A Good Man Is Hard to Find review

A Good Man Is Hard to Find review

Introduction

The unnamed Grandmother is the main character in the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” who convinces her family to take a detour that finally brings them to death. In this essay, I will focus on this main character and analyze who she is and her significance in the story. She was murdered by Misfit together with the other family. The Grandmother appears to be a usual grandmother initially who still believes that her son is a little boy and must do what she says besides him being a grownup man. In the essay, I will discuss the Grandmother as judgmental, selfish, self-centred, hypocritical and critical.

She is selfish and judgmental. The author portrays the Grandmother as selfish, who is longing for a time when she believes things were better. This can be seen when she is speaking with Red Sammy Butts. The Grandmother is living with Bailey, her son, and his family and the Grandmother is always criticizing them. When she tries to engage with them, the family reveals little respect and little interest for the Grandmother. Her judgmental trait towards them leaves the family uninterested in her and her views. When Misfit approaches the family, she is worried about her safety and reveals little care for her son and his family. She performs a genuine act once in the story, which is also her last.

She considers herself morally superior to other people by being a “lady”. The Grandmother freely and often passes judgment on other people. She is claiming that her conscience is a force directing her in her life like when she is telling her son that conscience would not let her to take the kids in the same way as Misfit. She is criticizing the kid’s mother for failing to travel to a place that would let the kids to be broad comparing the mother’s face to a cabbage. The Grandmother is also chastising Wesley for failure to have more respect for Georgia which is Wesley’s home state “children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then”. The Grandmother also takes a chance to judge people’s failure to have goodness in the current world. During all this, the Grandmother is wearing her carefully chosen dress and hat, sure that being a lady is the essential virtual of all, which is only harboured by her.

By considering her judgmental side, the Grandmother is also hypocritical. She is never turning her critical eye on herself to evaluate her hypocrisy.  For instance, the conscience she invokes at the start of the story is handily silent when she is sneaking Pitty Sing into the car “She had her big black valise that looked like the head of a hippopotamus in one corner, and underneath it she was hiding a basket with Pitty Sing, the cat, in it.”, lying to the kids concerning the secret panel, and prefers not to tell that she made a mistake concerning the location of the house. When the Misfit murders the family, mystically, she never pleads Misfit to spare the family including her son and his family. However, the Grandmother begs for her life since she does not imagine the Misfit willing to murder a lady “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?”. The Grandmother seems sure that the Misfit will recognize and respect the Grandmother’s moral code as if it would indicate something to the Misfit despite his criminality. The Grandmother is trying to draw the Misfit into her world by telling him that he is a good person. However, although Misfit agrees with the Grandmother’s assessment of him, the Misfit does not see this as a reason why he has to spare the Grandmother. Only when she is facing death, when she is alone with the Misfit in her final moment, is she aware where she has gone wrong in her life. Rather than being superior, the Grandmother understands how flawed she is like all people. When the Grandmother tells Misfit that he is “one of her children”, she is revealing that she has found the capability of seeing other people with compassion and understanding. This moment is of awareness, the moment that immediately follows the Grandmothers death.

The Grandmother wants to be right all the time, and to her, she knows everything. Looking at her characters, the Grandmother is becoming very selfish, pushy and manipulative. From the beginning of the story, it is clear that the Grandmother can do anything to make things go her way to ensure she proves she is right. She is determined to make Bailey and his family to go on vacation to Tennessee instead of going to Florida. “She wanted to visit her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind”

The Grandmother is the one who is insisting on turning back to see the old plantation revealing how self-centred and selfish the Grandmother is. She even recognizes the Misfit when they first met “You’re The Misfit!… I recognized you at once!”. If the Grandmother were smart enough to remain silent, maybe the Misfit would probably let her go together with the family. She is trying to apply her manipulative technique on the Misfit although it does not help. The Misfit seems to be enjoying seeing the Grandmother beg for her life. She attempts to save herself from being killed by Misfit be pleading to him “You’ve got good blood! I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people! Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shot a lady. I’ll give you all the money I’ve got!”(O’Connor 461). However, every talking she is making is not having any influence on the Misfit. As mentioned earlier about her final moment of realization, the Grandmother, as she is contemplating her fate, reaches out for God and forgiveness. Here, the Misfit is bringing out the best of her. She finally reveals care for someone else besides herself.  Finally, the Grandmother reaches out to him say “You’re one of my children” (O’Connor 462). The Misfit is shrinking from this statement from the Grandmother and killing her, stating that she would have been a good woman had she had a gun pointed at her head all the time. Throughout the whole story, she is very judgmental, selfish and manipulative as well as being better than anybody else

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Grandmother sees herself different from other people until the last minute when she is dying. Therefore, it is clear that the Grandmother is selfish hypocritical, self-centred, critical and judgmental as revealed in the story. The author has used the Grandmother to show how self-centred people live to criticize others and find themselves clean and knowing everything. The Grandmother thinks she knows everything; she is good and therefore lives seeing mistakes in others and not herself. She tries her best to show other people are at fault but she is clean. In the current world, there are people like the Grandmother and O’Conner uses this story to reveal how people live with each other. The Grandmother only cares about other people when she is dying. This is the moment people realize they should have been good to others.