This story amuses the children.

The family then stop off for lunch a barbecue diner, The Tower, run by a man named Red Sammy, who talks to the grandmother about the Misfit. It is Red Sammy who remarks, ‘A good man is hard to find’, in reference to the dangerous convict on the loose.

When the family get back on the road, the grandmother persuades her son to take a detour to a plantation she remembers from her youth. She embellishes the story by inventing details, such as the idea that a secret panel concealed the family silver in the house.

However, she has misremembered where the plantation is: Tennessee, rather than Georgia (where the family are). When the grandmother’s cat escapes from his basket and frightens Bailey, he crashes the car into a ditch.

Another car approaches them. It contains three men, one of whom the grandmother recognises as the notorious Misfit. He seems familiar to her, as though she has known him for years.

When she blurts out that she recognises him, the Misfit tells them that it would have been better if she hadn’t recognised him. He talks to the grandmother while his two accomplices lead Bailey into the woods and shoot him. They then do the same with Bailey’s wife and the children. The grandmother tries to flatter the Misfit into sparing her life, telling him that she knows he’s a good man, but to no avail.

The story ends with the grandmother addressing the Misfit as one of her own ‘babies’ or ‘children’; the Misfit shoots her dead. The Misfit has the final word, observing that the grandmother would have been a good woman if she had had someone there ‘to shoot her every minute of her life.’

The character of the grandmother is central to the dramatic power of ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’. The first two words of the story are ‘The grandmother’; the story begins with her warning her son about the escaped Misfit and ends with her being shot dead by the Misfit; the story opens with the third-person narrator’s reference to Bailey as the grandmother’s ‘only boy’ but ends with her addressing the Misfit as one of her ‘own children’.

And although ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ is narrated by an impersonal third-person narrator, in terms of the story’s focalisation we remain close to the grandmother’s perspective on events, seeing things through her eyes and gaining access to her thoughts and feelings as the story approaches its shocking and dramatic climax.

The skill of O’Connor’s writing lies in her ability to shuttle rapidly between comedic moments poking gentle fun at the grandmother and darker plot developments. The point is not that the shift between these two very different modes seems awkward or out of place, but that O’Connor lends the already shocking moments at the end of the story an even more alarming element, through juxtaposing them with lighter comic interludes.

A central theme of O’Connor’s story is, as the title makes clear, goodness: note how the grandmother and Red Sammy’s repeated references to a ‘good man’ meet their match in the Misfit’s statement at the end of the story that the grandmother would have been a ‘good woman’ if someone had been there to (threaten to) shoot her at all times.

This statement of the Misfit’s also highlights another theme O’Connor is exploring: that of crime and punishment. The Misfit tells the grandmother that the punishments he has undergone don’t match with the crimes he has committed. But the story contains a religious angle, too, as exemplified by the grandmother’s epiphany at the end of the story, in which – when confronted with her own imminent death – she reaches out and acknowledges her killer as one of her ‘children’.

This blessing is in stark contrast to the Misfit, who – in almost Dostoevskian fashion – characterises Christianity as a case of either giving up anything and following Christ or rejecting him and doing as one pleases. Anything – murder, burning down someone’s house – is permissible and constitutes the only true pleasure one can get from life.

The grandmother’s final act of blessing (forgiveness, or a last desperate attempt to save her own life?) raises this petty, racially prejudiced, and comical old woman far above the level of the nihilistic Misfit and all he represents.

Of course, it may also be significant that the Misfit – who was accused by one of the prison psychiatrists of killing his own father – personally kills the grandmother, who represents an old and outmoded America. Flannery O’Connor’s story is about a changing America, and the text is marked by the Grandmother’s continual reminiscences about a better, simpler life when she was younger.

The story’s title, taken from Red Sammy’s conversation with the Grandmother in which they lament that the world has become debased and degraded during their lifetimes, places this mood and tone at the centre of the story.

In this connection, the grandmother’s attitude towards African-Americans is already outdated, even in 1955 when the story first appeared.

Her racial stereotypes , such as associating African-Americans with watermelons, the offensive words she uses to describe the black boy they pass in the car, and her casual presumptions about the lives of black people all mark her out as a representative of an older American outlook which is about to be entirely laid to rest with the onset of the US Civil Rights movement. (The Montgomery Bus Boycott , for example, occurred at the end of 1955, the year the story appeared.)

