Do you believe that everyone is born good? Immoral acts can be extremely tempting. Not everyone is strong enough to resist giving into the evils of the world. In A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor, the main theme that prejudice and sin can overshadow the goodness in a person, unless a conscious effort is made to be good, is shown through the thoughts and actions of the grandmother, Red Sam, and the Misfit. The grandmother acts like a strong woman who is not afraid to tell you what she thinks. This trait lets her be rude and unaccepting towards others. In the text it states, “‘I wouldn’t be a bit surprised if he didn’t attact this place right here,’ said the woman. ‘If he hears about it being here, I wouldn’t be none surprised …show more content…
It is by chance that the family encounters the Misfit and his group on the road. In the text it states, “‘I never was a bad boy that I remember of,’ The Misfit said in an almost dreamy voice, ‘but somewheres along the line I done something wrong and got sent to the penitentiary’” (O’Connor 11). One can see that the Misfit believed that he was once a good person, but he succumbed to his inner darkness. In addition, a conversation in the text declares, “‘If you would pray,’ the old lady said, ‘Jesus would help you.’.....’I don’t want no hep,’ he said. ‘I’m doing all right by myself’” (O’Connor 11). This proves that the Misfit is well aware of his actions and the consequences of them. He is satisfied with being a bad person and committing sins and atrocities. Finally, another piece of evidence is, “The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest” (O’Connor 13). The most condemning piece of evidence against the Misfit is the fact that he murdered the grandmother point-blank in cold blood. He did not even hesitate in ending her life. As you can see, the misfit has given into sin for us whole life, and it has become a normality for
Since being a lady is a big part of what the grandmother considers moral, the Misfit obviously doesn’t abide by the same moral code of ethics as she does. She desperately calls him a good man, as though appealing to some value deep within that he couldn’t deny. Her definition of “good” is skewed though, resting on her belief that the Misfit isn’t like most people. The grandmother’s application of the label “good” shows that it does not mean “kind” or “moral”. “Good” simply means whatever ideals align with hers.
In Flannery O’Connor’s story A Good Man Is Hard to Find, The Misfit is one of these dark and sinister characters that seems to act without a moral compass, leaving us to ask, Why? The Misfit seemed to have a wonderful childhood and a family that loved him as stated paragraph 89. “Yes mam,” he said, “finest people in the world.”... ”God never made a fine woman than my mother and my daddy’s heart was pure gold,” he said (O’Connor).
When confronting the Misfit, she has undergone a mental spiral caused by her insistence, against her previous comments, that the Misfit is a good man. She does not seem to believe what she is saying for most of the confrontation, but then “the grandmother’s head cleared for an instant. She saw the man’s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, ‘Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!’” (211).
Throughout the story we learn the grandmother acts like she knows a lot about religion, but in reality she just thinks she does. The grandmother also does not understand the embodiments of mortality. (Leonard). She makes the mistake of telling the Misfit she recognizes him, which ends up getting her family killed. Right before the Misfit shoots the grandmother, the grandmother begs for mercy by bringing up the little religion she knows.
(1016). Although The Misfit comes across as genuine, the story later illustrates The Misfit as a sociopath. The grandmother throughout the story lies, is superficial and rather manipulative; changing this personality toward the end of the story, display what arguably could be the greatest ironic moment. The grandmother, at gunpoint is terrified for her life says “Why, you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!”
has looked into his decisions and he is trying to find the good from his experiences. He feels he deserves more than what he got, so he went on and changed his name, he also believed that he did not get the right punishment for his crime. The misfit has self awareness that the grandmother doesn't know of cause he questioned himself and his actions, he knows he is not a good person but he also believes he is better than many people. He even admitted he was a gospel singer before he did something and was sent to the penitentiary and was buried alive. He had some made up rudimentary philosophies, such as ““the crime don’t matter” and “no pleasure but meanness”.
Throughout the story the misfit is getting introduced as a bad guy because he was in jail and killed somebody, but as the text progresses his character begins to change. The Misfit’s anxiety and ocd becomes apparent as he is further illustrated. When first seeing the family he is nice to the family, kindly saying “good afternoon,” until the grandmother recognizes him as the Misfit (O’Connor). This causes him to have a reaction which might be subtle to the naked eye. The kind of reaction that they misfit is experiencing is similar to anxiety.
The grandmother is a bad person. That is something never directly said within A Good Man Is Hard To Find, it is an interpretation of her character as a whole. The Misfit and grandmother are more alike than thought, with their brief interaction it is clear they think in opposite ways. They’re both using belief systems for their benefit, the grandma’s being the Catholic religion and the Misfit’s being redemption. The Misfit doesn’t try to change, he believes it’s far too late to even make an effort.
For a person to act this way, they must have been through something traumatic. Part of The Misfit’s reason for this behavior is that he believed he was a victim and that none of his actions were his fault. He felt that the way he acted and his actions resulted from his past and not his bad choices. The Misfit’s problem was his self, not his past, and not what he had experienced. If he had made better choices or chosen to change his ways and not play the victim of his actions, he could have been an upstanding individual.
This notion of redemption is primarily seen with the Misfit and his character development away from the pleasure of a murderer. Had it not been for the collision of the Grandmother and his paths, redemption would have been unlikely, even unachievable, for him. O’Connor intended for this story to have a positive ending, despite the death toll that is present at the end of the story. With her Catholic beliefs, the small act of the Grandmother’s compassion and the Misfit’s questioning of his morals are rather impactful to each of their redemptions. Perhaps O’Connor’s religious views could be insightful to religious scholars on the question of whether human nature is
One of the quotes states, “She saw the man’s face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry, and she murmured, Why you are one of my babies. You are one of my children !” (O’Connor 508). This quote shows that the grandmother is trying to persuade the Misfit to spare her life and not kill her like the rest of the family. She does not understand that she cannot save herself from the Misfit because her faith has already been predetermined.
The Grandmother and The Misfit are both the same at core, while they appear to be very different on the surface. Both characters are seen as sinners in the eye of the reader, who indeed are in need of Christ’s redemption. The Grandmother masks her sinfulness with respectability and chooses to treat her religion as something that she can either accept or ignore depending on her circumstance. The Misfit is deviously sinful and enraged at the concept of God’s grace. The Misfit is a symbol of the anti-Christ and is portrayed as such the inversion of divine
The grandmother grew in that moment of death more than she ever did in the little parts that we read about her life, and she dies in peace. Her actions may have even changed the Misfit too. At the end, he says “she would have been a good woman if he 'd been there all her life to shoot her.” (366). This line confused me the first time reading it, but the second time around it made more sense.
As opposed to the Grandmothers constant change of morals to favor certain situations, the Misfit has morals that are set in stone and adhere to his past, present and future. As the two characters converse, religion sparks an interest in the Misfit because it is something he is interested in understanding but knowing it must not be true. He believes that he must see it with his own eyes to prove the existence. His concept of reality also relates himself to Jesus, so much so as to believe he is a realistic representation of Him. He goes on to tell that the only difference is between the crimes committed and the proof held against him.
He calls himself “The Misfit” because the punishments he has received doesn’t fit the crimes. The last and final conflict between the two comes when the grandmother tries to tell Misfit that he should pray again. Her ladylike convictions are finally in tatters and she is desperate. She even tries to bride Misfit and that fails. At this moment, Misfit goes into a rant about his thoughts on Jesus.