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Analysis of Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find

By NASRULLAH MAMBROL on May 25, 2021

Frequently anthologized, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” exemplifies Flannery O’Connor’s southern religious grounding. The story depicts the impact of Christ on the lives of two seemingly disparate characters. One is a grandmother joining her son’s family on a trip to Florida. Accompanied by a silent daughter-in-law, a baby, two unpleasant children, and her smuggled cat, she wheedles the son into making a detour to see a plantation that she remembers from an earlier time.

Moments of recognition and connection multiply as the seemingly foreordained meeting of the grandmother and the killer she has read about in the paper takes place. She upsets the basket in which she has hidden her cat; the cat lands on her son’s neck, causing an accident. Soon three men appear on the dirt road, and the grandmother recognizes one of them as the notorious killer the Misfit.

Flannery O’Connor/National Catholic Register

O’Connor weaves the notion of punishment and Christian love into the conversation between the Misfit and the grandmother while the grandmother’s family is being murdered. Referring to the similarity that he shares with Christ, the Misfit declares that “Jesus thrown everything off balance” (27), but he admits that unlike Christ, he must have committed a crime because there were papers to prove it. When the grandmother touches his shoulder because she sees him as one of her own children, she demonstrates a Christian love that causes him to shoot her.

This story typifies O’Connor’s mingling of comedy, goodness, banality, and violence in her vision of a world that, however imperfect, most readers inevitably recognize as part of their own. O’Connor views the world as a place where benevolence and good intentions conflict with perversity and evil, and her protagonists frequently learn too late that their lives can crumble in an instant when confronted by the very real powers of darkness.

BIBLIOGRAPHY Kessler, Edward. Flannery O’Connor and the Language of Apocalypse. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1986. Orvell, Miles. Flannery O’Connor: An Introduction. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991

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A Good Man is Hard to Find

Flannery o’connor, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

Welcome to the LitCharts study guide on Flannery O’Connor's A Good Man is Hard to Find . Created by the original team behind SparkNotes, LitCharts are the world's best literature guides.

Good Man: Introduction

Good man: plot summary, good man: detailed summary & analysis, good man: themes, good man: quotes, good man: characters, good man: symbols, good man: theme wheel, brief biography of flannery o’connor.

Historical Context of A Good Man is Hard to Find

Other books related to a good man is hard to find.

• Full Title: A Good Man is Hard to Find
• When Written: 1955
• Where Written: Milledgeville, GA
• When Published: 1955
• Literary Period: Southern Gothic
• Genre: Southern Gothic Short Story
• Setting: Twentieth Century Rural South
• Climax: The Grandmother reaches out and touches The Misfit, exclaiming, “You’re one of my own children,” and he shoots her three times.
• Antagonist: The Misfit
• Point of View: Third-person, mostly following the Grandmother

Extra Credit for A Good Man is Hard to Find

Fifteen Minutes of Fame. At the age of five, a photographer came to take photographs of one of O’Connor’s chickens, which she had taught to walk backwards. Film footage of this later made national newsreels.

Not Well Received. At ten years old, O’Connor began to write a series of sketches of her family members. Later in life, she described the collection, “My Relatives,” as “not well received.” Many of her family members were apparently displeased with how they were portrayed.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Essay Prompts, Summary, & Analysis

Flannery O’Connor is one of the most famous American short story writers of the 20 th century. Her impactful writing pieces with memorable characters and multiple dimensions of meaning are often anthologized. If you are looking for A Good Man Is Hard to Find essay prompts, here is a detailed guide to help you out.

• 🔰 Short Summary
• 🔝 Top Essay Questions
• 📝 Essay Prompts
• 🎭 Character Analysis
• 🔍 Literary Analysis

🔗 References

🔰 a good man is hard to find short summary.

If you want A Good Man Is Hard to Find summary condensed to one sentence, it will be as follows: a family of six travels to Florida, gets into a car crash on their way, and gets killed by an escaped convict, The Misfit.

However, if you need more careful and insightful literary analysis , things are not as simple as that. A more attentive reader would summarize the short story as follows – we’ve presented it as a diagram for your convenience.

