OPPapers.com

A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Nick Pacheco

Aaron Hurtado

English 67

11-21-08

A Good Man is Hard to Find

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A good man is hard to find”, it portrays a

simple southern American family taking a vacation to Florida while traveling from

Georgia. I noticed that the grandmother foreshadows the upcoming event through

hypothetical questions and arguments with her son Bailey. She responds arguably in

favor for visiting Tennessee instead of Florida and the Grandmother said, “I wouldn’t

take my children any direction with a criminal like that a loose in it, I couldn’t answer to

my conscience if I did” (1), followed by, “And what would you do if this fellow, The

Misfit, caught you” (5)? I believe the Grandmother is sympathetic but selfish and

imposes her will a little too much, which is shown by Bailey’s frustration at the end of

the story. Bailey is the head of the household and very determined to reach their

destination. But the character I gravitated toward most was “The Misfit”, because he is

very calm, collected, cordial in manner and very progressive in getting what he wants;

conceivably a smooth criminal.

Along the journey the family stops at Red Sammy’s barbecue restaurant where an

ironic conversation takes place between the Grandmother and Red Sammy, and they

discuss the difficulty of finding a “good man”, which is also the plain statement of the

theme. They discuss the awfulness of today’s world, while secretly congratulating each

other by being a so called “Good” person. Where is a good man to be found? Nowhere,

is the answer but in a way it would seem the Misfit is the closest in the story. The family

seems to be a little tense on this vacation but are still in good spirits as they journey

through Georgia, where the Grandmother selfishly uses her Grandchildren against Bailey

for her own egotistical needs. By convincing the children that a house she used to visit as

a...