A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Analysis - Essay Example

From the very title of the short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," Flannery O'Connor indicates that there will be a discussion of moral codes, virtue and righteousness, and what being a "good" human being means. Though at a first glance the grandmother seems religious and god-fearing because of her constant referrals to Jesus Christ and her claim that "I couldn't answer to my conscience," (A Good Man Is Hard to Find n.p) if she leads her family to Florida where they might meet the criminal, The Misfit.

However, after a deeper, more insightful reading, it is clear that the grandmother is not spiritual at all. Firstly, it is interesting to notice that throughout the story, the grandmother never mentions Jesus Christ or god, until she is at the point of being shot by the Misfit when she starts calling out Jesus' name; this just reveals what a selfish and self-serving woman she really is, only calling upon the divine intervention when she feels threatened. Another example of her callous and arrogant nature is seen from the way she refers to the black child as a "negro" and a "pickaninny" (A Good Man Is Hard to Find n.p). The grandmother does not appear to be a godly woman from the way she clearly values money and worldly possessions; her insistence that June Star would be happy married off to someone as rich and successful as Mr.

Teagarden (A Good Man Is Hard to Find n.p) clearly shows her avarice. . main road to Florida could be a symbol for the "right path of life," whereas the detour to the dirt road is the "sinful path," (Analysis of Symbolism n.p) which is "hilly and there were sudden washes in it and sharp curves on dangerous embankment." The grandmother is the one who claims taking this "sinful" dirt road to see the house would be "educational" for the children, and she stirs up the children into a frenzy to see the house with "crafty" lies that there is a secret panel in the house that is filled with silver (A Good Man Is Hard to Find, n.p). Nevertheless the grandmother does experience a religious epiphany towards the end.

Her sudden recognition of the Misfit as "Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children!" (A Good Man Is Hard to Find n.p) signifies how all her "pretension" falls away as she connects with "a source of inexplicable grace that empowers her to reach out in one last pure act and accept this grotesque man to herself," (Fiction Friday: A Good Man Is Hard To Find by Flannery O’Connor n.p). The fact that she is shot thrice could contain a reference to Jesus who was raised on the third day (Analysis of Symbolism n.p); maybe her death symbolizes that she "died physically and became alive spiritually," (Analysis of Symbolism n.p). The Misfit, on the other hand, has a different view towards religion.

While the grandmother does eventually have a spiritual reawakening in the story, the Misfit does not seem to achieve it. He steadily declines all the offers the grandmother makes to pray and to believe in Jesus saying, " It ain't right I wasn't there because if I had of been there I would of known,” (A Good Man Is Hard to Find. N.p); he claims that he cannot believe in Jesus because he never saw Him. It is because of this inability to