🔝 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Essay Questions

Here are some research questions you can examine in a critical essay or research paper:

• How are love and marriage negotiated in the story?
• What are the main plot contradictions?
• What is the secular meaning of the story?
• How is individualism explored in the piece?
• What are the traces of Protestantism in the short story?
• How does A Good Man Is Hard to Find fit the concept of Catholic fiction?
• Why does the story belong to the Southern gothic style ?
• How does O’Connor approach forgiveness and religiosity in the story?
• What is the role of the landscape in the story?
• How does O’Connor question southern ladyhood in the story?
• What are the traces of John Milton’s style in the short story?
• How does O’Connor approach the degradation of values in her story?
• What are the anagogical Biblical allusions in the short story?
• How does O’Connor use grotesque to talk about the idyllic agrarian South?
• What are the Civil War references in the story?

📝 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Essay Prompts

If assigned an essay about A Good Man Is Hard to Find , you may face the challenge of formulating an interesting, research-worthy topic. Indeed, there has been so much written and said about this short story that you may be clueless about a new angle. Here are a couple of essay prompts and thesis ideas our pros have prepared for your inspiration.

• Means, meaning, and mediated space in A Good Man Is Hard to Find . Flannery O’Connor talked about the failures of the Southern gothic genre to depict Southernness and addressed those problems in the short story. The means of what, in your opinion, were the characters of The Grandmother and The Misfit? What meaning did the author associate with their encounter? What unique spatial rhetoric did O’Connor apply to juxtapose the Southern ideal and the modern American capitalist image?
• Violence as a path to transformation. O’Connor used violence as a means of epiphany and transformation trajectory for its characters. How do her characters go through that path from the moment of a car crash?
• The genesis of O’Connor’s story . Where did O’Connor source inspiration for her short stories, specifically A Good Man Is Hard to Find ? How does Bailey’s reading of the Atlanta Journal at the beginning of the story hint at its genesis and the materials on which it was based?
• The ambiguity of goodness in O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find. What are the moral codes by which the story’s characters live? How do they differ? What does O’Connor associate with the “good man” concept voiced by different characters?
• The Role of The Misfit in the story . What role does The Misfit play in Grandmother’s moral transformation? Does The Misfit help her recognize her sinful life? Trace the main character’s evolution and insights during her dialogue with the criminal.
• Discussion of faith in the story. O’Connor dedicated an anthology of short stories to original sins and talked about Catholicism in her writings. How is the Catholic faith explored in A Good Man Is Hard to Find ? from which angle does the author approach the concept of Catholic mercy?
• The role of foreshadowing in A Good Man Is Hard to Find. How is the foreshadowing technique used in the story? Which elements are used to predict the unfortunate outcome for The Grandmother’s family?
• Plot analysis of A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Revisit the plot and identify the roles of every character in it. How does the story’s plot develop, and what are its major turning points?
• Communication in A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Characters in the story get (or don’t get) what they want in communicating with each other. How does O’Connor approach politeness in her story, and what means and ends does politeness serve in characters’ interactions?
• The depiction of selfishness in A Good Man Is Hard to Find. Selfishness is an outstanding feature of The Grandmother. In what contexts does she reveal her selfish nature? To what consequences does it lead?
• Character analysis of The Grandmother in A Good Man Is Hard to Find. What are the main characters of O’Connor’s short story? How do they interact, and what purposes do they serve in the story’s plot?
• O’Connor’s use of symbols and metaphors in A Good Man Is Hard to Find. The story is rich in symbols and metaphors as O’Connor’s favorite literary devices. What are the most prominent of them and what is the purpose of their use?
• Dreams and reality in A Good Man Is Hard to Find . The Misfit’s character mysteriously confuses reality and dreams, unable to tell what is real and unreal in his life. What purpose does this element serve in the story? What is O’Connor’s literary goal behind the reality-dream fusion?
• Literary devices in O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find. What literary devices does O’Connor use in the story? What function do they perform in it?
• The characters’ moral codes in A Good Man Is Hard to Find. What are the different moral codes the story’s characters follow? How do they justify those codes?

🎭 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Character Analysis

Though the story is about a family of six and contains many other characters, the core roles are assigned to two characters – The Grandmother and The Misfit.

Here is the detailed character analysis to help you understand these personas better.

The Grandmother

The Grandmother is the story’s main character.

She is highly judgmental, selfish, and self-directed, wishing that everyone follows her whims and obeys. She lives with her son’s family and tries to get things her way, though facing disrespect and neglect from most family members.

