One of the most surprising elements of Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is the sudden and brutal violence that occurs towards the end of the story. After a series of misadventures and mistakes, the family finds themselves stranded on a remote road where they encounter a group of escaped convicts led by a man known as The Misfit. Despite the grandmother’s attempts to appeal to his better nature and convince him to spare their lives, The Misfit orders his men to kill the entire family.
What intrigued me was the elements of Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is the complex and flawed characters that populate the story. From the self-centered and manipulative grandmother to the morally ambiguous and enigmatic Misfit, each character is carefully crafted to challenge the reader’s assumptions and expectations.
One of the puzzling elements of Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is the ending of the story and the meaning behind it. After the family is brutally murdered by The Misfit and his gang, the story ends with The Misfit making a cryptic statement about the grandmother: “She would have been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.” This statement is puzzling because it raises a number of questions about The Misfit’s motives and the nature of grace and redemption.
One thought on “Viridiana Rivera Discussion 9”
Viridiana, this is a great response to “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” but we are in Week 9 now. This is not the reading we are discussing.