Final thoughts

Viewed this way, ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ might be productively analysed alongside a another key American text from the 1950s: Tennessee Williams’ play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , also from 1955, similarly deals with the generational gap between an older America and the younger Americans who represent a new attitude, especially regarding race.

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Analysis of Flannery O'Connor's Story, 'A Good Man Is Hard to Find'

Good Versus Evil in a Road Trip Gone Awry

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"A Good Man Is Hard to Find," first published in 1953, is among the most famous stories by Georgia writer Flannery O'Connor . O'Connor was a staunch Catholic, and like most of her stories, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" wrestles with questions of good and evil and the possibility of divine grace.

A grandmother is traveling with her family (her son Bailey, his wife, and their three children) from Atlanta to Florida for a vacation. The grandmother, who would prefer to go to East Tennessee, informs the family that a violent criminal known as The Misfit is loose in Florida, but they do not change their plans. The grandmother secretly brings her cat in the car.

They stop for lunch at Red Sammy's Famous Barbecue, and the grandmother and Red Sammy commiserate that the world is changing and "a good man is hard to find."

After lunch, the family begins driving again and the grandmother realizes they are near an old plantation she once visited. Wanting to see it again, she tells the children that the house has a secret panel and they clamor to go. Bailey reluctantly agrees. As they drive down a rough dirt road, the grandmother suddenly realizes that the house she is remembering is in Tennessee, not Georgia.

Shocked and embarrassed by the realization, she accidentally kicks over her belongings, releasing the cat, which jumps onto Bailey's head and causes an accident.

A car slowly approaches them, and The Misfit and two young men get out. The grandmother recognizes him and says so. The two young men take Bailey and his son into the woods, and shots are heard . Then they take the mother, the daughter, and the baby into the woods. More shots are heard. Throughout, the grandmother pleads for her life, telling The Misfit she knows he's a good man and entreating him to pray.

He engages her in a discussion about goodness, Jesus, and crime and punishment. She touches his shoulder, saying, "Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!" but The Misfit recoils and shoots her.

Defining 'Goodness'

The grandmother's definition of what it means to be "good" is symbolized by her very proper and coordinated traveling outfit. O'Connor writes:

In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.

The grandmother is clearly concerned with appearances above all else. In this hypothetical accident, she worries not about her death or the deaths of her family members, but about strangers' opinions of her. She also demonstrates no concern for the state of her soul at the time of her imagined death, but we think that's because she's operating under the assumption that her soul is already as pristine as her "navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim."

She continues to cling to superficial definitions of goodness as she pleads with The Misfit. She entreats him not to shoot "a lady," as if not murdering someone is just a question of etiquette. And she reassures him that she can tell he's "not a bit common," as if lineage is somehow correlated with morality.

Even The Misfit himself knows enough to recognize that he "ain't a good man," even if he "ain't the worst in the world neither."

After the accident, the grandmother's beliefs begin to fall apart just like her hat, "still pinned to her head but the broken front brim standing up at a jaunty angle and the violet spray hanging off the side." In this scene, her superficial values are revealed as ridiculous and flimsy.

O'Connor tells us that as Bailey is led into the woods, 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. She stood staring at it, and after a second, she let it fall on the ground.

The things she has thought were important are failing her , falling uselessly around her, and she now has to scramble to find something to replace them.

A Moment of Grace?

What she finds is the idea of prayer, but it's almost as if she's forgotten (or never knew) how to pray. O'Connor writes:

Finally, she found herself saying, 'Jesus, Jesus,' meaning, Jesus will help you, but the way she was saying it, it sounded as if she might be cursing.

All her life, she has imagined that she is a good person, but like a curse, her definition of goodness crosses the line into evil because it is based on superficial, worldly values.

The Misfit may openly reject Jesus, saying, "I'm doing all right by myself," but his frustration with his own lack of faith ("It ain't right I wasn't there") suggests that he's given Jesus a lot more thought than the grandmother has.

When faced with death, the grandmother mostly lies, flatters, and begs. But at the very end, she reaches out to touch The Misfit and utters those rather cryptic lines, "Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!"

Critics disagree on the meaning of those lines, but they could possibly indicate that the grandmother finally recognizes the connectedness among human beings. She may finally understand what The Misfit already knows—that there is no such thing as "a good man," but that there is good in all of us and also evil in all of us, including in her.

