An Analysis of the Charater the Grandmother in "a Good Man Is Hard to Find"

In the story A Good Man Is Hard to Find the grandmother considers herself to be a lady as well as a good person. The grandmother does not think it’s a good idea for the family to go to Florida with a criminal, the Misfit, on the loose and says that she “’couldn’t answer to [her] conscience if [she] did’” (O’Connor 454). On the trip the grandmother is dressed in a blue dress and a wide brimmed hat, even though she was reluctant to go on the trip she was the first in the car. The grandmother says that she is dressed this way so that,”’ [i]n case of an accident, anyone seeing her lying dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady’” (455).

Although the grandmother considers herself to be a good person she often appears to be very judgmental and self centered. “’The grandmother said she would have done well to have marry Mr. Teagarden because he was a gentleman and had bought Coca-Cola stock when it first came out and that he had died only a few years ago, a very wealthy man’”, which seems like she only wanted to marry him for his money (457). While passing through the family stops at “The Tower” for lunch and the grandmother describes the owner Sammy as being a “good man” giving us a look at what she consider a “good man” to be (458). After leaving the grandmother suggest that they go visit a plantation house; however, after awhile she becomes so shocked by a terrible thought that she flings the cat at Bailey, who is driving, which causes an accident. The grandmother then recalls, ”’[t]he horrible thought she had before the accident was that the house she had remember so vividly was not in Georgia but in Tennessee’”; however, the grandmother does not tell anyone about her mistake (460).

After the accident the family is approached by a man the grandmother soon recognizes to be the Misfit. The grandmother has now gained her chance at salvation by meeting the Misfit, whom has made up his mind to be a sinner. The Misfit is accompanied by two men who begin taking the family into the woods and murdering them one by one. After realizing