Why Did The Misfit Kill The Grandmother

The leading lady in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is the bossy grandmother of a traditional, southern family. It is the grandmother’s “final encounter with the Misfit that changes her relations to the world” (Link, "Means, Meaning, and Mediated Space in ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’"). Before her unexpected meeting with the Misfit, the grandmother feels above everyone else. She feels like she can talk

The grandmother believes The Misfit is “good” because he will not shoot a lady, which is a denial in her faith to keep her moral principles. Her theory proves to be false. The only thing “good” about the Misfit is his uniformity in living out his moral cipher of there is no pleasure but meanness in life.

     In the short story, 'A Good Man is Hard to Find', the main character is the grandmother. Flannery O'Connor, the author, lets the reader find out who the grandmother is by her conversations and reactions to the other characters in the story. The grandmother is the most important character in the story because she has a main role in the stories principal action. This little old lady is the protagonist in this piece. We learn more about her from her direct conversation with the son, Bailey, her grandchildren, June Star and John Wesley, and the Misfit killer. Through these conversations, we know that she is a lady raised from a traditional background. In the story, her attitude changes

As Bandy mentions, the grandmother and the misfit are often intertwined in many critics’ reviews of A Good Man is Hard to Find (1). One of the most obvious ironies they share is that you perceive one as being the opposite of the other for the wrong reasons. With the grandmother, as stated before, one may assume her to be a good person, while she is in fact the opposite. While the Misfit would most likely be associated as a murderer and a horrible monster, he in fact is a decent human being. Wynne emphasizes the humor in the grandmother’s attempt to save herself by calling the Misfit one of her children (1). As if she is good and therefore he, being of the same good blood, must also be good. In these aspects I completely agree with these writer’s interpretations of the grandmother and the

This story has numerous resemblances and distinctions between The Misfit and the Grandmother. A case of this, in "A Good Man is Hard to Find," includes the Grandmother's solid, southern legacy. As indicated by Stephen Bandy, she discloses to her grandchildren a story in which a watermelon was eaten up by "a nigger kid (Bandy, 108)." in this day and age, grandmas are typically decent and sweet, yet O'Connor's grandma is extremely manipulative, and a bossy lady that talks too much for the greatness of herself and her family. Bandy pointed out that she had too much pride, she was self-centered and was obsessed with her outer appearance (Bandy 109). She goes out of her way to dress up, although the rest of the family dresses casual and

The Misfits ways of getting rid of people that is with god is to send the souls away from their physical self. He wants to purify the world from this belief and prove that god do not exist in the world humans live in. Unfortunately, the grandmother is one of those people who has an obsession with god knowing he is real and will protect her from any harm that comes to her. Knowing that the grandmother beliefs towards god have affected her, The Misfits have ended her with three shots to the chest. This shows how brutal The Misfits are and how they will respond to people like the

If the self-interested and self-righteous Grandmother could experience a moment of forgiveness, empathy, and grace, then, in the “Misfit’s” eyes and mind, there could be a God. He is an intelligent and aware man, and it is clear that he understands this moment to be her time of awakening and salvation, and he also seems to realize that it came through a divine entity outside the realm of physicality. The antithesis to this re-birth, the peak of the “Misfit’s” violence, also happens to, unsurprisingly, occur at this moment. The Grandmother is murdered, “shot… three times in the chest”, right as she reaches out in recognition of the “Misfit” as “one of [her] own

Similarly, the grandmother, one of the central character in “a good man is hard to find”, believes the misfit’s conscience did not quite gone out of him. Although the grandmother tells the misfit that he is good and won’t kill woman couple of times and she tries to persuade the misfit not to kill her, the grandmother and her family murdered by the inhumane and deadly man in the end of the story. there is doubt that trust is one of the most important element to affect this story.

She recognizes the man and had spent the beginning of the story condemning him with her words. She knew exactly what he was going to do to her family and yet she only pled for herself. In the story she says “Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady!”, again proving she held herself and her ladyhood over even her family. She pleads with the Misfit, claiming Jesus will save him. She says this all as if she is a kindly southern lady still, as if she has the ability to help him but with only the intent to help herself.