This may be the grandmother's moment of grace—her chance at divine redemption. O'Connor tells us that "her head cleared for an instant," suggesting that we should read this moment as the truest moment in the story. The Misfit's reaction also suggests that the grandmother may have hit upon divine truth. As someone who openly rejects Jesus, he recoils from her words and her touch. Finally, even though her physical body is twisted and bloody, the grandmother dies with "her face smiling up at the cloudless sky" as if something good has happened or as if she has understood something important.

A Gun to Her Head

At the beginning of the story, The Misfit starts out as an abstraction for the grandmother. She doesn't really believe they'll encounter him; she's just using the newspaper accounts to try to get her way. She also doesn't really believe that they'll get into an accident or that she'll die; she just wants to think of herself as the kind of person whom other people would instantly recognize as a lady, no matter what.

It is only when the grandmother comes face to face with death that she begins to change her values. (O'Connor's larger point here, as it is in most of her stories, is that most people treat their inevitable deaths as an abstraction that will never really happen and, therefore, don't give enough consideration to the afterlife.)

Possibly the most famous line in all of O'Connor's work is The Misfit's observation, "She would have been a good woman […] if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." On the one hand, this is an indictment of the grandmother, who always thought of herself as a "good" person. But on the other hand, it serves as final confirmation that she was, for that one brief epiphany at the end, good.

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Discovering Good | Analysis of A Good Man is Hard to Find

By David Dingfelder

Flannery O’Connor explores the meaning of the word “good” through her short story A Good Man is Hard to Find . After a series of deceptions and wrongdoings, O’Connor depicts a grandma leading her family to be killed by a runaway outlaw named “The Misfit.” While the family was traveling to Florida for vacation, the true journey follows the grandma as she begins to understand the true meaning of the word “good” – the most general and most frequently used adjective of commendation in the English language (Oxford English Dictionary). To define a word so commonly overused and socially defined, O’Connor builds the concept of her definition of “good” through the grandma’s interactions with the other characters in the story. By virtue of her interactions with her family, Red Sammy, and “The Misfit,” the grandma transitions from complete ignorance, to misunderstanding, and finally to acceptance of what it means to be “good.”

Initially depicting the grandma as a flawed character with an entirely misconstrued understanding of the word enables O’Connor to establish what does not qualify as “good.” In addition to the grandma’s heedless acts of deception, the narrative uses children as a pure and untainted lens of judgment to expose the flaws in the grandma’s character. In response to the Grandma’s opening efforts to switch the vacation destination, the little girl June delivers a deeply profound critique: “[The grandma] Wouldn’t stay home for a million bucks… She has to go everywhere we go” (1). The establishment of Grandma’s flaws continues as O’Connor parallels the grandma’s perception of herself with the games of the children. Prior to departing on the trip, the grandma dresses with trimmed “collars and cuffs” so that “anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (2). This insight into the grandma’s mindset is soon followed by the description of the children identifying clouds in the sky. While seemingly insignificant, the sky serves as an extended metaphor for the grandma’s understanding of goodness across the work. The children identifying clouds signal the grandma’s clouded understanding of what it means to be “good.”  Rather than worrying about the wellbeing of her son or her family in the event of an accident, the grandma is primarily concerned with others perceiving her as a lady. The clouds symbolize the opinions of others that block to the true meaning of goodness, the sun.

The interaction between the grandma and Red Sammy initiates O’Connor’s discovery of the misunderstandings and contradictions involved in the word “good.” Early into the grandma’s discussion with Red Sammy, the definition of the word “good” becomes confounded as the grandma calls Red Sammy “a good man” immediately after Red Sammy defines a car as “good.” Instead of taking this as a compliment, Red Sammy is “struck with this answer” (6). Juxtaposing these uses of the same word exemplifies its overuse and stale meaning – explaining why Red Sammy feels no sense of satisfaction when complimented. O’Connor furthers the problematic use of the word when Red Sammy states, “a good man is hard to find” (6). This statement is riddled with irony as the word “good” is used profusely but a “good man” is uncommon – creating a paradox with which O’Connor argues that a word that represents anything also represents nothing. The conversation with Red Sammy also highlights the inconsistency in Grandma’s definition of “good.” The grandma compliments Red Sammy for being naïve and gullible with his interactions with the two boys stealing gas, yet condemns her granddaughter for her insightful and honest comment earlier. It becomes apparent that the grandma is not only flawed but she is also unsure of how to become good.

