“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor focuses on the concept of pride and how one’s ego can create problems even where there are none. The concept is developed through the grandmother who considers herself a good judge of human nature. The grandmother always thinks she knows what is best for others and tends to point our good men from the bad ones. However, as the story develops, the reader is able to see that the grandmother is delusional and her concept of right and wrong, especially when describing what traits a good man should possess, is flawed. While the grandmother wrongfully refers to different characters as being good, the title of the story is brought to life when one character, the Misfit, ends up killing the grandmother despite her belief that he is a good man. In the end, the author is able to reveal not just the flawed nature of the grandmother’s morals but also her struggle in trying to build some sense of personal identity.
The story starts off with a planned family vacation where Bailey is planning to take the family to Florida for vacation. However, the grandmother is reluctant after learning that a killer (the Misfit) has escaped and is suspected to be headed to Florida (O’Connor 68). When she learns of the Misfit’s escape, she starts comparing herself to the criminal and believes she understands all that it takes to make someone engage in criminal activities, even those as heinous as killing people. She also believes that she is better than him because, unlike the misfit, she can control herself well enough to resist the urge to engage in vulgar acts and criminal behavior. Although the grandmother is not a criminal, the author successfully exposes her delusional nature to expose the irony in her words and actions.
A good example of this is when the grandmother considers herself a lady because of the extravagant clothes she wears. She is of the opinion that, in case the car they are travelling in got into an accident, people would be able to know she is a lady only based on what she is wearing (O’Connor 147). While it is important for the grandmother to be regarded as a lady, the author creates the opposite image by showing that the grandmother is only a lady in dressing and outside appearance. The nature of being a lady is further watered down because the only time people will know the grandmother is a lady is when she is dead and the only thing to go by is her dressing.
In the end, the grandmother’s arrogance and misplaced sense of morals become the reason she winds up dead. After her cat jumps from the basket the grandmother was hiding it in, it causes Bailey to lose control when driving and crashes into a ditch. When the Misfit and his gang pass by, the grandmother mentions that she knows the Misfit and that he is a good man. However, the realization that the Misfit and his friends’ identities have been discovered forces them to take the family into the woods to kill them (O’Connor 51). The grandmother fails to consider the impact that her actions will have on the family is the Misfit learns that his identity has been revealed. She is so convinced that she knows how a good man should act and since she considers the Misfit a good man, she does not see any consequences arising from her actions. Her flawed belief and wrong judgment results in her losing her life and further proves that good men are indeed hard to find.
Work cited
O'Connor, Flannery, and Frederick Asals. A Good Man Is Hard to Find. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1993. Print.
