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Ravi B. Lucas April 18, 2000 A Good Man Is Hard to Find The story of “A Good
Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor has been debated and analyzed so much
because it can be interpreted one thousand different ways. O’Connor’s characters
are usually searching for an elusive salvation, and her stories illustrate her
views on the human condition. Many spiritual themes weave their way through her
work, but never seem to achieve their intended ends. In this story, groups of
criminals massacre an entire family while their ringleader discusses theology
with the family's grandmother, only a hundred feet away. The source of the
misinterpretation of the story’s crux emerges from two key characters that
O’Connor weaved together: the Grandmother, and the Misfit. These two are so
complex because they stand for many different things. The most reasonable
interpretation of these two characters is that they represent O’Connor’s view on
the evil in society. The story begins with the typical family challenged by
their grandmother who does not want to take the vacation to Florida. She has
read about a crazed killer by the name of the Misfit who is on the run heading
for Florida. Unfortunately, she is ignored by ever member of the family except
for the little girl June Star who has come to read her grandmother like a book.
Ironically, the morning of the trip the grandmother is dressed in her best
Sunday clothes and the first one in the car ready to travel as June Star
predicted she would be. The grandmother's dress is very nice for a trip she was
horrified to take only a day earlier. The grandmother festooned in white gloves,
a navy blue dress, and a matching hat, only for the sole purpose of being
recognized as a woman in case someone saw her dead on the highway. This logic
may seem absurd to anyone who is unfamiliar with aged aristocratic southern
culture. Southerners of a high class would dress in their fine clothes when they
traveled on vacations, especially ladies. The reader is clued into the
grandmother's shallow thoughts of death. In the grandmother's mind, her clothing
preparations prevent any doubts about her status as a fine lady. However, the
Misfit later points out, “There never was a body that gave the undertaker a
tip.” The grandmother's superficial readiness for death is a bleak
characteristic and revealed when she encounters the Misfit. She shows herself to
be the least prepared for death when she is left alone with him. As the trip
progresses, the children reveal themselves as brats, mainly out of O'Connor's
desire to illustrate the lost admiration for the family’s respect for their
grandmother.
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