Through the grandma’s interaction with “The Misfit,” the story paints the grandma’s reverse bildungsroman moment by depicting a profound environment that accompanies her change in grieving and perceptions surrounding what it means to be good.

A raw and honest atmosphere is developed as O’Connor describes the cloudless sky with nothing around the grandma but the woods (9). Contrary earlier in the work, the clouds that blocked the sky had cleared, symbolizing the clarity in the grandma’s perception of goodness. Further, this moment of reckoning takes place on the side of a dirt road with the woods in the background – a natural and profound environment. The use of imagery hints towards the deeply philosophical understanding of morality and goodness that the grandma gains from this interaction.

The shift in the grandma’s grieving signifies the acknowledgment of what it means to be good. Immediately after the grandma realizes that the man was “The Misfit,” she selfishly questions, “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?” (11). The use of the word “lady” again demonstrates that the grandma is still solely concerned about the perception of others, in addition to her not caring about her family. However, her grieving changes as she starts wailing “Bailey boy” for her son (12). This appears to be the first time in the work that the grandma is concerned about someone other than herself. This transition expresses O’Connor’s belief that goodness is an internal trait that is portrayed to – rather than perceived by – others. When the grandma stopped worrying about her perception and started worrying about her family is when she became good.

Further, O’Connor argues that goodness transcends superficial actions such as practicing religion. Despite the grandma’s attempts to pray, “she opened and closed her mouth several times before anything came out” (15). Her inability to pray symbolizes that prayer and religion do not equate goodness.  This realization is what causes the grandma to understand that no actions define what it means to be good. Despite their differences, the grandma now understands that little differentiates her and the misfit, stating, “Why you’re [The Misfit] one of my babies. You’re one of my own children” (16). In denial, The Misfit recoils at the accusation that he is good too and shoots the grandma three times. The grandma dies happily with “with her legs crossed under her like a child’s and her face smiling up at the cloudless sky,” tying back into the innocence and purity associated with children (16).

O’Connor’s development of a definition for the word “good” ultimately serves as a social critique. Due to the overuse of the word, the definition of “good” has been spread too thin, depriving the word of true meaning. While a grave ending, this short story serves as a reminder of that “goodness” is not obtained through performative demonstrations or self-centered thoughts. O’Connor’s choice to never fully define the word “good” indicates how the definition of “good” continues to elude us. On the path to becoming good, the first step is identifying what does not qualify as good.

Sources Cited

“Definition of Good.” UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries, Oxford English Dictionary,

www-oed-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/view/Entry/79925?rskey=d7aiwZ&result=1#eid.

O’Connor, Flannery.  “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”  American Studies at the University of

Virginia, 2009, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/goodman.html.   Originally published in

T he Avon Book of Modern Writing .  New York: Avon Publishing, 1953, pp. 27-33.

A Good Man is Hard to Find

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Good and Evil

The most prominent theme in the story—mentioned even in the title—is the idea of goodness and, by extension, the notion of evil. The grandmother labels several characters in the story “good” men, including both Red Sammy and The Misfit himself. Her definition of goodness has few firm characteristics other than a connection to one’s blood and heritage. For example, she insists that The Misfit would never shoot a lady because he comes from good people with good blood. Her definition of goodness is also related to her own personal thoughts and beliefs. Essentially, people who agree with her opinions are good people in her mind. 

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A Good Man is Hard to Find

Flannery o’connor, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

The characters of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” live by a variety of moral codes, and both the story’s title and the Grandmother ’s conversation with Red Sam bring up the idea of goodness, and what makes a “good man.” In the end, as the Grandmother still insists that the Misfit —who has just murdered her entire family—is a “good man,” the question lingers: does being “good” depend on one’s internal character or external actions? Or does it depend on something else entirely?

The Grandmother seems to believe that being a good person means being honest, respectful, and polite. She tells Red Sam that he is a “good man,” even though all she has seen of him is that he puts on a show of friendliness and easy nostalgia in order to help his business. The Grandmother also laments that the family can no longer leave their screen door open without fear of theft—as they used to, apparently. She blames, somehow, Europe for her own country’s decay, and criticizes Europeans for spending too much, as frugality seems to be another part of her criteria for decency. Speaking to the Misfit, she repeatedly insists that he would never shoot an old lady. Her sense of goodness is so based on traditional morals (and just tradition) that, even in the face of cold-blooded murder, she thinks that her old age and “respectability” will prevent the Misfit from harming her.

