A Good Man Is Hard To Find Critical Essay

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” a short story written by Flannery O’Connor, a contradiction within itself. By reviewing this short story, we can learn about justice, religion and what it means to be a good man. If we look at how O’Connor represents the conflict of interest in the characters, we will see that this short story warps the idea of humanity, which is important because internally every person has a darker side. These characters just so happen to be wearing that darker side on their sleeves as they go about their daily life.
Two key words carried through the essay is a good man. Although the characters have severe personalities it contradicts the ideals of justice that they bring up so much. In general, the story is a conflict of interests. Each person has their own need to say something and in return pushing down another character. They play off this term by looking at the negatives instead of the positives. A good man only goes as far as how the person perceives a good man to be. One comparison is Red Sammy and the misfit. In the story, both are called good men but they are different in attitudes. That being that Red Sammy being a

evil, etc. In terms of religion as a way to save herself or her “soul” she prayed and begged for forgiveness. Though not only did she beg for forgiveness for herself but likewise for the misfit in an attempt to get him to let her go. This types into the theme of good vs evil. In some ways, you could argue that both the misfit like the grandma are both good and evil. At the end, although the grandmother had made the misfit rethink his actions he had to regrettably kill her at the end. There was a moment of truth here, though, and that was that people are inherently flawed no matter how much good they are perceived to be. It is rather the acceptance of this flaw that creates better human