Good Men Are Hard To Find Literary Analysis

Imagine oneself being left in the top floor of a barn alone. The hay scratches one’s leg, but the annoyance of the itching does not compare to the feeling of desertion and worthlessness in one’s heart. For the first time, one allows oneself to open up to another human being. In one’s first moment of vulnerability, the person steals one’s artificial leg, glasses, and a piece of one’s heart, leaving one empty, physically and emotionally. Or imagine oneself on a family vacation that somehow goes wrong in every way possible. One’s car flips and one’s family is stranded with no others around. However, when one think help arrives, it turns out to be one’s worst nightmare. The men kill one’s precious family members individually, and you are the last

She was considered a “harmless busybody, utterly self-absorbed, but also amusing”. She was raised in a later time period and had a few character flaws due to her class and time, racism being one of them. Most of GMHTF is just building up to the main part of the story, which is the final moment between the grandmother and The Misfit. Throughout most of the story, the grandmother was very self absorbed, thinking of no one except herself. However, once her family was killed and she was the only one left, she realized her faults in herself and her life as the gun was pointed towards her. She tried to tell The Misfit of Jesus, and offered him salvation through The Lord. She even goes to the point of saying, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” (Page 11). She then proceeded to reach out and touch The Misfit, causing him to jump back and send three bullets in her chest. She tried to show him the love that he would have felt if he accepted the love of Christ. The Misfit then says, “She would have been a good women… if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (Page 11). This situation forces one to sit back and contemplate about themselves. One would want to be considered good at all moments of one’s life, not when one’s life is nearing the

“The Misfit feels the mystery of evil in his bones, and he finds is incomprehensible” (Desmond). He knows that he is, in fact, a bad man. However, he knows that he is not the worst man either. The Misfits wants answers to the evil he feels in himself and the evil he witnesses in the world. He wants to understand the personal suffering he experienced compared to the actions he committed. The Misfit wants salvation, however like Hulga, he does not want it from God. He wants personal salvation. After The Misfit kills the grandmother, the men he was with laugh and comment on how fun it was. However, The Misfit says, “It’s no real pleasure in life” (Page 11). The
Misfit makes one wonder how a man can commit evil acts, recognize that the acts are evil, wants to justify his acts because it makes him feel empty, and yet reject the one thing that can prevent his evil ways and make him feel whole, Jesus Christ. It makes one look at oneself and realize that we all commit evil acts everyday and we all recognize that they are bad. However, most of us typically do not commit the same acts at The Misfit. Yet no one has a right to say one evil act is far more evil then the other. O’Connor’s short story makes you step back and analyze one’s actions and judgment towards other’s