Week 8 Discussion

The Author Flannery O’Connor, in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” demonstrates the transformative power of human compassion and grace. Transformations of the two-character stereotypes, which the grandmother and the Misfit embody, are used to get across the story’s message. By allowing the stereotypes to evolve into round characters with the potential to change, the author demonstrates that anyone can change through the presence of grace. The grandmother represents the stereotypical southern, Christian, domineering mother who is often hypocritical and two-faced. She is flawed and annoying from the start, and more than anyone else is responsible for the family’s terrible problem. While she considers herself a “lady” and morally superior to others, she freely and frequently passes judgment on others without inspecting her own hypocrisy, selfishness, and dishonesty. She also takes any opportunity to judge the lack of goodness in people. The Misfit is described as the stereotypical criminal and more specifically, an ignorant, someone who has gone wrong in life. It is hard to empathize with him, especially after he kills the grandmother’s family in such a casual manner. The Misfit carries on a philosophical conversation with the grandmother, explaining that he doesn’t view actions as right or wrong and that if he does something that others consider wrong, he gets punished. Both characters, by the time of their final face, feel profound changes. Only when the grandmother faces death does she realize where she has gone wrong in life. Instead of acting superior like she has throughout the story, she recognizes that she is flawed like everyone else. She sees that both she and the Misfit are the same at their core they are sinners in need of grace. By seeing the murderer as “one of my own children!”, the grandmother offers him unconditional love and acceptance […]

In ”A good man is hard to find” I think it’s a story that inside is about the massacre of an entire family, father, mother, children and grandmother, by a convicted murderer and two of the accomplices. The family takes a road trip and dies on the way to their destination. However, the grandmother is a believing woman who, from my point of view, I see as hypocritical because whoever is religious cannot be speaking lies and/or have classism before others; deception is experienced with her because she appears to be another person even in a quite shameless way since even if she tries to disguise it, she is hypocritical and is the one who leads her family to obtain something tragic, that is why we should not deceive prejudices based on cataloging with where we judge people based on how they look without even knowing who they really are.

In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, I believe the story in its interior is about deceit and ignorance can go hand in hand.  O’Connor uses the grandmother as a way to show how manipulation and deceit toward her own family, people who you’d never turn on, to see a plantation home. Devices such as irony, foreshadowing, and symbolism are all used to tell the story but do play a part in the interior of the story. We see that the grandmother is obsessed with her vanity and views the past, specifically ignorant, racist parts of the past, to paint a better image of herself for others. Manipulative people like to be seen in a more positive light and will do many things to seem better than others. With all of her lying and ignorant comments, the topic of trust was brought up numerous times almost making her family’s death bound to happen. Without the lying, they would’ve been safe. The Misfit was symbolism for the opposite of a “good man”. Even in the grandmother’s last efforts to save herself, she is manipulating the Misfit and is only stopped when being shot and killed. The Grandmother wasn’t as good of a woman as she thought she was. The interior of the story shows that people no matter how true they believe their words are, do not practice what they preach.

