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In the essay about suspense in her story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” O’Connor writes writes that readers, like the ancient Greek viewers of tragedy, “should know what is going to happen in this story so that the element of suspense in it will be transferred from its surface to its interior.” We know what the story is about on the surface. What do you feel the story is about in its “interior?”
Also, address comments to others by name so we can all follow along.
74 thoughts on “Week 8 Discussion”
In my opinion, the story in its interior refers to the intension of the write because each author has a style of writing and the suspense, they keep in the stories would depend on the mindset, socio-economic and cultural background of the author. It’s the author who is inside every story and it’s either their imagination or real life that would be portrayed on the stories they right. Thus, the interior refers to the author’s intention and mindset.
I agree with you Wilzileinik, I think the way the author writes this story is in a way that you can see the destruction before it actually takes place. The mindset of the main character shows her process of thinking and actions that allows her downfall and allows the people around her downfall. The author inside of this story shows the main characters common core issues and it’s her manipulation, lying, and selfishness. The interior of the story is how the deeper true meaning of how a person acts can create consequences that could be considered life changing.
Wilzileinik, I don’t quite understand your post. The question for the week is asking what the story is about in its interior—under the surface of the plot details about the murder of the family. What is happening under these surface details?Also, please be sure your posts meet the length requirement so you can receive full credit.
The grandmother even calls Misfit as her son. Yet he kills the grandmother. It is really a cruel and brutal event. Therefore such ending reflects the idea that there is no good man in the world. Misfit is a beast. He can never be considered as a human being. Grandmother always feels her morally superior. She believes that with her morality she can impress anyone. But during the conversation with Misfit she feels the hollowness of her moral sense. She feels weak and even she utters an epiphany. But at last she fails ti impress Misfit.
I think in its inferior the story is about a family road trip that takes an ironic turn for the worse after the family must face the consequences of the grandma’s actions. The story is about how her actions, her ignorance, her manipulation, her lying costs this family their lives. At heart the story is about what facing the consequences of your actions, your consequences can affect the lives of other people too and your consequences can humble you. Before the grandma was face to face with a murderer, she was heartless, she was racist and rude, but as soon as the time came to meet her maker, she was suddenly a changed person. She was suddenly kind and warm; she was suddenly full of grace and love. She gave compassion to a cold-hearted killer instead of her family and when her family disappeared one by one, she only sought to save herself instead of allowing herself to react to their deaths even for a second. This story was about paying for your mistakes, paying for allowing yourself to be a horrible person. Its a tragedy of an ironic story because the grandma talked herself and her family into dying, into something she said she’d never do. All because she lie, all because in that moment she chose to be a horrible person.
I completely agree with you Giovanni, she was a woman that lied and only tried to save herself rather than wanting to save her whole family. She went through the consequences that resulted in death and caused her whole family to suffer those consequences as well. She tried to switch up her character as a person but before the killer came around she was everything but nice, loving, and kindhearted. The family knew that but through everything the killer still was coldblooded and still let her talk her way into the death he laid upon them.
Giovanni
I’m really agree with you. the grandma lied to the family with a whole history that causes an accident and the terrible accident that led them to confront the misfit, this confront result the death of the family and she do anything because she was very busy trying to save her own life by switch up into a very different person but still one that just think on herself.
Giovanni, thanks for the good response. Yes, if we look under the surface of this story, we see into the heart of the characters. We explore how their behaviors and character traits unwittingly lead to terrible tragedy. We also get to ponder the question of what makes a person good.
Hey Giovanni, I agree with your idea, because of the grandmother’s lie alone, the whole family got kill. She is a selfish person, even face of a terrible killer, she still thinks about to save herself, completely ignoring her family. In this situation and more clearly a person’s heart can be seen.
I also agree with what you are saying that basically if one dig deep in the reading one can see what’s going on in this reading. A person is able to have there own view of a character . We have to investigate how their activities and who they maybe or who they are can unknowingly contributed to a terrible disaster. This can also have us gain an opportunity to think about what make a good and a bad character as a whole.
Hey Giovanni,
I agree with your take on what the interior message of the story is. I also believe that they are all facing consequences due to the past actions of the grandma. As you said she did change her perception and personality because she was face to face with a killer which made her realize this might be the end for me and my family.
The interior of the story is about a family that goes on a road trip and end up in a tough situation that can cost their whole entire lives. The family suffers deeply due to the grandmother’s consequences with lying, manipulation, and the result to her actions. She portrayed her life a certain way and acted a certain way before she encountered a face to face situation with a person that was a murderer. When she encountered the murderer her aura changed and she changed. she tried to make it seem as if she had a big loving heart but it’s more to that. She showed warmth ness to a murderer but you’ve never witnessed that same love and warmth ness to her family. She only showed that so she wouldn’t be killed but she tried to play on ones intelligence. She was selfish she thought about her own life instead of everyone else that was with her. The story is about everyone having consequences for their actions, that everything has a reaction to it. She talked her and her family straight into the ropes of death.
