Flannery O’Connor is the author of several great short stories. One of her stories in particular, A Good Man is Hard to Find, is about an American family living in Georgia. The family consists of Bailey, his wife, his mother, and his three children, John Wesley, the newborn baby, and June Star. The main character of the story, the grandmother, is a typical southern grandmother who acts as if she is graceful, lady-like, and has selective mannerisms. The grandmother’s son, Bailey, is a short-fused man who has partially raised two extremely rude children. Although the grandmother feels the need to make up for the family’s socially unacceptable behavior, she is blinded to her own flaws. In this story, the family has a run in with the famous criminal who goes by “The Misfit.” In this text the reader can see that, though they come from very different backgrounds, the serial killer and the grandmother share a common humanity in their lack of faith and a commonality of corruption, demonstrating __________________.
The story begins with the family preparing for a road trip south to Florida. The grandmother, who is along for the family vacation, is unsatisfied with the decision to go to Florida. Her distaste can be seen when O’Connor writes, “The grandmother didn’t want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit her connections in East Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind” (O’Connor 117). The grandmother’s biggest argument, which may just be an excuse, for not going to Florida was because a famed serial killer, “The Misfit,” had broken loose from a federal penitentiary. Knowing that a father is instinctively protective of his family, she attempts to use this information of the killer to her advantage by showing Bailey the particular article in the newspaper in an attempt to deter him from driving to Florida. She says, “Now look here, Bailey, see here, read this. Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida” (O’Connor 117). The grandmother goes on to tell Bailey about the awful things that The Misfit has done to the people he caught, and she finishes her statements by saying that she could not answer to her conscience if she took her children in the direction of the murderer (O’Connor 117). Her attempts did no good. Bailey did not even look up from his reading to entertain her comments. Here the grandmother shows the reader her first example of manipulation.
The grandmother then turned to the children’s mother who is too busy taking care of the baby to listen to her. The grandmother says to her, “The children have been to Florida before. You all ought to take them somewhere else for a change, so they would see different parts of the world and be broad. They never have been to east Tennessee” (O’Connor 117). Even this had no effect on the family’s vacation destination. In fact, the children were even rude to her about not wanting to go to Florida and John Wesley told her she should stay home. Here, the reader can see the second example of manipulation by the grandmother.
After the family leaves for Florida, the grandmother remembers a house that she visited when she was younger near the area they were traveling and begs Bailey to take them. When she sees that no one cares to go see the house she lies about a hidden door to spark the children’s interest, and she does so perfectly. The children begin screaming how they wish to see the house, and between the grandmother, John Wesley, and June Star, Bailey is convinced to make this one detour on their way to Florida. (O’Connor, 123-124). Here the third example of the grandmother’s unrelenting manipulation is shown.
When they arrive at the house and begin driving down the long dirt driveway, the grandmother recalls that she had mistaken the house that they were driving towards for a house that was actually in Tennessee. Instead of owning up to her mistake she allows Bailey to keep driving. A little farther down the long dirt driveway they wreck their car , and the grandmother, fearful of Bailey’s short temper coming down on her, decides to exaggerate an injury in hopes that he will have pity on her. (O’Connor, 124-125). The grandmother’s exaggeration of her injuries is another prime example of manipulation.
After the wreck, another car pulls up and finds them stranded, and three strange men emerge from the car. Shortly thereafter, the grandmother recognizes the leader of the men as The Misfit. After exchanging a few words with the family, The Misfit wastes no time in his plans to kill the family off and orders his men, Bobby Lee and Hiram, to take John Wesley and Bailey deep into the woods and shoot them. After this, Bobby Lee and Hiram take the mother, the new-born, and June Star to the exact same place and do the exact same thing. During the course of all the murders, the grandmother is pleading with The Misfit to turn his heart to The Lord and pray. In their dialogue the reader can see The Misfit explain why he has no faith or allegiance to a higher power. They talk about Jesus being raised from the dead and at one point the grandmother says that Jesus might not have been raised from the dead. The Misfit responds to her by saying that he cannot know for sure whether or not Jesus was raised from the dead because he was not there. He goes even further to say that it is not fair that he was not there because if he had been he would have known for sure and that he would not be like he is now. The grandmother responds by saying that he is one of her own children and reaches out and touches him. In response, The Misfit jumps back and shoots her three times (O’Connor 125-132).
Above, the reader can see that the grandmother’s faith crumbles in the end and in this way, she shares a common humanity with The Misfit. His faith was destroyed because he believed that it is impossible to know whether Jesus was raised from the dead, and the same thing happens to the grandmother. Also, the corruption that the two shared is quite evident. The grandmother is corrupted by her selfish and unrelenting desire to manipulate any situation to be in favor of her desires while The Misfit was a cold-blooded murderer. They both shared a commonality of corruption and they both hurt others.
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