To the Misfit, however, the question of what makes a good man seems utterly irrelevant. He claims to have always known that he was not a good person, that he was always different from his sisters and brothers. He views crime casually—a way to make the most of his limited, pointless time on Earth. Other than when he is talking to the Grandmother, he does not seem to compare himself against any standard of good character—and thus he does not consider himself morally inferior or wicked. Instead, he simply does what he wills.

O’Connor does not attempt to answer what true “goodness” is, but rather adds complexity to the question itself. By presenting different and even ironic models of a “good person”—the Grandmother, Bailey , Red Sammy—she makes the reader feel the difficulty of the question, and the ambiguity of morality itself. Then, cutting through the heart of the issue entirely, she brings in the Misfit, whose very existence threatens the validity of any kind of objective “goodness.” O’Connor’s purpose is not to answer such questions, but to dissolve them: to make us more aware of how verbalized concepts and platitudes cannot touch the true mysteries of existence.

Goodness ThemeTracker

Goodness Quotes in A Good Man is Hard to Find

Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.

“Let’s go through Georgia fast so we won’t have to look at it much,” John Wesley said. “If I were a little boy,” said the grandmother, “I wouldn’t talk about my native state that way. Tennessee has the mountains and Georgia has the hills.” “Tennessee is just a hillbilly dumping ground,” John Wesley said, “and Georgia is a lousy state too.”

“Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!” she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack. “Wouldn’t that make a picture, now?”

The grandmother said she would have done well to marry Mr. Teagarden because he was a gentleman and had bought Coca-Cola stock when it first came out and that he had died only a few years ago, a very wealthy man.

“A good man is hard to find,” Red Sammy said. “Everything is getting terrible. I remembered the day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more.”

“I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people!”

“Nome, I ain’t a good man,” The Misfit said after a second as if he had considered her statement carefully, “but I ain’t the worst in the world neither. My daddy said I was a different breed from my brothers and sisters. ‘You know,’ Daddy said, ‘it’s some that can live their whole life out without asking about it and it’s other has to know why it is, and this boy is one of the latters. He’s going to be into everything!’”

“I never was a bad boy that I remember of,” The Misfit said in an almost dreamy voice, “but somewhere along the line I done something wrong and got sent to the penitentiary. I was buried alive.”

“Well then, why don’t you pray?” she asked trembling with delight suddenly.

“I don’t want no hep,” he said. “I’m doing all right by myself.

“Then it’s nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can—by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness.”

“She would have been a good woman,” The Misfit said, “if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.”

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” vs. “Good Country People”: Themes & Characters Analysis

Introduction.

Although the prose is the genre that is as a natural material for the structural criticism in contrast to poetry, there are some problems found in the analysis of some pieces of prose as well.

Although the stories written by an outstanding American writer Flannery O’Connor are each a structurally independent piece, there are certain similarities in some of her novels. The novels in question are those called “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People.” Themes, characters, and settings of these two novels will be compared in this research paper.

Although the texts touch upon entirely different aspects of people’s lives, they are strikingly similar when one takes a closer look at them. First of all, it is essential to consider the elements of the abovementioned texts. Their diversity should not deceive, for they deal with the same topic.

Settings of “Good Country People” & “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

The difference between the settings of “Good Country People” and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is not that big as it might have seen at first. The first novel depicts a country road and a family moving towards the destination unknown, with an ambush on their way, and the bandits robbing and killing them. These settings are tragic and make one think of the fragility of life and the danger waiting for the travelers on their life journey.

The other text, which is supposed to make quite a different impression, has the settings unchanged – or, it should be said, they have been modified a little for the reader to get trapped into the split between the reality and the novel.

Both stories unwind in the same environment. The road that the family in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is a symbol of the life path – or the way that we choose. In this respect, F.O’Connor is practically following the footprints of O’Henry with his themes of crime and punishment. No wonder that she on the O’Henry award (Kirk 16) once, for the art of depicting life as it is, without subdividing people into criminals and judges, or the poor and the rich, or the right and the wrong.

