Flannery O’Connor has presented to the readers a piece of morale puzzle, in which no one is a true hero with perfect characteristics and committed no wrongdoings. Through the eyes of the grandmother, a self-righteous and hypocritical protagonist who guilt trips others into her own benefits, we can discover the darkness of human nature. There is no true definition for what a “good man” is meant to be and how a “good man” is supposed to act; it changes based on how one views others. We can see this portrayed by the grandmother, and a man is “good” if they hold the same moral values. The grandmother calls Red Sammy a “good man” because he trusts people and lets them charge gas on “credit” while also misses the old-time like the grandmother in which they both believe things are getting terrible and people are no longer innocent. However, the grandmother also says that she knows the Misfit is a “good man” at heart, and he will not shoot a lady when she knows that she is the only one left of the family and everyone else has been shot. She was careless of other family members and was only worried about herself and her lady’s appearances, as we know that even if she had on a “navy straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim,” anyone who found her dead on the highway would know she was a lady. The grandmother desperately calls the Misfit a “good man,” claiming that he does not have “common blood” she does so out of selfishness, wanting to skew the Misfit into having the same moral code as she does.
In contrast, the Misfit has enough recognition of himself that he knows he “ain’t a good man,” but also not the worst in the world, proving the grandmother’s assumption to be false, because indeed the Misfit is a murderer and does not align with the grandmother’s moral code. Towards the end of the story, when the grandmother holds a godly conversation involving salvation with the Misfit, the grandmother’s belief system has shaken, “maybe He did not raise the dead.” She has realized that she is no different from others, from the Misfit, “why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” they are the same at the core. The grandmother recognized that she was not as righteous and highly dignified as she thought; she was also flawed. However, it was not until the final moment of her life did she begin to change her values. Extreme situations reveal our true selves. This short story is thought-provoking; indeed, a good man is hard to find. After all, it all depends on our own moral values.