In “A good man is hard to find,” the grandmother’s actions and opinions are interpreted as prejudice. She is described as religious, talkative, and discriminatory, which is perceived every time she innocently refers to the people and her surrounding. The audience can sense the interior side of the story when the grandmother emphasizes the importance of judging somebody by their appearance, the way she idealizes the fugitive criminal- Misfit. First, she tries to point out some positive observations about his identity, and then she faithfully attempts to declare his innocence to convince somehow he is a good man. Still, the criminal has already accepted he is guilty, and a bad man so ends up killing the old lady. Even though The grandmother is represented as a “Lady” who is morally superior and caring, her actual character is that she is a hypocrite and dishonest which lead her family to a tragic ending. This is a clear message: You can judge a book by its cover.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find was full of suspense towards the end. In my opinion the interior of the story was based on deceit and punishment. The grandmother was very deceitful, conniving and misleading. I honestly feel if the grandmother didn’t say a word the whole trip they wouldn’t have wounded up in the predicament they were in. The grandmother pretty much lied multiple times for the family to do as she says. She went as far into making up a story to get them to a destination that was somewhere else. When the thought of her sending her family to the wrong location came about in her mind, she didn’t even have the compassion in her heart to let them know. This led her family to be killed, which I felt was punishment for her actions, because she was the last to die. She had to listen to the gunshots that killed her family, in which she still thought of herself and tried to convince the Misfit to allow her to keep her life. Her trickery didn’t work this instance and she came to the realization of how she should’ve been when it was too late.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find is a story about a family who decides to go on a road trip to Tennessee but are killed along the way. On the surface the story seems to be about a family whose road trip is ended short due to tragedy. However, the story is really centered on the grandmother, the protagonist, and how her hypocrisy and ethics led to the downfall of her family. First, her standards are extremely hypocritical. She cared about her appearance and how people saw her on the surface but around her family she didn’t mind lying to get what she wanted. Her blatant racism is also a stark contrast from her outwards appearance. Furthermore, it was her lying that led the family to their death. She lied about the fact that there was treasure in an old plantation to manipulate the children into convincing their father to driving there. Later, she realized that the plantation was actually in Tennessee and everything goes downhill from there. She is the reason that the her family was killed.

In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, on the surface, O’Connor writes about a small family meeting a serial killer on the loose while on a trip to another state. The interior of this story is that the grandma is very racist and extremely narrow-minded, she thinks that she’s the main character of everyone’s life. She believes she is a good manipulator and even hid the cat her son doesn’t like in a suitcase. The grandma is very ignorant and selfish, and I would say she is the reason she and her family died to the killer. On her trip, she ironically finds herself with the killer and attempted to manipulate the killer into not killing her. She attempted to do the same thing she does with her family by trying to soft-talk the killer and feed him lies. She was saying how a good person he is and mocking him, saying he wouldn’t shoot a lady. All these arrogant acts led to a tragic ending for her and her family’s lives.

In “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, the interior is about morality and hypocrisy. Focusing on the grandma, she claims she’s a good person and sympathizes with what goes on in the world but yet she doesn’t do anything good. She thinks her moral qualities are self-evident and doesn’t even ask herself if what she is doing is right or reckless. Not only rationalizing bad behavior, she has no moral integrity. When the criminal gets introduced, shows integrity even though he can’t remember his crime, actually admits to his moral standing and has honesty. Although he is a murderer which is immoral, he is honest which separates him with the grandmother. When the criminal meets the grandmother, she becomes affectionate and comforts him, something she wouldn’t do for her son. This brings out another side in grandma instead of being judgemental and manipulative to the family. Ultimately as grandma says, “it’s a fallen world” but she’s wrong thinking she’s not part of it. With the Misfit, at least he’s honest and knows he’s not a good person, it doesn’t erase the burden on him but it separates him and the grandma in honesty.

I enjoy this story the most compared to the other reads. I would say that the story’s “interior” is mostly a commentary on how some people practice virtue signaling directly or indirectly. The grandmother acts very sanctimonious throughout the text and believes that a person’s morality is solely determined by some superficial observation.  The irony is that the misfit is the most honest and believable character because he sees himself for who and what he really is. The line where he says “Nome, I ain’t a good man,” The Misfit said after a second as if he had considered her statement carefully, “but I ain’t the worst in the world neither”.  is very interesting because I understand it both literal and subliminal. I interpreted it as he was calling out the grandmother’s hypocrisy, piousness and naivete. Which also brings me to the understanding that perhaps maybe all of her observations could come from a place of guilt in her younger days. Maybe she wasn’t all that “good” herself and thus projects herself onto people. Perhaps she believes that by seeing people’s goodness regardless of who or what they are-then maybe people can see her for how she wants to be seen.  

I feel Like that the interior of “A good man is hard to find” is one that focuses on the true character of a person. The Grandmother who refers to herself constantly as a “lady” (she even dresses in a manner that in the event that there is an accident those who come upon her will know by her dress that she was a lady) is anything but, she’s shallow, and judgmental. She looks down on her family and others, seeing herself as better, she also prideful (even after realizing that she had the address wrong she allowed the family to continue (thus sealing their fate). The “Misfit” while appearing (by his way of speaking respectfully showing some sort of warmth towards the mother when asking if she’d like to join Bailey. and his embarrassment of being without a shirt in the presence of women) comes off as a southern gentleman is in reality a murderous monster who is unfeeling. 