Her numerous references to her youth, courting with young gentlemen before marriage, and her sophisticated dress for the trip hint at her superficial, indolent lifestyle and non-impressive intellectual ability.

The Grandmother also acts as an aristocrat and racist, behaving as if she is superior to everyone around her. She likes to talk about the good old times – probably because she used to enjoy popularity as a young lady and led an active social life devoid of spirituality and meaning.

A meeting with The Misfit brings her face to face with a lack of grace and religion in her own life. By begging him to pray and seek salvation, The Grandmother also seems to talk to herself and realize that she also needs to gain the divine grace, at least at the end of her life. However, even at this heartbreaking climax of the story, she acts selfishly and doesn’t think about her family, begging for remorse only for herself and finally getting killed.

The Misfit is the story’s antagonist – the one who kills The Grandmother and her family upon their encounter on a deserted Southern road. His enigmatic character is a sharp contradiction to the ordinary, even trivial characters of The Grandmother’s family.

The Misfit is well-bred and morally reasonable, but he is a cruel criminal, killing everyone, from an infant to an old lady. He talks positively about his family but simultaneously confesses to killing his father. He is a philosopher relentlessly engaged in soul-searching and pondering over the existence of God.

Upon more careful consideration, one can see that The Grandmother and The Misfit met to encourage the religious search for grace and divine meaning in each other. A desperate man with a complex of puzzling contradictions and a superficial, selfish woman both needed a life-changing encounter, and they received that chance. Following O’Connor’s logic, they both abandoned the chance for divine grace, but the transcendent event revealed the mystery of human encounters with the divine.

Minor Characters

The minor characters include the disinterested family members of The Grandmother – her frustrated and detached son Bailey, a speechless daughter-in-law, and rude little children getting things their way with screams and misbehavior. Other characters are Red Sammy Butts – a café owner fond of complaining and remembering old times, and his distrustful wife. The story also mentions two Misfit accomplices – Hiram and Bobby Lee.

🎵 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Themes

Here are the main themes O’Connor examined in her literary piece.

The Catholic religion theme is one of the main topics in the short story. O’Connor juxtaposes real religiosity with the shallow Catholic accessories that The Grandmother uses to go for a believer. Only an encounter with death makes her realize the sinful nature of her existence and seek salvation for herself.

Mentions of death have been woven into the story’s fabric since its beginning. The Grandmother talks about The Misfit as a murderer and insists on taking Pitty Sing with them, afraid of his death alone at home. The Grandmother dresses up to show everyone that she is a lady, even if her corpse is to be found after a car crash. Thus, death is the family’s companion throughout the story, coming in its ugly, tangible form upon encountering The Misfit. Death becomes the moment of The Grandmother’s revelation and enlightenment, as only the fear of death makes her sincere to herself.

In religious terms, divine grace is the moment of epiphany during which the believer comes face to face with their genuine nature and can achieve peace of mind and spiritual salvation. The Grandmother’s and The Misfit’s spiritual blindness are examined in the story as barriers to salvation and their inability to unite with God.

🗺️ A Good Man Is Hard to Find Setting

A Good Man Is Hard to Find was written in the best tradition of Southern gothic literature, which is evident from the typical description of the story’s setting. It was popular among Southern gothic writers to use the scenery of the American South as facilitating devices in their plots. Here, the reader also comes across such images like:

• Lonely plantations
• Aging and lonely Southerners (the figure of Red Sammy Butts and his small road café)
• Dusty downtown
• References to slavery past (a black child The Grandmother referred to as a “little nigger”)

Besides, the story complies with other conventions of the genre by featuring shallow, morally degrading characters that are “not quite right” in universal human terms. The main characters – The Grandmother and The Misfit – both have troubles with morality, though each in their own way.

🔍 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Literary Analysis

O’Connor also used many literary and stylistic means to enrich her short story with multiple levels of meaning. Here is the detailed literary analysis to guide your interpretation work.

Symbolism in A Good Man Is Hard to Find

The story is filled with many symbols , such as The Grandmother’s hat (the woman’s hypocrisy and self-centeredness), The Misfit’s automobile (a “black, battered hearse-like” vehicle signaling that only death awaits those who meet it).

