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A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

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In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, she address the themes of morality, innocence, and religion. The characters in this piece of literature are portrayed as good, bad, or an undecided mixture of both. O’Connor explores the way that people are perceived and how that compares to how they perceive themselves. In the short story, this idea of perception is enforced by the weak religious ideas of the Grandmother and society’s judgements of The Misfit. Through the contrast of their different roles during their interaction, she is able to delve into the concepts of human introspection and devoutness. In this short story, the two main characters who meet and have a life altering encounter are the Grandmother and The Misfit. …show more content…

For example, in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, the Grandmother sees herself as an innocent woman, but through her actions show the reader that she is highly capable of indecent actions such as lying, disregard for her family’s safety, and manipulation. Compared to The Misfit, she isn’t as aware of her moral shortcomings and deceptive actions. The Misfit is more introspective and reflective on his past mistakes, while the Grandmother ignores her self-serving nature. The Misfit looks back on his past a few times during his interaction with the grandmother, speaking about it in ways like this: “I was never 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,” and he looked up and held her attention to him by a steady stare.” (O’Connor 417). In society, The Misfit is considered a criminal and a deviant, while the Grandmother would be perceived as an innocent, old woman. When looking at both of the characters actions one might say that The Misfit is more morally wrong than the Grandmother because he kills her in the end, however, the Grandmother is consistently manipulative and self-serving to the point of indirectly killing her family.

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