Hello Samijahrodriguez
I agree with you about the old grandmother. Since the beginning of the story, she had been trying to change the course of the journey in every way possible. She is rude, ignorant, and self-centered but does she not realize her attitude towards the surroundings. It is quite sad that all other family members had to die because of her actions—especially the baby. Or maybe it is just their time to go. I wonder what if Bailey had listened to his mother in the first place and take the trip to Tennessee.
samijahrodriguez
I agree with you because as you say the family suffer due to the grandmother’s consequences with lying and manipulation since that she was tying to manipular the family from the beganing and then she start to lie with bring as consequence and accident that take then to confront the misfit and then she just try to save her own life by being another person and let her family die one by one.
Samijah, the interior of the story is not about a family that goes on a trip and gets into a bad situation. However, it is about the other things you mention here. It is largely the selfishness of the hypocritical old grandmother that causes the tragedy. At the same time, the other characters in the story aren’t very admirable either. The irony is that the one character who is most evil is the one who has a moral code that he follows. It is a terrible moral code, but it is a clear one. Imagine if the others in the story tried to be as good with the same dedication that he tries to be bad.
Hey Samijahrodriguez, I agree with your idea, because of her self-centeredness, she only thinks about herself in everything, which causes the total consequences. Although she showed another emotion when she met the killer, but this emotion did not appear in her family. The consequences she suffered also dragged down her family.
Hey, Samijah, I wanted to addon to this thread as I liked the points you’ve brought up.
The Misfit is a character who doubles as a motif in the story. A violent escape convict and a man of contradictions. Despite his background, be blushes from embarrassment when Bailey uses foul language. While instructing his men, Hiram and Bobby Lee, to take the family members away to be killed, he apologizes for not wearing a shirt. He complements his parents, yet he killed his own father – even acknowledging this but never fully taking responsibility for his own actions. He compares himself to Jesus, yet says he’s no believer. He adopts his alias because of the imbalance he sees between one’s actions and resulting punishment. His name also alludes to his not having a recognized place in society. Although, the Misfits represents the personification of evil, he thinks deeply about religion and is troubled by behavior he views as unsavory; as when Bailey speaks harshly to mother.
Hii, Samijahrdriguez I agreed with you, No doubt It is terrible story of an old selfish, bias and hypocritical grandmother who make the reason of her family’s death. Apparently Grandmother is embodiment of moral codes but these codes make terribly tragic to other characters. “She said she thought it was going to be a good day for driving, neither too hot nor too cold”. It is also adjacent to the Greek tragedy because characters are responsible of their tragedy due to wrong code of conduct and false decisions. Family has to face the music only due to her terrible codes of grandmother.
Secondly I agreed with the Anna that Grandmother has no love towards her family while she called to Misfit “I know you are a good man at heart” . Grandmother’s deceptiveness and superficiality is a clear contrast to Misfit. Grandmother’s deception is related to her goodness while on the other side Misfit is a not superfluous as an evil man. Consequently we can say that it is extreme harsh behavior and appearance of Grandmother who lead a family to death lap.
My thoughts are similar to yours regarding what the family experiences in the story. Seeing them suffering because of the result grandmother’s way. As the grandmother manipulates her situation when it regards others to her not being honest throughout the story. Now being a person such as that created a horrible fate for those around her which it was ending with death. I don’t blame the others since there is no way one can see it would end so badly and one would do such terrible things to there children and grand children.
Hey Samijahrodriguez,
I agree with your opinion on what the interior of the story is. Like you said the family is facing consequences for the actions of the grandma and not anything that they did wrong. I agree what you said about her showing warmth just so she wont be killed but she does not really mean any care or love.
The interior of this story is just how of one person’s actions and behaviors can lead them straight to their deaths. It shows how anything can turn disastrous by just one wrong turn; or one lie. The family in the story doesn’t seem close to each other as well. A family road trip, which should be fun and bonding time turns out anything but. The story is about how there is no really good person in the world. We can be the in-between person where we try to cheat our way out accordingly. This story especially shows us that. Humans are selfish creatures living in our own little worlds thinking we are good enough. I think the write also is telling us that there are two different types of people in the world—the ones just blinding journeying through life because they have to, and the ones who choose to live in a certain way regardless of what everyone else thinks.
Thin, I love your comment about being an “in between” person. I think this is very much at the heart of this story. No one, aside from the Misfit and his men, is really bad. But they are also not good. They are nothing. They are like grey “in between” human beings. O’Connor suggest that true Christians are as devoted to goodness as the Misfit is devoted to badness. You are so correct that the story shows how one person’s selfishness and ignorance can lead to tragedy.
Hi Thin! This was a really great response. I do think that sometimes people try to cheat their way through by considering themselves to be good when they aren’t. Being a good person with solid values is a tall order, no person is absolutely good or absolutely bad. I think what kind of people we choose to be are dependent on the choices we’ve made in certain situations no matter how big or small they are. What we do know is that the basis of a good person starts from being selfless.
