What, according to Aunty Flannery in her classic story A Good Man is Hard To Find, makes a good man?What does the Misfit want in the story?
What does the grandmother want?
What is so important about the grandmother's desire to be seen as a "lady," always together and well-kept?
Why might death be a fitting end to a story titled A Good Man is Hard To Find?
Where is grace or redemption in this story, amidst all the death?
No one in the short story "A Good Man is Hard To Find" is good. The grandmother believes that status and wealth make a man good, but The Misfit alludes to the point that Jesus was really the only good man on this earth. Because The Misfit cannot find assurance that Jesus resurrected from death, he believes that there's no pleasure in the world, only meanness. The grandmother first just desires to escape with her life, but as The Misfit reveals his story, she wants his life to be saved from the evil he's in. Had her main concern in life been more than looking like a well-kept lady, she would have focused on giving that same kind of love to all that she encountered. The grandmother would not have gotten her family into that predicament, and she would have fully understood what a truly good man is. However, because The Misfit recognizes that he is not a good man and the only good man who ever lived may be forever dead, death fittingly ends the story. As The Misfit says, if good men cannot be found, the only thing left to do is embrace meanness and reject pleasure. Despite the grim ending, one gets the notion that the grandmother's epiphany may have saved her. When she finally sees The Misfit wearing Bailey's shirt, she sees her son and a man who could have turned out so different if she'd been his mother. She extends her grace and love to him this time in an effort to save his life, not hers. In that moment she overcame her own pride to love on someone else, and that very well may have been her own saving grace.
ReplyDeleteThe grandmother thought that a good man upper class, she always dressed as a lady to mimic that standard in her own life. The Misfit wanted to find the good in the world but couldn't so it basically drove him insane. Death was such a good ending because after they all die, they have the chance to meet the one truly good man who ever lived. I really never thought the kids were that bad, they were a little bratty but because they are kids, a certain measure of understanding or lenience can be used. They weren't bad people. The little girl was rude, but at least she was honest. Being honest while being polite will come later in her life. The best redemption example was at the end when the Misfit recognized that the grandma was a good woman half the time because he acknowledged she really did care about others.
ReplyDeleteThere is no true good person in "A Good Man Is Hard To Find." The Misfit looked at Jesus as the only good man in the world. The grandmother believed that money and status determined a good man. Like the Misfit believes, the only good man is Jesus. So, when everyone died in the end, they finally got to see the only good man.
ReplyDeleteNo one is good in the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find". According to The Misfit, the only good man is Jesus. According to the grandmother, money and power were the criteria for a good man. When the Misfit holds her at gunpoint, she wants to desperately save her life, but then she is concerned for the Misfit's soul. She constantly prays for him during the story. The Misfit desires to continue his treacherous actions since his moral code includes murder. Since the grandmother believed that money and status made a good person, she maintained her image of being a lady, hence why she dresses so. While death was a main component of this story, all of the characters, even including The Misfit, will receive God's grace. Death was a fitting ending to this story so that the characters in the story will meet their Creator, who is the only man that is good.
ReplyDeleteThe title: "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is an ironic title for a short story with no good men or women in it. The Misfit, unsatisfied with the fact that the only true good man there ever was, was Jesus and that he cannot find proof of his resurrection, believes there is no good in this world, which leaves meanness. Death is the ending for this story but among death is also redemption and grace shown by the at first selfish and proud grandmother, but later wanting to redeem the Misfit. However, it was too late. Death comes for us all and in this tale, it did for everyone except the Misfit.
ReplyDeleteNo one in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is good. The misfit saw Jesus as the only good one. The grandmother thought that money and status made a good man but this did not prove to be true. When she died she saw the only good man, Jesus.
ReplyDeleteA good man is more than outward appearances and even said beliefs. Anyone can have an aesthetic appeal and lying tongue but that doesn't make them good. The Misfit wants to find meaning and the only way he feels this is through cruelty and "meanness". The grandmother selfishly pursues whatever she wants. She even fights for self preservation as her family members are taken away to be killed. The grandmother's desire to be seen as "ladylike" goes back to her beliefs about what makes a good gentleman and that is someone who behaves according to old customs, manners, and holds the same opinions as she. The title is fitting because you could spend your whole life looking for that "good man" and never find him before death finds you. Grace comes for the grandmother when she has the epiphany of her misguided thinking right before the Misfit kills her.
ReplyDeleteAccording to O'Connor, a good man is hard to find.
ReplyDeleteThe Misfit seeks happiness and fulfillment in the only thing he thinks is left to find it in: meanness.
The grandmother wants to feel affirmed in her "perfect" lifestyle and holier than thou attitude. The grandmother's desire to be seen as a "lady," always together represents a large amount of Christians and worldly people alike. They are always trying to make things look perfect, because if everything looks right then it must be okay actually. Death is a fitting end to this a story because it is as if the grandmother realizes her sins on judgement day. It is already too late for her to change her ways. This seems grim and slightly backwards that she gets no second chance, but the Misfit points out that every day was her second chance for redemption.
In the short story " a good man is hard to find" there are no good man. The grandma thought that money and power makes you a good man, but In reality there are also no good men. Every man is a sinner. The bible teaches that every human being will be judge when Jesus comes back.
ReplyDeleteIn "A Good Man Is Hard To Find", there is no shining example of a good man. Everyone has their flaws including the grandmother's lust and desire for worldly possessions over everything. The Misfit references Jesus as the only good man to have ever walked the Earth which is true. Also, death is a fitting end to the story because every person in the story was a sinner and the wages of sin is death. Once they died, they finally got to meet that one and only good man to have ever inhabited the Earth.
ReplyDeleteDeath is a fitting ending to the story because when the grandmother died, she finally found a good man. The Misfit said that Jesus was the only good man, and when the grandmother died she was able to meet him. This also shows the grace and redemption in the story. We assume the grandmother is a Christian because she prays and talks about Jesus. So even though we don't think she is really a nice woman, we can assume that her faith will put her in heaven when she dies. So she receives God's grace for her sins and is able to die and go to heaven.
ReplyDeleteThe irony of "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" is that nobody in the story is good. The grandmother only worries about her outward appearance and what other people think of her. The Misfit knows that nobody is good and wants to expose everyone's sin. Unfortunately, he kills everybody. At one point in the story, it seems that the Misfit and the grandma show goodness. The Misfit says that she may have been a good woman if someone was there to shoot her all of her life.
ReplyDeleteThe title of his short story: "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" is very deceiving because it displays quite the opposite. The grandmother only cares about material things such as appearance and money. In this short story in a sense the misfit displays Go because it acts a lot like the mediator in the middle who is trying to be the good person but wants to expose what's wrong.
ReplyDeleteThere are good men in A Good Man is Hard to find. Quiet a few the dad is one for takings his kids on a vaction. Also for dealing with his mom and the guy at the dinner but they are about it. The grandmom is too nosey which gets everyone killed. She belives all that money entitleds her to always be right and always be nosey. The misfit is not a goid man and knows it when he kills the family after being discovered by the grandma.
ReplyDeleteJesus was the only man that was ever truly good. This is the point that O'Connor was trying to stress to her readers. Each of the characters in her short story had a different idea about what it took to be a good man. Ironically it was the character with the least amount of good in him that came closest to the truth.
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