I think, “A good man is hard to find” by Flannery O’Connor is about how there is both good and bad in everyone. The grandmother is someone who was described as caring about her appearance and wanted to look good on the outside but she was also racist because of her upbringing and she just didn’t realize it. Meanwhile the misfit is described by the grandmother as looking like he’s a good person but in reality he’s a murderer. Throughout the whole story the grandma was trying to find the good in the Misfit by saying things like maybe they locked up the wrong person and telling him that he looked like a good person. The grandma is someone who wants to see the good in people which is why she kept calling people good like when Red Sammy was telling her that he got ripped off of gas. 

On a surface level “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is a story about how a family meets their untimely demise to a serial killer. However, I think the interior of the story is about how people may act like they know what their moral compass is like but most don’t. In the story the grandma thinks of herself very highly. She talks about how she once was sought after by a rich man who brought her watermelons every Saturday, and dresses nicely so that if she may die during the trip people will know that she was a lady. Throughout the story however, she shows that she is racist and manipulative and selfish. On the other hand we have the misfit who is a serial killer and facing death the grandma tries to plea to him to not kill her. She tries to show him that he is a good person because of how he looks and that he can still be saved. However, the misfit knows that he isn’t a good person and is evil. He knows exactly what he is and doesn’t try to pretend that he is someone that is good or neutral but just evil.

In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’Connor explores the conflict between appearance and reality. The grandmother appears to be a lady-like Christian woman, yet her encounter with The Misfit reveals that she does not believe in the central tenet of Christianity that Christ can raise the dead. In the story, there are two kinds of people. Those who know they are bad people and those who are bad people yet persist in believing they are good. The story depicts the impact of Christ on the lives of two seemingly disparate characters. One is a grandmother joining her son’s family on a trip to Florida. The grandmother makes the mistake of thinking that her own moral qualities are self-evident. At the end of the story, it is the grandmother who is seen as attaining grace. She attains it at her moment of death. She reaches out and recognizes the Misfit as her child. It is noted that throughout the story, it is the grandmother who advocates for the Christian faith. Both the grandmother and the Misfit are portrayed as stereotypes throughout the story, but their final encounter changes them. The grandmother’s journey from spiritual blindness to the realization of her own sins allows her to affect hopeful change in even the most despicable, unrepentant character, the Misfit. The author of this short story purposefully uses the two character types represented by the grandmother and the Misfit to show that anyone can change, as both characters, to varying degrees, represent humanity in all of its sinfulness. Looking carefully at the final encounter in the story, grace, an incredibly important concept for Flannery O’Connor, is shown to operate in both of these characters, presenting them with the possibility of change. Change through the delivery of grace is possible in anyone, as […]

The story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” was such an interesting read. It had a twist. I found myself pretty much on the edge of my seat. I think this story’s interior is how someone is portraying someone they aren’t. They are deceiving others to get what they want. People can be selfish.  For example, the grandma didn’t want to travel to Florida but wanted to go to Tennessee. She took every opportunity to convince her son not to travel to Florida. She even mentioned that the Misfit escaped jail and wouldn’t risk her family with him being out there. Ironically, they bumped into him. She also bought her cat without mentioning it to her son. She lied about a secret panel and then realized that the house was in. The grandmother portrayed being a nice person. She said, “…oh look at the cute little Pickaninny!”. She had a double meaning by calling the child cute but used an offensive term in the same sentence. By deceiving her family to get what she wanted, tragically got them killed by the Misfit and he killed her at the end in the dress she wore in case she was found dead. It was very ironic story, but this is chef’s kiss.

