A Good Man Is Hard to Find

The Power of Good And Evil

"A Good Man is Hard to Find,"a short story written by Flannery O' Connor, set in Atlanta focusing mainly on problematic issues and ideas, mostly through a conceptual framework of Catholicity overarching the indictment of the paucity of ethics extant in modern society. Further, the uncompromising moral eye on the violence and spiritual disorder of the world. Although, the grandmother proclaims herself to be morally superior and highly religious, the grandmother is not, in fact, a good woman and in her final moments she foregoes a moral high ground and instead embraces her as well as Misfit's common humanity.

The entire family was planning to go to Florida but instead the grandmother wanted to visit some of her relatives in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's, her only son whom she lived with, mind (277). She mentions that there's a criminal who calls himself The Misfit is a loose, and that he's headed to the Florida. If she would have been in the parents place then, she says, that she wouldn't even take a risk to take them the same direction as the criminal has headed to but rather take them to new place like east Tennessee. As, no one pays attention to her and the next day, the grandmother, her cat, Pitty Sing, Bailey, his wife and their children, eight year old John Wesley and a little girl June Star and a baby leaves Atlanta for vacation.

During the trip, the grandmother points out all the interesting details of the scenary. As the children wanted to take the short path as they didn't wanted to see all of that again, the grandmother aware them with the fact that, in her time, the children were more respectful towards their parents, native state, and everything. They stop at a restaurant to eat, and converse a bit with the owner, Red Sammy and his wife. They talk about how hard it is to trust people and find "good men" these days and the grandmother tells him that he's a good guy. She plays fast and loose with the word "good," and apply it to everyone she considers respectable and empathic. She thinks that Red Sammy's good because he was trusting and willing to help decent-seeming people. However, the grandmother appears to be using the word flippantly.

Back on to the road, the grandmother makes the kids all excited by telling them about an old plantation once she visited. The kids convince Bailey to take them all to see it. He turns onto a dirt road where the grandmother directs him the lead to the plantation. After following the road for a while the grandmother suddenly remembers that the plantation wasn't here at all - it was actually in Tennessee. She is so startled by this realization that she jerks off, letting her cat out of the basket where she's stowed it. And, an accident occurs, as the car veers off the road and flips over. The children screamed that they had an accident but no one gets killed.

The family waits for a car to come along, and sure enough, one does. Only it's not quite the help they were expecting. It turns out that their "help" is none other than The Misfit and two of his buddies. The grandmother recognizes the Misfit, and tries to convince him he's a good man who couldn't possibly want to do any harm to a woman. The Misfit orders Bailey and John Wesley into the woods, where his buddies shoot them. Followed by the mother, the baby, and June Star.

The grandmother recognizes the Misfit and does all the conversation with him, setting herself up as a "good" person, since good people are people who follow their conscience and trying to convince him he's a good man, and telling him to pray, pray and pray. This gives the Misfit the opportunity to tell a bit of his personal history and offer some his ideas on Jesus, about whom he's actually done some thinking.