There are also many symbolic references to animals in the story. The daughter-in-law’s headkerchief is compared to a rabbit’s ears, The Misfit presents himself as a “different breed of dog” from his siblings, and Bailey’s voice becomes “a snarl” when he blames his mother. Thus, O’Connor likened all characters to animals, unable to analyze their actions and living simple lives directed at survival.

Imagery in a Good Man Is Hard to Find

Besides the numerous symbols in A Good Man Is Hard to Find discussed above, the short story contains many allusions to people and cultural artifacts. For instance, the young boy’s name is John Wesley – an allusion to one of the first Anglican Church ministers in the USA. The cat’s name is an allusion to a comic opera, Mikado , featuring a character concerned about fitting the crime to the punishment (just like The Misfit). Gone with the Wind and The Tennessee Waltz both serve as metaphors for The Grandmother’s longing for her hilarious past, which becomes the source of her family’s problems.

Irony in a Good Man Is Hard to Find

Irony is used many times in the story to show how skillfully The Grandmother deceives the whole family and leads them to demise while being Bailey’s mom – a woman promising never to put her family at risk. In fact, all family troubles occur because of The Grandmother’s selfish whims and an absence of care for the rest of her family and their interests.

Another illustrative example of irony is The Grandmother’s repeated appeals to The Misfit as “a good man.” She tries to convince him not to kill her because she’s a lady, which is highly ironic, as she led the whole family to this tragedy and has never been a good person.

Foreshadowing in a Good Man Is Hard to Find

O’Connor used many elements of foreshadowing in the story.

The Misfit is mentioned in the first lines, dooming the family to an encounter with him. The family sees a graveyard and tombstones on their way – literal death artifacts. The Misfit’s automobile looks like a hearse, promising death to everyone.

Besides, the woods in which The Grandmother’s encounter with The Misfit foreshadowed the family’s death. O’Connor described them as “a dark open mouth” that would soon absorb everyone’s lives.

Tone in a Good Man Is Hard to Find

O’Connor used different tones to achieve the intended effect of the story’s reading. In some places, the narrative sounds humoristic, while in others, it is full of detachment and focuses only on recording events and family members’ actions.

The story is also full of irony, which gets bitter when the family encounters The Misfit. In most fragments, the author used a serious tone – especially after the family met with the criminals and the elevating tension of family members’ killings.

With these tips and suggestions, you’re sure to complete an essay about A Good Man Is Hard to Find without any trouble. Look through our prompts, follow the writing advice, and your professor will be impressed by the depth and insight of your literary analysis of O’Connor’s story.

❓ A Good Man Is Hard to Find FAQ

What is the main theme of a good man is hard to find.

The story’s main theme is the spiritual blindness of its main characters and their religious and moral transformation in the encounter between The Grandmother and The Misfit. They both lack spirituality and refuse each other’s help, losing the chance for salvation.

What is the message in A Good Man Is Hard to Find?

The author’s central message is the power of human compassion and God’s grace in the transformation of shallow, non-religious creatures. The Misfit and The Grandmother receive a chance to understand genuine goodness during their life-changing encounter.

What is the moral of A Good Man Is Hard to Find?

O’Connor was an ardent Catholic, so her short stories mostly focused on religious vices and virtues. Her moral lesson in this story is the evil nature of selfishness and the person’s inability to attain divine grace from the position of selfishness and self-centeredness.

What is The Grandmother really like in A Good Man Is Hard to Find?

Though there is much irony in The Grandmother’s depiction, she still makes an impression of a selfish, egoistic person in the story. She talks the family into leaving their route for the sake of her whim; she never tries to save her family, and she is elitist and racist in her judgment.

• A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor
• A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Summary & Analysis – Study.com
• Analysis of the novel, ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ – ThoughtCo
• A Good Man Is Hard to Find | Sarah Hyun’s Portfolio
• A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Themes – Custom-Writing.org
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A Summary and Analysis of Flannery O’Connor’s ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ is one of the best-known short stories by Flannery O’Connor (1925-64), who produced a string of powerful stories during her short life. First published in the collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find in 1955, the story is about an American family who run into an escaped murderer at a plantation.

Before we offer an analysis of some of the key details of the story, here’s a brief summary of its plot.

