A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor - Essay Example

? “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor In this paper I will analyze the character of the un d grandmother who seems to be the centralcharacter of the story. The character of the grandmother shows that outward appearances can often be in stark contrast to our real inner character. Although she portrays herself as righteous and religious minded, her longing for money and the good life show her real aspirations. In fact it is the Misfit that is the more righteous of the two, often thinking about his past and how social injustices have pushed him down the right path to a life of crime. As the story starts, we are told that the family is on a trip to Florida. This conflicts with the plans of the grandmother who would have liked to go to Tennessee. Nevertheless as she has to comply with rest of the family, she reluctantly accords her approval by waking up, getting dressed and sitting in the car before all of them. She is dressed in her Sunday best because if anything should happen and she dies, she wants to be recognized as a lady (O’Connor 133). This implies that she is more concerned with outward appearances and what the world would think of her, much like the Pharisees and the Sadducees that were rebuked by Jesus Christ at the synagogues for attracting attention by their taking a central place and being so ostentatious about their vestments, following the rituals of outward cleanliness etc. when their hearts were cold and dirty and they never cared for their fellowmen, especially those of a lower social class than themselves. The grandmother can be seen as a study in contrasts. She complains that a good man is hard to find, but is often found lacking herself. For instance she wants to be regarded as a good Christian, but hardly displays the meekness, complacency and ‘putting others first and herself last’ attitude that is the hallmark of Christ’s teachings. She also comments about EAT, or Edgar Adkins Teagarden, the suitor who used to bring her a watermelon every weekend and is dismayed when the fruit was once eaten by a black- it shows that she scorns blacks as well. For all her fanfare about wanting to be a good Christian, she is racist which goes against the teachings of Christianity. Christ taught that all men are equal in the eyes of God and the only thing that will separate one from another on Judgment Day are their deeds regarding not only prayer, reverence and worship but also their conduct towards their fellowmen. Her conversation with Red Sammy reveals that she laments about not marrying Teagarden because she had heard that he had eventually become rich on Coca-cola stock. This shows that for all her Christian values, she was more concerned with physical comforts than the salvation of the soul. As the story progresses however we are led to see a change in the grandmother’s values as she forgives the Misfit for his crimes just before he shoots her. In many ways we see that the Misfit is a foil for her character, as he is generally regarded as a no-gooder though he wonders more deeply about the teachings of the Bible having himself been a gospel singer in his youth and laments about his past. He is not sure whether he killed his father or not, since it was drilled into him by a psychologist. He however recalls having served jail time for a sentence he did not commit. This travesty of justice could have in fact set the pattern for the rest of his life of crime. It was a miscarriage of justice and society must therefore bear the blame for this event. Nevertheless, he has since lived a life of murder and crime for that was what society expected of him, so it seems. But it is the grandmother who is worthy of our sympathies as well as she shows by her magnanimity in forgiving her would-be killer that she has forgiven him for this act, just as Christ forgave his killers on the Cross at Calvary by uttering ‘Forgive them Father, for they know not what they do’ (Wood 12). O’ Connor always believed that there was some hope for even the worst of us, and the grandmother’s forgiving the Misfit now that she realizes that she is at Death’s door could show that she is bargaining for her life. She is hoping against hope that the Misfit will find in himself mercy enough to spare her life. But it never happens, and she and the rest of the family meet their end at the hands of this fugitive from justice and his henchmen. When the story begins, she is dismayed that they are all going to Florida instead of Tennessee which shows that she is usually used to getting her way. She also laments about the state of the world and how hard it is to find a good man these days. She also chats with Red Sammy Butts, the owner of the Tower restaurant about the Misfit who she dreads. But as luck would have it, it is the Misfit who eventually crosses their path with dire consequences for the entire family. The grandmother calls the Misfit her son and forgives him for what he has done. She expects him to relent his murderous ways but this does not happen and he kills her by shooting her three times in the chest (O’Connor 135). Thus she does not die a respectful lady’s death as she desires. Although the Misfit seems to be a symbol of discordance, he is the one with the staunch values and sticks to them. His moral code is defined by the words: ‘I found out the crime don’t matter. ‘You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you’re going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it.’ (O’Connor 134). The grandmother in contrast is a practical person and is not averse to pleading for her life if the Misfit would have spared it. As the Misfit says:‘She would have been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.’ (O’Connor 135).Thus we see that the character of the grandmother is falling to shreds even as we seek to analyze it further. The grandmother seems to be the protagonist for most of the story, and the events connected with the wreckage of the car and the sad end of the group are all because of her mistaking the house they should visit to be in Florida rather than Tennessee. Even as she realizes this, she does not want to own up to her mistake but inadvertently sends the whole of the group into a tumble. Her cat jumps out of the basket and Bailey’s wife breaks her shoulder while he wrecks the car. She also lies to the children about the secret hiding place just so that they remain enthusiastic about the trip. We can also see that the role of the protagonist has shifted after the car wreck from the grandmother to the Misfit. The moment he comes face to face with them, they are doomed. The Misfit believes that life has given him no choice, but in reality it is never too late to reform which was a possibility if the Misfit had decided to turn himself into the Law. One can’t help feeling that the Misfit’s distrust of society and the justice system stems from the mess they had got him into in the first place. No wonder as Flannery O’Connor writes, a good man is indeed hard to find as social injustices and misjudgments can turn the best of men into criminals. One’s bark can be worse than one’s bite and the Misfit’s reputation certainly precedes him. In the end he lives up to his reputation as a cold blooded remorseless killer. Many of Flannery’s short stories are replete with characters that are eccentric and as Friedman writes are trying to ‘fulfill a mission in unfamiliar surroundings’. Thus we find good and evil juxtaposed in the characters of the grandmother and the Misfit and in many of her other stories as well. They are trying to sell each other their values and thereby prove their worth (Kinney 215-230). In fact it can be concluded that Flannery O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man is Hard to Find’ once again ridicules the Christian faith, as the self righteous grandmother falls short of many of the values of being a good Christian. The writer wants us to believe that there is some good even in the worst of folks. The Misfit, even though he is relentless and murders the group in the closing moments of the story, we see that at least he sticks to his ideals no matter if they are right or wrong. Works Cited Kinney, A.F. ‘Flannery O’Connor and the Art of the Holy’. The Virginia Quarterly Review, Spring1988, pp 215-230. Online. Accessed on 22 May 2012 at http://www.vqronline.org/articles/1988/spring/kinney-flannery-oconnor/ O’Connor, Flannery. Flannery O’Connor: Collected Works, 1989. Print. Wood, Ralph. Flannery O’Connor and the Christ Haunted South, 2004. Print. Read More