The idea of the wrong and the right is what following each piece of O’Connor’s prose. This is also a central “Good Country People” theme. The author is trying to convey the simple thesis of people’s imperfection and the world being, in fact, a place where terrible mistakes and misconceptions occur often. And she manages to do it brilliantly.

Characters in “Good Country People” & “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”

Speaking of the characters involved in both pieces, one must admit that the pattern taken by the author once is deliberately repeating itself in each of her stories. The critics go further in their suggestions about the topics implemented in the story. For instance, Spivey suggests that Flannery O’Connor depicts the collapsing world in her story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”: “In the first and the last stories of A Good Man Is Hard to Find, O’Connor presented her profound visions of the destruction of paralyzed worlds” (124).

Spivey also thinks that O’Connor wants to create the impression of the destruction of the fabricated view in the story (125). Indeed, as the old lady in the story dies, the last ray of hope for the world to stay the way it used to fade away, and the remaining of the past that the family was is buried now.

Analysis of “Good Country People” shows that the scenery there takes a lot after the previous story. Yet it lacks the idea of the journey that leads nowhere, while the previous novel was breathing with it. Here, everything is ok, but the author brings her readers again to the same atmosphere of the country that no longer exists – the old traditions of the American South that are slowly dying out.

What strikes most is O’Connor’s persistent attempt to depict the people who are painfully trying to keep the things that exist no longer and to revive the traditions and morals that have been left in the previous century. Their efforts have no result, yet they are resorting to the last hope of theirs, but they cannot understand that the old model of life that they are used to is something that will lead them into the abyss.

Speaking of the characters of the novels, one must mention that, in spite of their diversity, they are still cast of the same piece of mold. Whenever the reader takes “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” or “Good Country People,” the themes that he or she will inevitably face the are the same.

What differentiates O’Connor’s stories from the rest of the South American literature is that there are practically no good or bad characters. They are all bearing a piece of good and evil within, not to the same extent, of course, but O’Connor does not try to idealize any of them. She is following the trail of the history that can speak the truth better than anyone else can.

A youngster is filled with the ideas of the new beautiful world waiting for the people. An old reminiscence of the past buried long before he or she realized it, and a villain that breaks the hopes and lives of these people as he encounters them on his way – such a description can be applied to both stories. Although the plot is quite different in the mentioned stories, the cast of characters in “Good Country People” and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” remains the same.

The old lady in the latter novel is almost a copy of Mrs. Hopewell, the woman who runs a household and rents the room to her tenants. Both women embody everything that the old South possessed, the morals to adhere to, the reliability, and the hope for the future. And they gradually change as their beliefs turn into ashes.

The son of the old lady in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” can be considered a prototype of the girl in the next story. With their shattered dreams and the new ideas that they think to have acquired on their own, while these concepts were carefully put into their consciousness by the propagandists of the new century ideals, they are equally tragic figures. They have nothing to take as the cornerstone for their future life – these are only the stepping stones that they can find. Sad, but true, such is their story.

Speaking about the villains in both stories, one could say that these are not certain people, and these are not people at all, but the evil embodied in mere mortals. Again, O’Connor gives a hint to the broken ideas and dreams of the South that have given birth to all these reckless and dangerous people who know no mercy and do not hesitate to kill the one who will stand in their way.

However strange that might sound, the villains in the novels serve as the symbol of the changes brought to the South. These are not people, but the fiery breath of the new that battles with the old. As they say, it is bad to live in a time of change.

The pattern of the elements that change as O’Connor proceeds with telling the readers her story is rather unusual. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the parts are interwoven so that the reader could feel the story float most naturally. It is peculiar that some of the critics notice the similarity between O’Connor’s prose and the Greek comedies (Scott 195):

Robert Donahoo argues that an examination of the form and mechanisms of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find“ reveals that the story is not merely idiosyncratically created, but patterned according to classical models developed by Dante and Aristophanes. He offers a reading of the story in its context. He concludes that O’Connor’s description of the Grandmother’s “change” – from merely exhibiting nice manners through words to showing love through action – conforms to the agon of Aristophanes’ comedies.

Such an idea seems rather logical. The pattern of changing from a humble human being into the raving and protesting creature is the idea that the text of “A Good Man Is Hard to Find“ is full of. However refined and elegant one’s manners might be, there comes the essence of a human when one’s life interests are being violated.