Plot summary

The story is about a grandmother, her son named Bailey, Bailey’s wife, and the couple’s three children, named June Star, John Wesley, and simply ‘the baby’. The family are going on holiday to Florida. At the beginning of the story, the grandmother points out to her son that a notorious criminal, known as the Misfit, is on the loose and she doesn’t think they should be going on vacation to Florida when the Misfit is rumoured to be heading there.

On their way to their destination, the grandmother tells the children a story of how she was courted by a wealthy man who used to leave her a watermelon every day with his initials, E. A. T., inscribed in it. However, one day a black boy saw the word ‘EAT’ on the watermelon and ate it. This story amuses the children.

The family then stop off for lunch a barbecue diner, The Tower, run by a man named Red Sammy, who talks to the grandmother about the Misfit. It is Red Sammy who remarks, ‘A good man is hard to find’, in reference to the dangerous convict on the loose.

When the family get back on the road, the grandmother persuades her son to take a detour to a plantation she remembers from her youth. She embellishes the story by inventing details, such as the idea that a secret panel concealed the family silver in the house.

However, she has misremembered where the plantation is: Tennessee, rather than Georgia (where the family are). When the grandmother’s cat escapes from his basket and frightens Bailey, he crashes the car into a ditch.

Another car approaches them. It contains three men, one of whom the grandmother recognises as the notorious Misfit. He seems familiar to her, as though she has known him for years.

When she blurts out that she recognises him, the Misfit tells them that it would have been better if she hadn’t recognised him. He talks to the grandmother while his two accomplices lead Bailey into the woods and shoot him. They then do the same with Bailey’s wife and the children. The grandmother tries to flatter the Misfit into sparing her life, telling him that she knows he’s a good man, but to no avail.

The story ends with the grandmother addressing the Misfit as one of her own ‘babies’ or ‘children’; the Misfit shoots her dead. The Misfit has the final word, observing that the grandmother would have been a good woman if she had had someone there ‘to shoot her every minute of her life.’

The character of the grandmother is central to the dramatic power of ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’. The first two words of the story are ‘The grandmother’; the story begins with her warning her son about the escaped Misfit and ends with her being shot dead by the Misfit; the story opens with the third-person narrator’s reference to Bailey as the grandmother’s ‘only boy’ but ends with her addressing the Misfit as one of her ‘own children’.

And although ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ is narrated by an impersonal third-person narrator, in terms of the story’s focalisation we remain close to the grandmother’s perspective on events, seeing things through her eyes and gaining access to her thoughts and feelings as the story approaches its shocking and dramatic climax.

The skill of O’Connor’s writing lies in her ability to shuttle rapidly between comedic moments poking gentle fun at the grandmother and darker plot developments. The point is not that the shift between these two very different modes seems awkward or out of place, but that O’Connor lends the already shocking moments at the end of the story an even more alarming element, through juxtaposing them with lighter comic interludes.

A central theme of O’Connor’s story is, as the title makes clear, goodness: note how the grandmother and Red Sammy’s repeated references to a ‘good man’ meet their match in the Misfit’s statement at the end of the story that the grandmother would have been a ‘good woman’ if someone had been there to (threaten to) shoot her at all times.

This statement of the Misfit’s also highlights another theme O’Connor is exploring: that of crime and punishment. The Misfit tells the grandmother that the punishments he has undergone don’t match with the crimes he has committed. But the story contains a religious angle, too, as exemplified by the grandmother’s epiphany at the end of the story, in which – when confronted with her own imminent death – she reaches out and acknowledges her killer as one of her ‘children’.

This blessing is in stark contrast to the Misfit, who – in almost Dostoevskian fashion – characterises Christianity as a case of either giving up anything and following Christ or rejecting him and doing as one pleases. Anything – murder, burning down someone’s house – is permissible and constitutes the only true pleasure one can get from life.

The grandmother’s final act of blessing (forgiveness, or a last desperate attempt to save her own life?) raises this petty, racially prejudiced, and comical old woman far above the level of the nihilistic Misfit and all he represents.

Of course, it may also be significant that the Misfit – who was accused by one of the prison psychiatrists of killing his own father – personally kills the grandmother, who represents an old and outmoded America. Flannery O’Connor’s story is about a changing America, and the text is marked by the Grandmother’s continual reminiscences about a better, simpler life when she was younger.