Hello, Thin,
you have amazing insight! It is definitely scary how one wrong move can cause so much catastrophe. In life, we have to be careful about the choices we make and pay attention. In this story particularly I learn that it is best to let our own desires go unsatisfied sometimes. Sometimes getting what we want can be the worse outcome. Also, I agree that we humans are naturally selfish. It takes effort to truly love others and to think of ourselves second. If only the grandmother had just allowed everyone to enjoy a trip to Florida, they would all not have met an untimely demise.
I think that this story in the interior is about: hypocrisy, selfishness, and the consequences that a bad action can bring. This story is about a grandmother and her family who traveled to Florida. The grandmother really did not want to go, she preferred to go south of Tenerife. This is why the grandmother began to try to manipulate the family by speaking of a murderous misfit who was in Florida to convince the family to go where she wanted, this is where her selfishness begins. He decided to go to Florida and she went with them. She then began to invent stories so that they would stop and lose more time. This bad action gave a turn for the worse to the story since they had an accident and then they faced the murderer. The grandmother, a rude woman, and racist, seeing herself in danger, tried to save herself by becoming a person full of love and gratitude by talking to the murderer while her family disappeared one by one, but the only thing that mattered to her was saving her life. and this is why inside for me the story is about selfishness and hypocrisy.
Hi Ivanna, I agree, the grandmother is definitely not who many would mistake her to be. In the story, she spends much effort dressing a certain way, in her “navy blue dress… [and] white cotton gloves” (O’Connor). She does all of this to give off a pleasant, kind, and gentle appearance. However, as we see in the story, the grandmother is full of judgements, rudeness, and selfishness, all of which she has tried to disguise with her clothes and overall look.
Ivanna, thanks for the good post. Yes, from minute one the grandmother sets the family on the road to tragedy. First, she insists on bringing the cat even though she knows this will upset her son. It is the cat that gets frightened and ends up jumping on Bailey, causing him to lose control of the car. Then, on the trip, she insists on getting her way, leading the family straight into peril. O’Connor, however, writes that there is a transformation in the grandmother at the very end. For one instant she has an epiphany and a moment of grace in which she shows true compassion to the man about to murder her. According to O’Connor, this moment allows her to die in a pure state. O’Connor also writes that she likes to think that the Misfit too has been changed by this moment.
On the outside, this story is about a family who takes a trip down south, and runs into an escaped prisoner, getting themselves killed. However, I feel that on the interior, this story is even more than that. As seen through the grandmother’s oblivion to her own issues, this story is an example of how appearances can be deceiving. For example, the grandmother says to her family in the car, “Children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else [back in her day]. People did right then” (O’Connor). Immediately after, she says, “Oh look at that cute little pickaninny!” (O’Connor). The grandmother is completely oblivious to her racism that she is spreading to her family when she speaks this way. However, as described by the author, if you were to see her in her “navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print… [and her] white cotton gloves” (O’Connor), you might mistake her for a loving, open-minded woman, when really only the inside, she is filled with bias. We see this throughout the story, when even at the end, she refers to the prisoner as “The Misfit.”
Anna, this is a very good discussion of how appearances can be quite deceiving. This ties in well with a conversation of the exterior and interior of the story. The grandmother’s superficiality plays an important role in the story. It also contrasts vividly with the profound nature of the Misfit. He is an evil man, but he is not superficial. He is a deep thinker and has pondered all the philosophical and religious ideas that grandmother can only pretend to believe. The grandmother believes she is a good woman because of these superficial details, such as her appearance. In fact, it is her extreme selfishness that leads to the death of her whole family.
In my opinion, history refers to the fact that sometimes individuals are brought to a point of crisis in their lives, and for that reason, they see their self-confidence destroyed by events, or they experience a moment of grace that leads them to reassess their past lives. and see the world in a new and spiritual light. In the same way, many of the stories end in violence because O’Connor felt that violence was often needed to awaken the self-satisfied individual to the shortcomings of life.
the story*
This story in the interior is about a family who isn’t as perfect as they may seem and the misfit is able to come into their lives and reveal it, to not only others but themselves. This story evokes a deep meaning that when something bad goes down people reveal their true colors. The grandmother is a selfish person, who appears to be kind and nice on the outside, but on the inside there is darkness. I believe everyone has a little bit of darkness in them, no matter how they act or what they do that makes them look like this great person. The misfit even though he is a bad man has already acknowledged that he is not a good person, unlike the grandmother who chooses to put on a fake act. She doesn’t care for what her family felt about the decisions she made, as long as she was content. The grandmother in the end realized what she had done and accepted her fate.
Rances Vasquez, I agree with you because grandmother was so many selfish women. Because she always cared about herself. At the story’s beginning, she cares about going to a different location for the road trip. At the end of the story, she was trying to show the humbleness to a murderer of her family. Only to be saved herself.
From my point of view, this story is about when they meet their doomed fate. Besides the existence of other characters, the main focus is on the grandma’s actions and behavior. The story is well written, providing different nuances about the grandma’s and the Misfit’s essence. However, it is not clear for me the authentic version of those two characters. Perhaps that is the whole point of the story, leaving space for different interpretations.