In comparison to this novel, the other one implicates some other changes. The change described here is somewhat different, and it means spiritual changes rather than the moral ones. The lead character of “Good Country People”, named Hulga, is supposed to pass the transformation of her consciousness. The protagonist of the story comes into the world reborn and free – but wounded again. Sad, but true is the fact that O’Connor does not let her characters to enjoy their victory in full – in fact, she does not even allow them to taste it.

What does Hulga learn about herself? Ready to break down her defense against men and give herself at last to a suitor, she finds herself relinquishing instead, all unwillingly, her wooden leg. It could be a painful scene, but in O’Connor’s hands, it is timed to comic perfection, and with a biting edge of irony – turned against the girl. (Orvell 60)

Compare and Contrast

The balance between the images and the events is perfect in the stories, yet there are certain elements of differentiation in both novels. They construct a perfect structure that amazes wit its harmony and the beauty within.

Though these are two separate stories, the images and the events of each coincide perfectly. The characters and settings of “Good Country People” and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” look similar. The novels seem rather close in the stories that they are telling. The tightrope that they are leveled on is the writer’s skill to depict life as it is, without trying to make it more attractive.

In summary, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” presents the images that are typical for the southern states of the US. he line drawn between the good and the bad seems blurred. In the meantime, this is the same as what goes for the second novel, “Good Country People.” Its characters are the people stuck so deeply in their own beliefs that it becomes hard for them to acknowledge their faults and desires. That makes them no better than the strange man, a priest-impostor that was obsessed with the weird ideas and was trying to confuse Hulga.

It was him to take off her “human bondage,” her glasses, and her wooden leg and made her see that there are some things that people have to face.

The reason for the girl to suggest to him a runaway is not because she had fallen in love with him, and it can hardly be the gratitude for what he had done to him. The first moments without the support of the wooden leg and the spectacles that she used to rely on were full of pain, but not the relief – it was rather that she felt that together, it was not that scary to oppose the world full of misunderstanding and cruelty.

The images are fully corresponding to the events they are involved in, just as strange and needing crutches badly. The lame century was catching up with the runaways, and they hardly had any chance to escape, which the man understood pretty well, but which Hulga was unaware of. Poor thing, she had a lot of things to be disappointed about.

Next to them, there are the characters from the novel “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” Full of irony that the author sheds on the folk who thought that they could change the principles of the world, O’Connor at the same time feels sorry for the characters that are trying to match the on-coming era, but – alas! – It is absolutely in vain. The heroes of this story are a full match to the events that they get into since the mishaps that occur to these people are just as absurd and ridiculous as those people themselves.

There are certain links between these events in the two stories, as well as between the characters of “Good Country People” and “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”. These links provide a deep insight into the atmosphere of the South in the times of its changes and make it clear that the main problem of these days was the beliefs broken by the stamping foot treading mercilessly on the values and morals of the country folk of the old South.

In summary, this is what can be the basis for the similarities between the two novels. The South reborn, with its traditions laid at rest, was the subject of O’Connor’s irony and deep grief. The author could not but feel that the South was following the road that would inevitably lead it into a dead end. As Orwell put it,

“One would certainly not want to underestimate O’Connor’s very real feelings about the South and about historical change in themselves. Her conservatism was strong but not unthinking.” (16)

This research paper aimed to compare and contrast O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People.” The characters, settings, and themes of the novels feature similarities as well as differences. What makes the stories seem so similar and yet present two completely different views of the matter is her way of depicting the elements of the story. She weaves them into a pattern that is repeatedly telling about the morals and rules that the South has forgotten or turned its back on, and is trying to persuade that the new ideas bring even more suffering.

The similarity between the elements of the story is complete, and if there is something that cannot be hidden within, for it comes right up on the surface, crying for people to hear it. Although the ideas of the old South have been drowned, O’Connor still has the hope that people will change for better – or that they will change as far as they can.

Works Cited

Kirk, Connie A. Critical Companion to Flannery O’Connor . New York, NY: Infobase Publishing, 2008. Print.

Orvell, Miles. Flannery O’Connor: An Introduction. Jackson, MI: University Press of Mississippi, 1991. Print.

Scott, Neil R. Flannery O’Connor: An Annotated Guide to Criticism . Hopewell, NJ: Timberlane Books, 2002. Print.

Spivey, Ted R. Flannery O’Connor: T he Woman, the Thinker, the Visionary . Macon, GA: Mercer University Press , 1997 Print.

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