The story’s title, taken from Red Sammy’s conversation with the Grandmother in which they lament that the world has become debased and degraded during their lifetimes, places this mood and tone at the centre of the story.

In this connection, the grandmother’s attitude towards African-Americans is already outdated, even in 1955 when the story first appeared.

Her racial stereotypes , such as associating African-Americans with watermelons, the offensive words she uses to describe the black boy they pass in the car, and her casual presumptions about the lives of black people all mark her out as a representative of an older American outlook which is about to be entirely laid to rest with the onset of the US Civil Rights movement. (The Montgomery Bus Boycott , for example, occurred at the end of 1955, the year the story appeared.)

Final thoughts

Viewed this way, ‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find’ might be productively analysed alongside a another key American text from the 1950s: Tennessee Williams’ play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof , also from 1955, similarly deals with the generational gap between an older America and the younger Americans who represent a new attitude, especially regarding race.

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Books — A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Essays on A Good Man is Hard to Find

Our curated selection of essay samples on "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" offers a wide range of perspectives on this seminal work. Each essay provides unique insights into the story's rich tapestry of characters, from the morally complex Grandmother to the enigmatic Misfit, whose interactions prompt readers to question the nature of true goodness and grace.

Themes Explored in Depth

Dive into essays that meticulously analyze the story's central themes, including the moral dilemmas faced by the characters, the role of grace and redemption, and the profound commentary on the human condition. Understand how O'Connor employs her narrative to challenge and redefine the concept of a "good" person in the context of her Southern Gothic setting.

Literary Devices and Symbolism Uncovered

Flannery O'Connor's use of literary devices and symbolism is pivotal to the depth and resonance of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." Our essay samples explore how irony, foreshadowing, and vivid imagery enhance the narrative's impact, offering readers a comprehensive understanding of O'Connor's storytelling prowess.

Fuel Your Academic Success

Whether you're crafting an essay, conducting research, or seeking inspiration for your writing, our database provides invaluable resources to support your academic journey. Explore essays that dissect the story's complex narrative structure, character development, and thematic undertones to enrich your analysis and critical thinking skills.

Join Our Community of Literature Enthusiasts

Embark on your literary exploration with our "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" essay samples and become part of a vibrant community passionate about delving into the intricacies of Flannery O'Connor's work. Let our essays inspire your academic endeavors and deepen your appreciation for one of the most influential stories in American literature.

Explore. Analyze. Inspire.

Your journey into the heart of "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" begins here. Unravel the layers of Flannery O'Connor's narrative and discover the boundless possibilities of literary exploration and academic excellence.

Character Analysis: The Grandmother and Anders

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An Analysis of Flannery O'connor’s Story, a Good Man is Hard to Find

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The Summary of The Short Story "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

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Flannery O'Connor

Short Story, Southern Gothic

Bailey, Bailey's wife, Grandmother, John Wesley, June Star, The Baby, Red Sammy Butts, Red Sammy's Wife, The Misfit, Hiram, Bobby Lee, Edgar Atkins Teagarden, Pitty Sing, Gray Monkey, The Negro child

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Discovering Good | Analysis of A Good Man is Hard to Find

By David Dingfelder

Flannery O’Connor explores the meaning of the word “good” through her short story A Good Man is Hard to Find . After a series of deceptions and wrongdoings, O’Connor depicts a grandma leading her family to be killed by a runaway outlaw named “The Misfit.” While the family was traveling to Florida for vacation, the true journey follows the grandma as she begins to understand the true meaning of the word “good” – the most general and most frequently used adjective of commendation in the English language (Oxford English Dictionary). To define a word so commonly overused and socially defined, O’Connor builds the concept of her definition of “good” through the grandma’s interactions with the other characters in the story. By virtue of her interactions with her family, Red Sammy, and “The Misfit,” the grandma transitions from complete ignorance, to misunderstanding, and finally to acceptance of what it means to be “good.”