We are too quick to point to the grandma’s guilt for the tragedy that follows because of her selfishness and how she changed her behavior towards the killer to try to save herself.
I would like you to consider if you had not done the same under the same circumstances. Maybe the grandma only acted upon instinct, based on what she had available, her words. Think of her background for a moment. She is a religious elderly lady with probably very little education, if any. At that moment, the only thing she had was her religious beliefs; therefore, she tried that to persuade the killer not to kill her.
Hello Deanne, I would like to disagree on the point you made that they met there doomed fate, I think that it wasn’t fate that ultimately led to their deaths I think it was the grandmother fault. Yes a lot of people would’ve reacted the same way the grandmother did trying to persuade the killer and praying to not end up dead but it was her selfishness and lies that got them to the car crash and being helpless. That would have been avoided if she didn’t tell the story of their being treasure at the house that wasn’t even there it was in Tennessee and her leaving the cat back at the house.
In the story of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is about a family vacation, the behavior of the grandma alone caused the whole family to be dead. She treats her family members ruthlessly. She doesn’t care about her family’s survival, as long as she can be saved. When facing her family and herself, she chose to save herself. This story tells us that there is a sin that needs correction and thinking, but there is always a price to pay if you do something wrong. The grandma could not stand the trial of the God and was eventually killed. The ending of this tragedy is full of irony. The killer slaughtered the family, but he calmly accepted the sin he committed and faced the trial of God. There are many people in life who will not admit the mistakes they have made, but those mistakes can make us to be better, and also can make us lose our way.
The interior of the story is about the grandmother who causes the lives of not only her son but his wife and his children’s too. The grandmother is at fault because of her lying, manipulative and selfish ways. It was ironic how the main reason she wanted to go to Tennessee instead of Florida was because the news said that the misfit is on his way to Florida and she was the reason they ultimately ran into him. Her lies were shown all through the story on how she fabricated the story of the house having treasure. Towards the story also shows how the grandmother changed how at first you can tell she was a racist and thought to herself how times were changing and there aren’t any good men left around then to later assume the misfit was good at heart just based on his looks. This is why at the end of the story the misfit said “She would of been a good woman,The Misfit said, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life”. This shows how the interior of the story is on how the Grandmothers selfishness, lies and manipulative ways caused the deaths of not only hers but her loved ones aswell.
I believe the novel to be a personal circle of relatives road trip that takes a hilarious turn when the personal circle of relatives encounters the results of grandmother’s efforts. The plot is around how her actions, apathy, control, and deceit affect the lives of this close circle of family. In essence, the narrative is about how, depending on the outcomes of your actions, your outcomes can have an impact on the lives of different people, and your outcomes can embarrass you. Grandmother just came up against a murderer, she had no heart, she became a discourteous person, but whatever the case, it got here.
The story is about good and bad people. It will be better to say that it makes readers think about what good and bad people are like, but it still won’t describe the interior of the story. We meet different characters and form our views the moment they appear in the scene. We can definitely tell that the grandmother is chatty, careless old woman. Bailey is extremely passive in the dialogues. There’s also the mother of the children who does not even have the name, which tell us about her role in the story. Lastly, there are curious children who talk more than their parents.
It is hard to say who is good person among these people. Are they bad then? We cannot say that either. Someone may say that the grandmother is a bad person as she’s careless, shallow, selfish woman who led to the death of the whole family. Still, I cannot say that she is a bad person. She does care about her grandchildren when she teaches them not to throw litter in the street. Therefore, she thinks that she has a good impact on kids even though she points at the “little nigger” and says that those people do not live like their family does. My point is that I don’t think she is someone we should take an example from but I cannot say that she’s a bad person.
Bad character comes into the story later and his name is Misfit. With all those characters in the background, he does not seem to be the worst character in the story. He is indeed a bad person, but I think somehow, he grasps little respect from the readers. I think it’s because he has a real character – not the one that is neither good or bad – we can clearly see that he’s bad but we can also see that he has seen so much. He thinks about his life and he is more self-aware than any of the characters. He even thinks about Jesus and his role in this world. Misfit is not blind like other characters, he knows what his path looks like and knows exactly whether his path is good or bad.
Readers can think about what would happen if Misfit directed his character towards a good path? What would happen if he had faith in Jesus or in anything else? Would we call him a good person? Probably, yes.
In the end, I can say that story leaves us with questions. It is the reader who needs to think about what good or bad person means. Even though it does not give us an example of a good individual we can still build the character on our own. The story also tells us about those people who does not even fall into any of these two categories. I think story tells us not to be the “mother of the children” – we should at least have a name.
Hi Mariam, I think this is a great analysis of the story and it’s interior, and I agree with what you wrote about “good and bad” people. I thought the title of this story was very relevant and spoke about the true message of the story. “Good Men are Hard to Find” is literally saying that, maybe, no matter how people may seem on the exterior, there are no good men, or maybe even no truly evil men.