“ A good man is hard to find” by Flannery O’Connor is a fascinating read and a very complex one. To start off as we get familiarized with the family it’s not very likable all around: the kids are spoiled and entitled, the dad seems aloof and burnt out, the mother is listless. When it comes to the grandmother she is the opposite of a caring, warm granny we subconsciously expecting to see. She is extremely self-centered, selfish and manipulative. Her goal was to change their trip destination to Tenesseee and she was trying to scare her son with the news about the murderer on the loose first. Since that didn’t prove to be effective she moved on to pretending like it would be good for the kids to see something new. The picture we had painted of the grandmother character was that of a superficial lady who cares to look her best even after she is dead.  But something happens to her right before she gets shot by the notorious murderer “misfit”, she has an epiphany. This tragedy that had happened to her and the whole family, revealed her true essence right before she dies. And I think it’s one of the connotations of this story. “it is the extreme situation that best reveals what we are essentially”  as the author says in the essay about her work.

In the story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by O’Connor the interior is about the personalities under the different characters personas what they show on the surface for instance how the grandmother potray that she’s a good person who cares about her children well being and is a good influence while under that she is a narrow minded manipulating racist. The interior also shows how the most evil character (the criminal) is the only one who’s most true to himself and doesn’t need to put on a persona to potray something he’s not.

When reading “A good Man Is Hard to Find” on a surface level it is a story about a family that faced a very unfortunate event. The exterior of this story is that the family is dysfunctional and they encounter an “unlucky” situation with a criminal, Misfit. At the root and internal point of this story is so much deeper and somewhat philosophical. The Grandmother has the upmost character and moral compass flaw that leads her character to be hypocritical, manipulative and egocentric. One could say she is stuck in her own arrogance, she believes she is a Christian like woman while her actions prove otherwise. With her character flaws contradicting with how she sees herself, I don’t know if she truly believed that she was a perfect person. The Grandmothers’ encounter with Red Sam made her feel understood and heard, that is something she did not feel very often. She disregarded how Red Sam acted toward his wife, but awarded him with such respect and gratitude that he were polite to two strangers that needed gas. I think that was something she needed to feel good about herself. When the Grandmother and The Misfit meet, The misfit explains how he views no one is truly good or that it is extremely rare to come across genuine people. The Grandmother pleads for her life, possibly not truly understanding what he is saying, she tried to lead him to god and even tried to console him. Even though he felt some emotion towards her words to him, he knew this was a manipulative tactic to get him to have mercy on her life and not out of genuine concern or sympathy for The Misfit.

In the story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’Connor, the interior is more about the Grandmothers characteristics, and how she plays an important role in the story. The story’s interior is more based on her traits and actions in the passage. I think that a story’s “interior” is what it is mostly more than what it seems. I would compare it to an iceberg as how we only see so little, but if we were to look at the bottom of the ocean we would see so much for what it is. The Grandmother has a lot of negative characteristics as she is very racist and disrespectful. She shows her family that she is good and that nothing will happen, but then they end up being murdered. This is not a coincidence, it is on purpose, as she wanted all of it to happen. She tricked the family and is very selfish.

I just want to say this is probably my favorite story. A southern gothic classic in my opinion I love it. It has been a while since I felt so passionate and mesmerized by a story.  “We know what the story is about on the surface. What do you feel the story is about in its “interior?” is a very ironic question since the story is about how appearances can be decieving. The grandma acts like she is a top class lady and thinks she is more superior than others by the way she is very racist and classist, calling the little black child who has done nothing but be a bystander living his own life a slur and showing her racist and very snobby side. She doesn’t even feel the need to learn her daughter in law’s name or get to her and just simply refers to her own daughter in law and mother of her grandchildren “The children’s mother” The family’s demise is all based on cause and effect of the grandmother manipulating the family to see a plantation that is not even in Georgia but in Tennessese. The Grandma thinks herself as so smart and cunning and can get her own way no matter what just like how racist and classist and every bit of a snob she is. The Grandma warning the family of the dangers of traveling is also a self fullfilling prophecy at the end since she is also the cause of getting her own family killed. The Grandma tries to see the good in the Misfit because of the way he is dressed and his demeanor which also plays into her being snobby and classist and only judges people based on their outer appearance and their outer appearance only which in the end […]

