A Good Man Is Hard to Find is a short story about a family from the south. They’re on their way to Florida but run into some conflict on the way. The character we are going to focus on is the grandmother. But throughout the story, we see what each character thinks a good man is to them, or what it means to be a good man. O’Connor mirrors her perspectives on society through all of the characters in the story. The grandmother is a selfish person and when the Misfits took them away, she only cared about herself, she is kind of self-centered. When we meet Sammy’s character, he believes he is a good person because he lets some strangers buy gas on credit. The Misfit is a character that is supposed to be bad but is more aware (I guess you can say) than the other characters in the story. He’s bad because he’s a serial killer, but he knows right from wrong, he’s passionate and self-aware. He’s not fake (I guess you can say) like the other characters. In the lecture “Where Is the Goodness?” in activity 4 on page 9 it shows the character chart. So there is a little bit of each type of person in the story I’d say and this is what O’Connor wanted to show us. So overall I believe the story on its interior is just to show us how some people are in society through and it shows in the characters in the story.
2 thoughts on “Justine Hoppie- Discussion week 8”
It’s true, when the misfits took them away, she didn’t care about anything but herself, she didn’t care about anyone else but her and always thought of her well-being. This is shown when she says not to shoot a woman and she does it in a defiant manner. Also ,the grandmother is outrightly a manipulative woman throughout the story, her manipulative tendency is concealed in the manner in which she expertly executes it. She takes every opportunity to have her way in every situation that does not favour her.
Hello Justine, I agree that this story shows us how people truly are in society and the idea that “a good man is hard to find”. The grandmother is a selfish and manipulating woman. But when she is confronted by the misfit she tries to be a “good person” towards him. The grandmother is very hypocritical while the misfit admits to not being a good person and is honest about the things he’s done. In the end, the grandmother tries to use her manipulating ways to prevent her from being killed but it does not work on the misfit.