Hi, Mariam. Your comments are very in detail. We hard to judge a people good or bad, because different people have their own values. However, we can tell characters traits by their behaviors, tones, and actions. In the story, the grandmother is selfish. She leads bad things happened because of her selfish. She thinks she is perfect. But when she facing death, she realizes she has flaw like every does.
I believe this story displays how our choice to be completely driven by selfish motivation can have destructive consequences. Specifically, we read about how the grandmother’s insistence to explore a plantation site ultimately led to the death of her and her present family members. From the very beginning, the grandmother relentlessly insisted on her own will- which was to travel to Tennessee as opposed to Florida. Selfishly, she used the children as an argument in hopes that she would succeed.
Although Bailey denied her of this desire, the grandmother did not resign from her manipulation. To get Bailey to fulfill her wish to explore the plantation of sentimental value to her, she told a lie that cost them all their lives. Unfortunately, she uncovered that she was wrong about the location of the plantation, but it was already too late. Eventually, they wounded up in an accident that drew the attention of the misfit she raved about earlier.
In the interior, we can see that the grandmother’s selfish motivation drove her into using manipulation and deceit as tools in order to get what she wanted. Ultimately this caused her to end up in the same predicament she accused Bailey of potentially putting his kids in danger of. I learn that choosing to solely focus on pursuing one’s personal desires in spite of how inconveniencing it can be to those around you can lead to bad consequences for yourself and for others.
The story “A Good Man Hard to Find” is about a family that have a vacation to Florida. We know that the surface of the story is the trip to Florida. And I think that the story in the interior is that main character grandmother’s a series of bad behaviors leads bad results and her interaction with her family. From the beginning of the trip, the grandmother insists to bring a cat. Then the car lost control because of the cat. In the story, the grandmother is a traditional person of leadership for decision making and moral guidance. She is selfish and hypocrisy. When the misfit wants to murder her family, she did not beg him to spare her grandchildren. However, she pleads for her own life. Only when she is facing death, she realizes that she is not perfect and she has flaw like everyone does.
Both the grandmother and the Misfit are not the people they seem to be on the surface. The grandmother claims to believe in Jesus and prides herself on being a lady, but she’s actually shallow, selfish, and judgmental. The Misfit is a violent killer but speaks and acts thoughtfully. The grandmother trust Jesus to provide comfort and salvation but is out of practice when it comes to religion. The Misfit claims if he was a believer, “I wouldn’t be like I am now” (135). He appears to want inspiration and salvation. Their conversation allows the grandmother to reclaim the good within herself as she strives to help another human being. She recognizes herself and the Misfit as children of God and that religion has saved her from living a hard and mean life. The grandmother’s sudden religious epiphany and declaration of love and kindness overwhelms the Misfit, who immediately shoots her dead. He’s not ready to live a good life and be a good man. While the Misfit is the vehicle through which the grandmother gains grace, he has yet to achieve that state himself.
I believe I saw a comment or two in this thread that interpreted the grandmother’s end in a shrewder way; that she is deceiving the Misfit into sparring her which definitely fits her character up until this point. However, people do mysterious things in a near-death experience and I see it more as way for here to finally enlighten someone in her life before she dies.
Hi Gamby! I like how you pointed out the juxtaposition between how the grandmother and The Misfit perceives themselves and how their actions and words differ. I also believe that the last words the grandmother spoke were genuine and not a ploy to deceive The Misfit. However it can possibly be both, either way I agree that she redeemed herself with that last display of compassion and goodness.
This story is about a grandma and her family who headed out to Florida. The grandma truly didn’t have any desire to go, she liked to go south of Tenerife. This is the reason the grandma started to attempt to control the family by talking about a dangerous oddball who was in Florida to persuade the family to go where she needed, this is the place where her narrow-mindedness starts. He chose to go to Florida and she went with them. She then, at that point, started to create stories so they would pause and lose additional time. This terrible activity gave a turn for the more regrettable in question since they had a mishap and afterward they confronted the killer. The grandma, an impolite lady, and bigot, seeing herself at serious risk, attempted to save herself by turning into an individual brimming with adoration and appreciation by conversing with the killer while her family vanished individually, yet the main thing that made a difference to her was saving her life. what’s more, this is the reason inside for me the story is about narrow-mindedness and false reverence
While on the surface “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” appears to be a crude, blood filled story of a family that gets murdered by a mad man, it is much deeper than that. Author Flannery O’Connor subtly lays out a tale of faith, light and darkness. One instance of the theme of faith is when The Misfit says to the grandmother that he would follow Jesus if he knew his story was true. However because it’s unverifiable, he does not believe in Jesus and instead of committing to a life of goodness, he chooses chaos. The Misfit’s lack of faith is also emphasized by his obsession with proof of paperwork. The irony of this is that fate lead them to the predicament they are in now, we the readers are able to witness the interconnected events such as the grandmother bringing a cat, to the kids wanting to see the plantation, that lead to the family’s meeting with the Misfit crew. These characters don’t realize how every choice the make are significant and how one action leads to the next.