“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor is a story about a family that had unfortunate luck and got killed by a criminal on the surface. I think the story in its “interior” is about human behaviors and punishment. The grandmother is very arrogant and judgmental. She thinks of herself as a good person but in real life she is racist and superficial. It’s funny how all of her decisions, which her family followed by her manipulation, lead them to this terrible incident. She chose to take the cat and hide it which led them to the accident when the cat jumped on Bailey. The accident was on a road where there was almost no one to help them because she decided to take the dirt road to see the house she thought was in Georgia (she also lied saying there was a secret panel in this house to convince the kids to go there). And finally, she wanted to go to Tennessee instead of Florida trying to convince her son not to go there because a criminal that just escaped, the misfit. Ironically they ran into the misfit on this dirt road and they all got killed. The grandmother was also very selfish – when she realized the man is the misfit she called “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?”. Looks like she didn’t care at all about her son, his wife, or her grandchildren, but herself. Right before the misfit shot her she told him he is one of her own children and reached out to him. She showed some emotion, but he shot her anyway. The misfit talks about punishment a few times, maybe because of the punishment he got (maybe for a reason or maybe not). Even the misfit noticed that she […]

I think the interior of this story, like many ancient Greek stories, has its core rooted in the idea of fate. The story, “A Good Man is Hard To Find” is about a family that ends up being murdered on their way to vacation in Florida. However, the grandmother of this family leads them down the path, quite literally, that leads them to their murder. She is obsessed with the idea of dying, especially since she is close to death. She tries to avoid it, as most of us would, but she takes it to a different level with how all-consuming it is for her. She plans what she is going to wear in case she is found dead in it. And she wants to take unnecessary extra precautions to try to push death away as much as possible. However, it is proven to be unavoidable. The route she takes her family downs leads to their death, and she is unable to talk the murderer out of it. No matter what she did she couldn’t avoid it. Much like Odysseus, she couldn’t fight her fate.

This week’s read “A Good Man is Hard to Find” could be seen on the exterior as a chilling story about the murders of a family who just wanted to go on vacation. When we dive deeper, think about the story and maybe even reread it, you may notice that the interior is all about the coincidental theme of the story. From all the characters and including the title. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” so a bad man- The Misfit must be easy to find. The grandmother thinks there is no good left in the world, what a coincidence she is stuck with a grumpy and disrespectful family. What a coincidence that the grandmother dressed nicely so that if there was an accident and her body was left in the road, people would know she was a lady. And what a coincidence that the dirt road she tells Bailey to turn down leads them to The Misfit. The grandmother really thought she would be able to reason with a stone cold killer, maybe find something in common with him to get some sympathy but in the end she just gets left in the dirt, dead in her nice clothing.

A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O’Connor has a lot going on emotionally from the start the grandmother comes off as super condescending and deceitful the rest of the characters come off as somewhat like able in their own way but the grandmother seems to drag everyone down with her negativity and manipulation. She also is super racist saying that a black child must have stolen the watermelons that Edgar Atkins left. I think the interior of the story is that everyone can have a human character that people may like but that doesn’t make them any less of a bad person as we see with the grandmother and her soul mate Red Sam and we see how those kinds of people can have an effect on children and potentially raise them to become bigoted and manipulative like they are. The grandmother also seems to know that she is a bad person to a certain extent as well as when she comes in contact with The Misfit she starts being nice and seeing the good In him while also talking about Jesus it seemed like she knew she was going to have some things to answer for if she was to be killed in that moment.

In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” by Flannery O’Connor I believe the story’s interior is about the fact that no one is good in this story where everyone is supposed to be good. Which leads me to discuss information about the grandmother and the misfit. The fact that the grandmother is ignorant, hypocritical, selfish and, manipulative. She is the reason they ended up dead in the woods. The Grandmother refuses to enjoy the family trip she had to manipulate her son and grand children to go on the family trip to another state. She asked them to make a detour which led them right to the misfit. Now I’m not sure if they would have gotten help and gotten out safely if she would have kept quiet but because she thinks she can get herself  out of everything, she just kept going, and got everyone murdered because of her ignorance. Now for the misfit he is clearly stuck in his ways and is on a killing spree. He let the grandmother go on and on as if he really cared about what she had to say he knew before he got out of the car that he was going to kill the family. The interior is definitely about a woman who thinks she can manipulate people and she tried to manipulate a murderer ,and not understanding the misfit is to far gone and there’s no saving him.