In the final moments of life, it is not unheard of for a man to fight, pray, or even beg for his life; it is practically human nature. This familiar human facet is outlined in one of Flannery O’Connor’s most popular short stories, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” To be specific, O’Connor’s characterization of the grandmother in the story details a woman selfishly desperate to save her own life, a beggar built on words, hoping for some kind of pity; at the same time, The Misfit is characterized as an emotionless sociopath, who has no time for the grandmother’s pleading. In many ways, the entire family “illustrates their lack of concern for fellow man” (Dibble 7).

Society’s standards are what everyone wants to fit into it is the norms that are used as a guide to living life. The grandmother and the misfit in O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” follow the way of social values, thoughts, and way society sees one another closely in 1953. Both the grandmother and the misfit are different in many ways, but have one common value of society’s views are important to them. The way society views and judges people causes both the misfit and the grandmother to act differently, but subtly makes them more alike than either of them could notice. The shared value of society’s point of view of a human being can explain both characters’ views, behaviors, and actions because of how heavily it weighed on the

The Grandmother and the Misfit are O’Connor’s major characters in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”. Even though there are other characters a part of this story, the unnamed grandmother and the Misfit are the round characters as well as the main focus of the story. We are introduced to both characters early on because it’s coming from the grandmother’s point of view and we also discover that The Misfit is an escaped murderer but, we do not come in contact with The Misfit until later on. We learn that the grandmother is old fashioned, religious, selfish and a pushy woman in which any case if an accident happens, “anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was lady” (O’Connor 485) and thinks that she is better than everyone else until she has a religious epiphany towards the end of the story. However, we don’t come in contact with the Misfit until Bailey’s family gets in an accident and the Grandmother recognizes the infamous murderer and because the Grandmother recognizes him the Misfit tells them “but it would been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn’t reckernized me” ( 490) , giving the Misfit no other choice but to kill them all. The Misfit is accompanied by two other men and these two men take as well as kill the other family members, just leaving the grandmother and the Misfit alone before the grandmother is shot three times. Elisabeth Piedmont-Marton, uses O’Connor’s story to

Similarly, the grandmother, one of the central character in “a good man is hard to find”, believes the misfit’s conscience did not quite go out of him. Although the grandmother tells the Misfit that he is good and won’t kill woman couple of times and she tries to persuade the misfit not to kill her, the grandmother and her family murdered by the inhumane and deadly man in the end of the story. There is the doubt that trust is one of the most important element to affect this story.

In conclusion, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a short story where Flannery O’Connor bring several characters to demonstrate good and evil of each of them. One of the principal character is the Grandmother who has special characteristics which the reader can appreciate reading this great story. During the story, the Grandmother demonstrates that she does what she wants and she is a specialist in manipulation. Also, the Grandmother, in all moments maintains her position as a

The story leaves exactly what constitutes a good man ambiguous between the Misfit’s belief that he, though honest in his actions, is not a good man and the Grandmother’s own limited view of a good man. To the end, it seems, the Misfit is true to what he says in claiming that he is not a good man. Interestingly it is his violent acts towards her that allow the Grandmother to change. More than anything else in the story, the Grandmother’s final act of touching the Misfit and his violence toward her are incredibly symbolic. Above all, the Grandmother’s character can be described as superficial or limited. But, the Misfit’s threatening of her is what she needed to change, to perform one last act of grace and perhaps even forgiveness. It is here as her life is threatened that she looks at the Misfit and “realizes, even in her limited way, she is responsible for the man before and joined to him by ties of kinship. And at this point she makes the right gesture” (O’Connor “Reasonable Use” 113). We see here that this violent, shocking act is what finally allowed the Grandmother to perform an act of grace; as is common in O’Connor’s writing. It is notable that the Misfit, ultimately, rejects the Grandmother’s act of kindness toward him. The Misfit has shut himself off from the world, believing himself inadequate or forced to perform evil acts to even out with the punishments he has been given. The way the Misfit speaks implies that