On the topic of light and darkness, we are able to see how every character is flawed. The grandmother is selfish, vein and has racist tendencies. The wisest character is The Misfit but he chooses chaos and darkness because he doesn’t believe that there is any good in the world. His worldview is questioned right before the grandmother is shot dead as she suddenly displays a genuine burst of compassion that is almost frightening to The Misfit. It is at this point I believe The Misfit has the epiphany that we are not all good or bad, black or white. We are shades of grey with the potential energy for either or both.
Hi Charran,
Your analysis is spot on. The Misfit seemed wiser than all of the characters, but he made a choice to live a life of crime. The grandmother on the other hand was innately cold and selfish. A character flaw of hers she couldn’t change – even if she tried. The Misfit was right about people. This family proved that people are not to be trusted.
If the grandmother wasn’t so dark and distasteful (and stayed home) they would all be alive.
Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is a puzzling story. On the surface, it is a mere, albeit gruesome, back pages news item about a traveling family getting murdered by escaped convicts. The foreshadowing is such that there is little doubt, knowing how these stories go, how the events are going to play out by the end. However, the author doesn’t dwell on the thin plot and chooses to focus instead on the psychology of its characters by way of storytelling. The long final dialogue between the Misfit and the grandmother, arguably the core of the story, even touches on philosophy and theology. Therein lies the real suspense in the story: not in the events themselves, but in what they awaken in the grandmother mainly, and in the Misfit in a more suggested way. The grandmother, who the author shows as soulless, cunning, and egocentric, faced with the imminence of death, has a moment of religious grace that allows her to see the humanity in the murderer of her entire family. The Misfit, unable to process the cognitive dissonance triggered by this unpredictable act of kindness shaking his entire outlook on humanity and the world, shoots her. Despite it being her last act on this earth, this gesture is likely to be the beginning of a spiritual awakening in the Misfit.
Hello Anastasiia,
I love your perspective. I think its interesting that you perceive the misfit to be going through a spiritual awakening. To me, the family proved to him his distrust in people. But I think he definitely learned something about human nature. The Grandma only chose to see the humanity of his family’s murderer to save her own skin. She actively chose to be hateful to those around her and even her own family throughout the story. It goes to show how no one is a good or bad person. People’s morality are much more gray, rather than black and white.
The “interior” of A Good Man Is Hard to Find is about a grandmother – the matriarch – that you would hope is loving, kind and caring. But in this story, the matriarch is self-absorbed, deceitful and greedy. Even the children in this story are selfish, but not as severe as the grandmother. Complexities in family dynamics alter their lives forever.
The family, as a whole, was intending on going to Florida on vacation. But in the grandmothers eyes, Tennessee seemed more fitting. Unfortunately for her, her son did not cave in to her manipulation, and proceeded with their route to Florida. The grandmothers personal choices are so catastrophic, she lost her family and her life. The lack of commitment to her family literally led everyone to their fate.
The Misfits – or murderers in the story – are not much different than the grandmother. In fact, evil appears in all different shapes and sizes. And evil is what she was.
The story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” in short, is about a Grandmother who takes her family on a trip and, during the drive, gets into a car accident that is witnessed by an escaped convict that the Grandmother recognizes to be “The Misfit.” The Misfit then shoots and kills the Grandmother. On the stories interior, however, it is about how no one is really who they seem to be, and everyone is flawed in some way. While the Grandmother is very religious, she is far from a paragon of virtue; for example, she is shown to be quite racist. The Misfit, on the other hand, while an escaped convict, is not entirely evil. In short, the interior could be described as a lesson in never judging a book by its cover, and the title “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is also very relevant, as I believe the story also tells us that there are in fact no good men.
The interior of this story is to show the consequences of others actions. Throughout the story, the Grandma manipulates the family to get things to go her way on the trip. She gets them to change destinations multiple times and lies to get her way. The cause of them leading to their deaths was by her way of thinking. She often reminisces the past in times of deep rooted ignorance, hate, and racism. She claims the word to have been nicer then, only because it benefited her. Their whole family had to face their deaths because of this ignorance. This story really shows the power of karma and irony. The whole reason the grandma persuaded the family to not go to Florida was because of the killer, but they all ended up dying anyway. It also goes to show how true colors will be shown under pressure. The Grandma changed her demeanor in front of the killer, making her self seem genuine and loving, which she never was to her own family. She was ignorant but perfectly capable of being decent yet actively chose not to be.
I totally agree with you and how you wrote it.The grandma is self centered and wants everyone to listen to her.The superiority turned her into negative.She talks negative since the very first time when everybody decides to go to a different place.
Hello Caroline, thank you for your response. The story does show the consequences of the grandmother’s actions. However, I think that it was unintentional of her to do such thing. I think that is the major problem here – she does not even know what she is doing wrong, differently from Misfit who knows exactly what’s right and what’s not. Therefore, story underlines her superficiality rather than her evil thoughts. Irony in the story is very easy to detect – life gave her whatever she was afraid of in the beginning.
