A Good Man Is Hard to Find - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages The family is met with a severe accident but all of them are saved to be killed at the hands of the serial killer, Misfit.
This story is one of those in which complex and comprehensive themes are presented in clear and plain language. This is a simple story like a picture that is able to speak a thousand words. The major themes in this story include faith, morality and self-conscience along with other religious connotations. Another major theme revolves around trust, mistrust and faith which the author has portrayed specifically during the first stop of the family at The Tower with their owners.

The owner, Red Sammy Butts and his wife get engaged in a conversation with the family. During this conversation, the owner and the grandmother talk about the reality of the world and the moral ethics and codes which were ignored by people in everyday life. They talk about how no one in the world could be trusted anymore. Red Sammy Butts shares his experiences of mistrust about how he helped some people and gave them something on credit and never saw them again. This conversation leads to the ugly truth of the world, the presence of good and evil and the ultimate reality that no one can be trusted.

The title of the story itself portrays the theme of the story that good men are hard to find in this world, those who live, not for themselves, but for others. The author has tried to describe the shortcomings of the traditional meaning of good and bad. This traditional concept states that people can either be good or bad but in this story, O`Connor has tried to depict that both good and bad can exist within a single person. The author enforces that a person can find both good and bad but it just depends on the way he searches for it. Similarly, the initial story is portrayed in such a way that the reader would think that the story shows a good family and a bad convict, misfit. However, this is a false impression which is corrected at the end of the story. After the accident, the grandmother and the whole family meet the misfit and his gang. The grandmother`s judgmental nature results in a serious conflict between her and the misfit which results in the death of the entire family.

The grandmother thought that the only thing that will save her from the killer was her supposed good deeds and good nature. However, the story initially shows that a grandmother is a self-serving person and she is clearly a racist and this is shown by her comment about the street children as she says, “Little niggers in the country don't have things as we do” (A Good Man is Hard to Find, Web). This clearly shows that the grandmother was a racist and during her encounter with Misfit, she thought she was good and her goodness will save her from the convict. She even called Misfit an “alleged criminal” and tried to enforce her superior position which further worsened the conflict between them. However, Misfit had more power than the grandmother at that time and he decided to end her life.

Faith is a person`s belief in something whether it be God, a religion, or even a personal trait, for example. The Misfit did not have any such belief in any religion but he seems to have faith in himself. The grandmother even tries to bring in religion and Jesus to change Misfit`s mind. She tries to save herself by bringing in Jesus’ name but it turns out that the Misfit had thought more about Jesus. The replies that Misfit gave portrayed that he was not totally an evil person. Although he was a killer and showed no feelings, his conversation with the grandmother showed that he was trying to look into his own soul and to understand his own faith. Furthermore, he questions the good and evil as well as the truth of religion and Jesus. A person who is a monster would not ask such deep and analytical questions. O`Connor concludes by depicting that there may be some hope in the character of Misfit. The author tries to portray that what looks good maybe bad and what looks bad can be good too. ...Download file to see next pages Read More