A Good Man Is Hard to Find - Flannery O'Connor

A Good Man Is Hard to Find - Flannery O’Connor

A woman who views herself as God and a man who views himself as Jesus Christ. This man didn’t go as far as to say he’s bigger than Jesus as a legendary Beatle once did; he however stated the following “Jesus thown everything off balance. It was the same case with Him as with me…” As the above briefly demonstrates, O’Connor’s “A good man is hard to find” not only deals with the controversy of society and the way it mold it’s citizens, but focuses mainly on religion and her characters strive for self acceptance as well as survival.

In order to fully comprehend the themes that Flannery O’Conner tries to get out, the story would definitely have to be understood, especially the characters based on the fact that they have so much to do with her development of her story. O’Connor chooses to explore themes of spiritual beliefs as well as society and more intriguing concepts through the use of a family led by a somewhat misguided as well as maniacal grandmother of two annoying children. The grandmother ultimately causes the death of the family when her cat jumps on her son and causes him to crash the car of a lonely road. Not to mention, the reason why the family ended up on the road of the accident is because the grandmother wanted to relive her selfish desires to reminisce of what life was like when she was younger when she wanted to visit her childhood home.

The Misfit is simply a killer who is introduced to the reader in the first few paragraphs of the story. O’Conner does an incredible job of foretelling what would happen from the time she mentions that the family would not only journey to Florida, but that’s also the direction that the Misfit was heading as well and the grandmother even brings up what horrible events would take place if the Misfit did run into them; she also accurately describes what the Misfit was capable of and the type of person that the reader would be dealing with.

The characters focused on the most could easily be pointed out to be ‘the grandmother’ as well as The Misfit. These are also the characters that we learn from the most, briefly summarized, the grandmother can be thought of as an annoying old bitch that the writer is trying to make look good while the Misfit can be characterized as a psycho who kills for no reason.