I feel that the story’s interior has to do with the grandmother’s phony and careless attitude towards her own family and how it changed significantly as she came across a criminal. Not only did her attitude change, but the Misfit’s attitude shifts towards the end too as he kills the grandmother. Now, to elaborate on this, I would like to say that the interior has to do with the significance of the ability of human nature to switch from being compassionate to being the opposite, or vice versa. The misfit gave the impression that he was looked at badly by others but was a nice person (which the old lady felt for), until he wasn’t. On the other hand, the grandma was completely I’ll-mannered towards her family, but as she communicated with the Misfit, she made sure that she was being polite. So, both characters were bad people on the inside, and tried to hide it with fake emotions. Unfortunately, it didn’t work out well for the old lady.
Hi Antasia. I completely agree with your observation of the grandmother’s attitude regarding her family vs the murderer. I also found your interpretation of the interior meaning very interesting and well written. You make a great point when you stated the interior message “has to do with the significance of the ability of human nature to switch from being compassionate to being the opposite, or vice versa”. I understand this to mean that we as humans are capable of turning our compassion on and off and I agree. You mentioned how the grandmother was ill-mannered to her own family but polite when communicating with the misfit ,which is true, and the misfit caught on to her act as shown at the end of the story when he implied she was only a good woman in the face of death.
After reading the various links provided, it has become clear to me that the “interior” of this story is Flannery O’Connor attempting to show how compassion and redemption are possible. In the “Flannery O’Connor on writing” essay, O’Connor states, “About this I can only say that there are perhaps other ways than my own in which this story could be read…” I am glad she acknowledges this because I heavily disagree on her interior message of compassion and redemption. And though O’Connors interior message does occur, choosing to ignore that deeper meaning shouldn’t be a bad thing. This is what Critic Kathleen Ochshorn Says when she states, “…just because the author sees goodness and redemption in what happens to the Grandmother and The Misfit, doesn’t mean readers will or should feel they have to.” I find It hard to believe that a serial killer like the misfit could be redeemed “like the prophet he was meant to become” as O’Connor stated. Not only because it is disrespectful to the victims to want his redemption but because the misfit believes and states in the story that even though he is a criminal actively doing and choosing wrong/evil, he does not deserve to be punished for it. Though I don’t agree with the interior message I interpreted, Flannery O’Connor herself is an amazing storyteller and writer.
Hello Shadai,
I shared your frustration with the meaning of the text upon reading. If we do not take away the message from the last scene, the text, albeit compellingly written, would be utterly nihilistic. I do get the point that a random act of selflessness and kindness, such as the grandmother’s last gesture, can have ripple effects. I do not think the author herself believes that the Misfit should go unpunished. I also think that hoping for a murderer’s redemption isn’t necessarily disrespecting his victims. O’Connor seems to believe that the cycle of violence can be broken by criminals having a moral awakening. I do not think there are plenty philosophers-murderers out there. The motivations for crimes are more likely to be materialist than metaphysical, with some amount of rationalizing happening. If we are to accept the more archetypal aspect of the character of the Misfit, the story and message hold.
The interior of this story is how a single person can lead to many wrong turns. It demonstrates how one single mistake can transform anything into a disaster. We can all be someone, attempting to sneak our way out of any situation but that can lead to many wrong choices, this story demonstrates this point where humans can be selfish. I believe the author is also implying that there are many categories of individuals in the world, those that mindlessly wander through life to accomplish something that they are forced to do. In the story the grandmother went to Florida with her family. She was determined about not going, she wanted to travel to the south of Tenerife. So then the grandmother started to alter the family by bringing up a forceful mismatch in Florida in order to persuade them to go where she wanted, this is where she was wrong and this bad behavior changed the course of the story which leads to selfishness and cold hearted.
Hi, Angel
I agree that the grandmother had tried to intervene where they were going that it ended up becoming deadly and cause her whole family to lose their lives. she only is interested in what she wants to go and makes the trip bad for everyone. I believe from my personal life that most elderly people are like this they complain or throw fits when they don’t get what they want.
In this story Conner showed that how the values of Grandmother and Misfit are deceptive ad flawed. Grandmother’s values are mere superficial and artificial. She assumed herself a superior lady. She called the Misfit a “Good man” that showed her cheap values. In other words we can say that like Greek tragedies his own oblivious nostalgia lead her toward the death of complete family.
The interior of the story is centered around the grandmother and her family.The grandmother thinks of herself as the superior one and everyone should;ve listened to her.But as everyone decides to go different from where she wanted to go she sets up stories to ruin the trip.The grandmother never turns her critical eye on herself to inspect on her own hyprocrisy, dishonesty, and selfishness.For example,the conscience the grandmother invokes at the beginning of the story is conviniently silent when she she sneaks pity sing into the car, lies to the children about the secret panel,and opts not to reveal she made a mistake .
Hello Kazi, I agree with you, that the Grandmother thinks of herself as the superior of the family. The grandmother only cared about herself when the car crash happened as well. But it is interesting on how before she died, did show some of the goodness that was in her. Could things have went differently if the grandmother had shown that goodness before the trip?
