Good Man Is Hard To Find By

O`Connor Essay, Research Paper

The story "A Good Man is Hard to Find", is story that tells us how the

society is worsening. After I read the story and from the lecture I heard, I

kind of had a feeling that the author O’Connor was trying to describe the

outcome of the false christian when they encounters the bad situation. When the

grandmother encounters with the Misfit, we begin to see just whether the

grandmother had faithful christian or not. In the story, there are many symbols

and foreshadowing used by O’Connor to show the characterization of the

grandmother and the outcome of the story. It begins with the dress she wears to

the trip. Although the grandmother did not want to go to Florida, she ironically

dresses in her Sunday best. She was dressed in "A navy blue straw sailor

hat… with a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print". A

strong foreshadowing imagery can be read into these lines. Knowing the definite

ending of the story, the grandmother’s complicated dress symbolizes a

preparation for her coffin. When a person dies, they usually are dressed in

their best outfit, just like the grandmother was dressed in what seemed to be

her Sunday best. A stronger foreshadowing is when O’Connor states the reason for

the grandmother’s very clean dress, "in case of an accident, anyone seeing

her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady." She

herself predicts her own death. Unfortunately, she doesn’t know this yet. It is

interesting that in the grandmother’s mind wearing her best clothes prevent any

misgivings about her status as a lady if she was to die. It seems that the

grandmother was prepared for death, her behavior when she encounters the Misfit

shows herself to be the least prepared for death. Another strong forshadowing

image is when the family "passed by a cotton field with five or six graves

fenced in the middle of it, like a small island". The number of graves

matches the exact number of people in the car. There are 5 people and a baby.

Since a baby is not exactly a full complete person, the number of graves being

"five or six" is appropriate. Furthermore, this particular

foreshadowing image leads directly into the next one. When John asked what the

plantation was, grandmother said "Gone With the Wind". The

grandmother’s reference to the plantation as "gone with the wind" can

be seen as an image symbolizing the family’s death and their souls are

"gone with the wind" as well upon death. Through out the story, there

were many more image symbolizing the death of the family. For example, the name

of the town where the Misfit kills them is "Toombsboro." If you divide

the word Toombsboro into two words, it sounds very similar to Tombs and Bury.

Another quite interesting imagery is when the grandmother asks the Misfit,

"What did you do to get sent to the penitentiary that first time?" His

answer further foreshadows the death of the family. He says, "’Turn to the

right, it was a wall, looking up again at the cloudless sky. Turn to the left,

it was a wall. Look up it was a ceiling, look down it was a floor" This

description, although used for a jail cell, it could also apply to a tight

grave. Wherever a soul looks, they will see a wall, indicating where the

grandmother will be once the Misfit is finished with them. The outcome of the

story was that all the grandmother’s beauty, nice dress, and her social

standards that determine her idea of goodness became useless in front of The

Misfit. At this urgent moment, all the grandmother’s actions were everything

that would save her life. I think both the grandmother and The Misfit do not

understand the meaning of life. The grandmother believes that she is a good man

because she says she believes Jesus even though she has no faith in Him. All her

faith is just talking, and she never experiences it. She does not know what she

is saying. Although she is not very bad, she would change her character at once

if she encounters a situation that she couldn’t handle it. She will do

everything that may change the mind of The Misfit so that he will not kill her.

After I read the story, I kept wondering why the title of the story was "A

Good Man is Hard to find". The story does not tell the reader exactly what

a "Good Man" would be. I believe everybody had good and bad inside.

Also everybody has his or her own interpretations of "Good Man",

therefore, nobody can say if a person is a good man because some might think

that person is bad. Most people think that a person is good if he is nice,

good-looking, and polite. What we have to know is that whether that person is

reflecting with love or just acting. People do not look at what is inside the

heart, and how he treats people. They judge a person by the first impressions as

the grandmother does.