Who is to Blame?

When the class was discussing Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find the question of morality kept creeping into my thought process. We thoroughly fleshed out what it meant to be a moral and good character within the confines of the story. Yet, a question loomed for me, who would be considered the “good” character when looking at the grandmother and the misfit. More so, does the reader’s upbringing really come into play when making this choice? Personally and it sounds terrible to write it but I would have to side with the misfit in the argument. Although this character is a known serial killer and has the entire family murdered in the woods, there is something about him that displays that he knows what kind of person he is and is okay with it. The misfit is comfortable with being honest within himself and to the outside world. On page 128, “my daddy said I was a different breed of dog from my brothers and sisters.” It is this recognition in being different that sets the misfit apart. Coming back to a previous point of someone’s upbringing determining how he or she would identify goodness; my personal stance is that of a person who finds racism to be the lowest of the low, so to speak. The grandmother identifies herself as one of a southern “bell,” she acts higher than might in particular to the poor and that of color. This sense of entitlement is something that identifies the character especially when setting herself apart from the rest of normal people. An example being when she reflects upon her past romantic relationships, citing the reason she didn’t marry Teagarden due to the fact that he “just brought her a watermelon on Saturday.” Also that she should have due to the fact that he had “bought Coca-Cola stock when it first came out.” Money again is something that the grandmother uses to set herself apart.

            Another topic that was not touched upon during class was that of the grandmother being to blame for everything that went wrong in the context of the story itself. Without the grandmother being present the trip wouldn’t have been planned, the house that they tried to find wouldn’t have been there so the crash wouldn’t have happened, and she wouldn’t have recognizesd the misfit outloud thus leading to the eventual killing of the family. Without her, everyone would have survived but because of her sheer existence

A Good Man Is Hard To Find Because He Doesn't Exist

The conclusions we reached in class about the characters was great. It really helped show what an incredibly well-written story this is and how great of a writer O’Connor is.

            What really grabbed my attention out of all of this was the title, because it seems to sum up the entire story. What then could it be referring to? Does it mean that when you do find a good man (assuming it is The Misfit), there’s something about him that hinders this quality (like being a murderer)?

            But can we call The Misfit a good man? All of the characters are not likeable; these fake people whose pretense or labeling of “good” just highlights how far they are from being good, and who earn almost no sympathy from the reader by the end. The Misfit however does seem like the best one out of the bunch. His demeanor, his choice of words, his actions all distinguish him as being a gentleman of sorts. The first thing The Misfit says is “Good afternoon” (O’Connor 126). Then the reader learns more about him and his story. Yes he kills people, he kills the family while he’s talking with the grandma, and yet one could argue he is a “good man”. He talks about Jesus resurrecting the dead and says, “If He did what He said, then it’s nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him, and if He didn’t, then it’s nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left best way you can...” (132). Later he says, “I wisht I had of been there....if I had been there I would have known and I wouldn’t be like I am now” (132). What this tells me is that there was hope for The Misfit; he seems to imply he doesn’t like the way he is and he could have been different – good. Given the way things really are though, I’d say The Misfit isn’t a good man.

There are also the grandma’s requirements of being a “good man”. It could be quite comical, if it weren’t so tragic, at just how backwards the grandma is portrayed. The laundry list of traits we came up with for the grandma make her anything but a “lady”. Therefore, with our example of what a “lady” is, the grandma really destroys the entire concept (on top of calling Red Sammy a “good man”). The reader’s judgment of what’s good and bad is compromised because our one example is faulty. Furthermore, when the grandma says to The Misfit “...I know you’re a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell”, her words hold no value. (128)

            Adding to this, even The Misfit disagrees with the grandma when she calls him a good man. “‘Nome, I ain’t a good man,’ The Misfit said after a second as if he had considered her statement carefully...” (128) What’s especially suggestive in this response, as pointed out by O’Connor, is that The Misfit thought about what she was saying. What all this tells me is that the point of the story may be that there is no such thing as a “good man”. Perhaps the only hope for the story was The Misfit, but nothing can change the way he is. Therefore, “a good man” doesn’t exist in the world of the story. Translating this then to the real world, I wonder what O’Connor is trying to say?

Work Cited

O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man Is Hard To Find”. ­The Complete Stories. The Noonday

            Press: New York. Moodle. PDF file.