The interior of the story is about how one person actions such as the grandmother can cause the entire family their lives. the grandmothers has this theory that finding a good person is hard to find but only because of the dirty deeds she did in her past so she tries to convince herself that she is the good ” man “
The story’s interior is about the writer’s imagination, “good man hard to find”, where the family planned to go on a road trip. The grandmother already knew about the danger of Misfit and the danger. Grandmother seems selfish in the story where she only cares about herself even her family is in trouble. The story turns into an ironic tragedy only from her stubborn actions and her selfish behavior. At the end of the story, when Misfit killed her whole family, she was only thinking about herself. She didn’t even feel sorry for her family when Misfit killed all her family, but she seemed only worrying about herself in the end when she died by smiling. This story reflects that the wrong action of one family member can affect the whole family, and all members should pay the price. We all can see that the grandmother bringing the cat with her made the accident of their car. Because of that, They have to face the Misfit, and all family gets in trouble. This story was a tragic story where grandmother was the real problem of the house.
In its interior the story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is about a family who goes on a road trip, then the trip takes a tragic turn because of the grandma. The grandma lied and make a mistake , leading the family to drive deep in the wood to then to be found by a misfit and his friends. When encountering the misfit the grandma all of a sudden becomes such a nice woman and so religious (to her own benefit) that she tries talking herself out of the situation , while doing that her family is not given time to react and are taken apart and killed one by one. She did all the lying , selfishness , and being heartless to still be killed at the end.
The interior of the story of, “A good man is hard to find”, turns to ironic tragedy only from the stubborn grandmother’s action and her selfish behavior. When Misfit kills her whole family at the end of the story, she was only thinking about herself. She didn’t even feel sorry for her family. But she seemed only worried about herself. in the end, she died by smiling. There was no regret in her eye for her mistake. This story reflects that the wrong action of one family member can affect the whole family, and all members should pay the price. We all can see that the grandmother bringing the cat with her made the accident of their car. Because of that, They have to face the Misfit, and all family gets in trouble. This story was a tragic story where grandmother was the real problem of the house.
Hi, Saroj
I agree with what you said about how when she died she had no sign of regret on her face. Before she was killed she had an epiphany realizing all the bad things she had done, but I think it was a way to make the misfit feel bad for her. She was using a defense mechanism to try to save herself but in the end, she died like her whole family because of her selfishness and her need to get whatever when wanted.
I believe that the interior of the story ” A Good Man is hard to Find” is about a family that goes on a road trip which turns into a crazy situation. The family needs to face the consequences of their grandmas actions. The grandma is critiqued due to her manipulation, lying, and ignorance for the real world. When see meets a murderer who she knows is dangerous , she changes the way she acts and talks. Instead of being a bad person she is making it seem as if she is this woman who is full of love and care but that isn’t what she was her whole life. The situation made her very scared to the point where she was willing to change but still did not. The reason why she did not change is because her family is being picked off one by one and she has no feel of regret or sympathy for her loved ones. She does not wanna own up to her mistakes and it costs her familys lives.
I agree with you Alexsander ! The grandmother also showed selfish traits as well to me when she pretended to be someone else for the sake of her life while her family were dying one by one. The family did face this as a consequence for the grandmothers behavior, which in other words I think we can call it Karma.
The story’s interior is about how actions have consequences even if they aren’t given directly to you, For instance, this family had so much bad luck on this trip due to the grandmother who was manipulative and ignorant.The grandmother was also selfish and a liar. People think that your consequences can only affect you, but in reality they can definitely affect the people around you physically to affect you. The consequences doesn’t have to be directly towards you. The consequence the grandmother had to face for her wrong doing was the death of her family, which in my opinion has a lot to do with karma. I feel like karma is also the interior of this story as it relates to having to deal with your bad actions in the long run. Although there might be good karma as well but this story correlates with the bad karma.
I think the story in it’s interior is a very compelling tale that does what it was set out to do very well. In it’s interior, you have this exchange of ideas between the grandmother and The Misfit. When they eventually clash and the Grandmother ends up changing the Misfit’s worldview, that’s when all tension was released. If the aruthor hadn’t included that exchange or if the Misfit just shot the Grandmother at the start, this story would lose most of it’s meaning. But because the surface tension boiled and bubbled away, letting the interior rise up to the top, this story became something worth while to think about.
In this story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” Conner showed that virtue and sin has very important role in the formation of characters. This is a story of a trip that ends on a vulnerable journey. The Grandmother who assumed herself a very virtuous lady but in fact reality is quiet controversial. On the other side The Misfit violated the social norms without knowing any reason. He said to Grandmother “I found out the crime don’t matter” . The values of Grandmother and Misfit are deceptive and flawed. Grandmother’s values are mere superficial and artificial. She used religion as a tool to plead her life. She called the Misfit a “Good man” and “my own children” that showed her cheap values. In other words we can say that like Greek tragedies his own oblivious nostalgia lead her toward the death of complete family. In this work O’ Connor suggested that the bondage between virtue and sin is very ambiguous. The Selfishness of a single one person destroyed the whole family.