The story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by Flannery O’ Connor rides on suspense heavily. Throughout the whole story we get very interesting and telling bits of characterization. None of these people are supposed to be likeable. Our tension and hate between these characters just builds and builds with every other paragraph. To me, the grandmother, right off the bat, comes off whiny and unapologetic. She’s stubborn, manipulative, and stuck in her old ways. We’re introduced to the rest of the family and it seems like the norm is to ignore the grandmother. I think this is their way of handling her stubborn antics. It’s definitely not the healthiest or most proactive way but it’s telling of the rest of the family. The grandmother warns them of some criminal gone rampant in Florida; the Misfit. Soon after, they are caught by the Misfit. Surprisingly, out of all the characters, the grandmother shows compassion towards the him and acknowledges him as a human being. He shares one last melancholic word with her that her ignorance and lack of self awareness is innate to her character — creating a hideously ironic ending.

It started off with the grandmother who was trying to persuade her family to visit Tennessee instead of Florida for their vacation because she had motives, she tried everything in changing his mind and said “the kids already been there” they suggest she stays home but  they knew that wouldn’t happened, the  grandmother hides the cat in a basket in the car. The grandmother was dressed in the finest clothes, while driving and they were seeing some beautiful scenery. The grandmother conversations with the misfits reveals a lot about the grandmother and her religious beliefs, the misfit on the other hand does not  believe the grandmother likes red Sammy because he agrees with her. The  grandmother is so manipulative she convince Bailey travel off course.

In “A good man is hard to find” by Flannery O’Connor takes us in a roller coaster of emotions where each character plays a role in Mediocrity. The grandmother comes off as stuck in her ways as a manipulative, prejudice, deceitful lady. In the story, it seems as if there’s a hunt for goodness in everyone that the grandmother engaged with or mentioned to base her believes that “good” people do exist. Every character had a basic human positive trait as well as a negative trait since no one is perfect. I perceived the story as everyone trying to prove themselves, especially the grandmother. She judged her grandchildren, but uplifted Red Sammy for doing a kind gesture to customers.  She uplifted The Misfits when she saw her and her family’s life in danger. I believe that by her portraying she saw good in others, possibly others would see good in her. Also, the grandmother bringing in the topic of Jesus to the Misfits showed me that she knew her time was coming to an end and she needed grace. The Misfits were the ones that had to convince the grandmother that good people are very hard to find. This story depicts that no one takes accountability for their behaviors and ways but The Misfits. Even if they were bad, they were the only ones to show self awareness.

When speaking about the interior of the story, I found it helpful to re-read and consider what was being displayed passed the dialogue.  Initially, I found the grandmother to be persuasive and charming and even harmless.  However, after reading the entire story, her so-called harmlessness is what lead to the demise of the entire family.  I went back to the beginning of the story, and realized her persuasive charm was more of manipulation all for self-serving purposes. For example, she insisted on visiting Tennessee over Florida and went as far as to try to scare her son using the escape of the Misfit from jail to instill fear in him. Also, using guilt by saying, “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did.” Her willingness to exploit her sons fears to get him to adhere to her wants, displays extreme selfishness and lack of consideration for her impact on him. Again, her responses seemed harmless during my first read because it is common for people to make comments like that.  Towards the middle of the story, when the grandmother told of the old house on a plantation with hidden silver in the wall panels, the way the children began to impose their wants onto the father, was very similar to how his mother treated him, only with less grace. It showed how her overbearing treatment of him turned Bailey into a push over even by his own children. On the surface the children just seemed like regular kids who, ” say the darndest things.” a bit rude but it isn’t uncommon for kids to test their parents, especially in public. Again, after re-reading the story and seeing beyond the surface of my first […]