Short Story A Good Man Is Hard To Find

O’Connor introduces the grandma immediately to the story and right away the readers can tell that the grandma is very irritating. “’Now look here, Bailey,’ she said, ‘see here, read this,’ and she stood with one hand on her thin hip and the other rattling the newspaper at his bald head” (O’Connor, 405). Throughout the story the grandma continues her exasperating ways by ignoring her son’s orders to not bring the cat in the car and manipulating her grandkids and son to get what she wants. Bailey, the son is portrayed as uptight and easily upset, throughout the story Bailey seems to just ignore the grandma and all her comments “She asked Bailey if he would like to dance but he only glared at her” (O’Connor, 408). And later in the car he explodes after the grandma and children keep nagging to go to an old plantation she use to go to.

The Grandma tried to keep her family safe by trying to take a different direction other than Florida because of The Misfit, who is criminal who escaped from the Federal Pen. She convinces them to go to East Tennessee instead to visit some of her connections since she grew up there. ---“Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people.”(Par. 2) She wouldn’t feel comfortable by taking her children in that direction since a criminal was on the loose in the area. Also the Grandma mentions to her son that he should take the kids somewhere they haven’t been before since they had already been to Florida. ---"You all ought to take them somewhere else for a change so they would see different parts of the world and be broad.”(Par. 4) I figure that the Grandma was just trying to do a mother’s job to do anything

The narrator starts the story giving background information about the grandmother and her son, Bailey. The narrator explains that the "grandmother didn't want to go to Florida" (320). Although a major conflict could result from her dislike of the family's choice of vacation spots, it does not. When

At the end of the story, the grandmother only pleads for her life and never for her son Bailey or his family. “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?” (O’Connor 192).The mother never showed no remorse of her son’s death even after the other two men came back with Bailey’s shirt and then took his wife and daughter. She never pleaded for the men to stop and spare their lives. The daughter June Starr selfish characters are observed when she believes her way of living is right by stating to Red Sammy’s wife “I wouldn’t live in a broken-down place like this for a million bucks! (O’Connor 189). For a very young girl she carried an arrogant attitude that was never fixed by her parents.

For example, Bailey does not want her to carry the cat to their journey. However, grandmother does not listen to him and she hides the cat inside the car in a basket and thus secretly brings the cat along with her. On their way, she also wants to go and visit the old plantation even though Bailey does not agree to this. In order to see that she gets what she wants, she talks to the children and convinces them to tell Bailey to do as she wishes. The author writes “There was a secret panel in this house…. and the story went that all the family silver was hidden in it when Sherman came through but it was never found . . .” (O’Connor 45). Grandmother says these words craftily in her attempts to convince Bailey to drive to the old plantations even though she knows that she is not telling the truth. Evidently, she leads the family into a dangerous tour drive. In this tour, the family ends up having an accident due to the Pitty Sing cat sneaking out of the car, leaping on Bailey who loses control of the car. She avoids responsibility by pretending to be hurt. Her actions put the family in dangerous situations.

I firmly believe that people reap what they sew. In the story, “ A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the grand mother is a prime example of this scenario. Her pathetic ploys and acts of deviance cause harm to the family throughout the story and it ends up coming back to her in the end. You can tell that harms is inevitable for the family by some of the clues that are found in the grandmother’s

The family originally intends to travel to Florida for their vacation, but Bailey reluctantly changes the location to Tennessee because the grandma feels that the children could use a change in scenery. Oddly enough, in the same conversation, the grandma reads a newspaper article that informs the family that a man who, “calls himself The Misfit is aloose…and headed towards Florida,” and she explicitly states that she would never “take [her] children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it” (1). The fact that the family is traveling to the same area as The Misfit hints at their encounter in the end of the story.

Bailey and his wife are up in the front seats of the car, and since the grandmother is in the back with the two kids, where her sphere of socialization and influence are more prominent, the kids are learning her bad habits after all through imitation and desensitization. All the settings are revolving around the grandmother, the protagonist, and they are placing her on a road to hell, paved in her own narcissism and condescending behavior.

Bailey and his family are all selfish, “each member of Bailey’s family is driven by selfishness.” Bailey will not change where they go, with all the reason’s the grandmother gave to not go to Florida, Bailey still had the family go to Florida. Both of the children are selfish and disrespectful. They scream to get what they want, they wanted to go to the house to find the hidden treasure. So, when their dad said no they screamed and hollered until their father finally agreed.The children and grandmother “manipulated [Bailey] … to take a detour he doesn’t want to take” because they wanted to selfishly find the hidden treasure. The only person in the family that does not show selfishness is the mother; she sits quietly in the front seat and does not say anything. It may be said “Bailey’s family dies in part because they’ve gone in search of a house filled with hidden ‘family silver’… that has never been

The grandmother demands that the household should drive to Tennessee because she wanted to visit some of her connections. She also is a manipulator in a way that she insists her family to change the plan. The grandma references that the Misfit is heading toward the Sunshine State, where the family is traveling. The misfit is a wanted criminal who has escaped the federal penitentiary for killing his father, which he claims it is not true. As O’Connor continues the story, we learn about the distress the grandmother, the protagonist, puts her family through and the major role she plays.

Mayra Cruz Professor Phillips ENGL-1302_53003 18 March 2016 [The Two Sides of the Coin]: A Good Man is Hard to Find In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” it demonstrates how miscommunication between the grandmother and her family member lead them to trouble by not agreeing on what their vacation destiny should be and caused a horrible tragedy. The story is about a grandmother that wants to go to visit some of her roots in east Tennessee, however her family wanted to go to Florida. She shows her son, Baily, the newspaper where this fellow that calls himself “The Misfit” is loose from the Federal Pen and is heading towards Florida, where Baily is going to take his family.

From the beginning, the grandmother is a difficult person and stubborn when she tried to convince her son to change his mind about the route of the vacation family trip. The destiny was Florida, but the old lady was not happy about the decision. She unsuccessfully used her arguments to persuade his son. We can tell that her relatives just tolerate the old grandmother, but it is not clear the reason for that. She is a single old lady and the only people she has are her family.

The grandmother would like the children to see plantations that she saw when she was young in the town of Toombsboro. As they set out on the road in search of plantations, the family meets the misfit.

Throughout the story, there are several moments where the grandmother uses manipulation to get what she wants. In the beginning, the grandmother didn't want to go to Florida but rather visit her connections in east Tennessee. She grabs her newspaper and tells Bailey the story of the Misfit and how he was headed for Florida. She says, “I Wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn't answer to my conscience if I

The family stops at a restaurant to get a bite to eat, and we find out that the two parents, Bailey and his wife, do not really care for the Grandmother. The Grandmother asks Bailey to dance, but he just declines and ignores her. Bailey’s wife does not seem to care either. They then continue on the road, and the Grandmother begins to tell the story of a house that she really enjoyed passing. She really wanted to go there, so she persuaded the children to want to go as well. After a long time of complaining, they finally convince their father to head back toward this house. They go down this road when all