In the story “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” by O’Connor. The interior is about suspense and humor. The suspense is built around the old lady’s survival from the killing of the misfit. The misfit scares the old lady causing her to lose faith in believing she will survive. She begins to persuade him to let her live but the opposite of what she expected happened. The old lady has this self-righteous and manipulating humor. She decides to manipulate her son into not traveling to Florida by trying to act like it’s for the safety of the family. When in reality she just wanted to travel to visit family in Tennessee. She uses logic when using fear and guilt to try and convince her son to do what she wants. The old lady selfish manipulated ways caused her family to go on a detour that led them to death and her in the hands of the misfit. The old lady tries to manipulate everyone around her to get what she wants but in the end, it does not work with the misfit.
One thought on “Shanice Brown Discussion 8”
Good analysis on the reading, Shanice!
It is very certain about how manipulative the grandmother seem to be throughout the whole story. And also, how her manipulative personality affects and shapes everyone in their family — her son, who coped with her personality by being a quiet guy, and the grandchildren, that decided that having a “fast mouth” was the best way to deal with their grandmother.
I also agree that if it wasn’t for her, they would not have crossed paths with the serial killer. However, those things are unpredictable, and they could have happened either way.
The whole dialogue that she had with the Misfit was pretty brutal. At the whole time she was trying to show him how to be a good person through religiosity, while he believed that he did not need to be a good person, and accepted himself that way. On that moment, I also believe that she lost faith not only in God, but in herself and her “manipulative powers”. However, a big part of me also believes that she truly thought that she would be able to run away from that situation.
Anyway. Such a tragedy!
Thank you for your input on the narrative.