Initially depicting the grandma as a flawed character with an entirely misconstrued understanding of the word enables O’Connor to establish what does not qualify as “good.” In addition to the grandma’s heedless acts of deception, the narrative uses children as a pure and untainted lens of judgment to expose the flaws in the grandma’s character. In response to the Grandma’s opening efforts to switch the vacation destination, the little girl June delivers a deeply profound critique: “[The grandma] Wouldn’t stay home for a million bucks… She has to go everywhere we go” (1). The establishment of Grandma’s flaws continues as O’Connor parallels the grandma’s perception of herself with the games of the children. Prior to departing on the trip, the grandma dresses with trimmed “collars and cuffs” so that “anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (2). This insight into the grandma’s mindset is soon followed by the description of the children identifying clouds in the sky. While seemingly insignificant, the sky serves as an extended metaphor for the grandma’s understanding of goodness across the work. The children identifying clouds signal the grandma’s clouded understanding of what it means to be “good.”  Rather than worrying about the wellbeing of her son or her family in the event of an accident, the grandma is primarily concerned with others perceiving her as a lady. The clouds symbolize the opinions of others that block to the true meaning of goodness, the sun.

The interaction between the grandma and Red Sammy initiates O’Connor’s discovery of the misunderstandings and contradictions involved in the word “good.” Early into the grandma’s discussion with Red Sammy, the definition of the word “good” becomes confounded as the grandma calls Red Sammy “a good man” immediately after Red Sammy defines a car as “good.” Instead of taking this as a compliment, Red Sammy is “struck with this answer” (6). Juxtaposing these uses of the same word exemplifies its overuse and stale meaning – explaining why Red Sammy feels no sense of satisfaction when complimented. O’Connor furthers the problematic use of the word when Red Sammy states, “a good man is hard to find” (6). This statement is riddled with irony as the word “good” is used profusely but a “good man” is uncommon – creating a paradox with which O’Connor argues that a word that represents anything also represents nothing. The conversation with Red Sammy also highlights the inconsistency in Grandma’s definition of “good.” The grandma compliments Red Sammy for being naïve and gullible with his interactions with the two boys stealing gas, yet condemns her granddaughter for her insightful and honest comment earlier. It becomes apparent that the grandma is not only flawed but she is also unsure of how to become good.

Through the grandma’s interaction with “The Misfit,” the story paints the grandma’s reverse bildungsroman moment by depicting a profound environment that accompanies her change in grieving and perceptions surrounding what it means to be good.

A raw and honest atmosphere is developed as O’Connor describes the cloudless sky with nothing around the grandma but the woods (9). Contrary earlier in the work, the clouds that blocked the sky had cleared, symbolizing the clarity in the grandma’s perception of goodness. Further, this moment of reckoning takes place on the side of a dirt road with the woods in the background – a natural and profound environment. The use of imagery hints towards the deeply philosophical understanding of morality and goodness that the grandma gains from this interaction.

The shift in the grandma’s grieving signifies the acknowledgment of what it means to be good. Immediately after the grandma realizes that the man was “The Misfit,” she selfishly questions, “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?” (11). The use of the word “lady” again demonstrates that the grandma is still solely concerned about the perception of others, in addition to her not caring about her family. However, her grieving changes as she starts wailing “Bailey boy” for her son (12). This appears to be the first time in the work that the grandma is concerned about someone other than herself. This transition expresses O’Connor’s belief that goodness is an internal trait that is portrayed to – rather than perceived by – others. When the grandma stopped worrying about her perception and started worrying about her family is when she became good.

Further, O’Connor argues that goodness transcends superficial actions such as practicing religion. Despite the grandma’s attempts to pray, “she opened and closed her mouth several times before anything came out” (15). Her inability to pray symbolizes that prayer and religion do not equate goodness.  This realization is what causes the grandma to understand that no actions define what it means to be good. Despite their differences, the grandma now understands that little differentiates her and the misfit, stating, “Why you’re [The Misfit] one of my babies. You’re one of my own children” (16). In denial, The Misfit recoils at the accusation that he is good too and shoots the grandma three times. The grandma dies happily with “with her legs crossed under her like a child’s and her face smiling up at the cloudless sky,” tying back into the innocence and purity associated with children (16).

O’Connor’s development of a definition for the word “good” ultimately serves as a social critique. Due to the overuse of the word, the definition of “good” has been spread too thin, depriving the word of true meaning. While a grave ending, this short story serves as a reminder of that “goodness” is not obtained through performative demonstrations or self-centered thoughts. O’Connor’s choice to never fully define the word “good” indicates how the definition of “good” continues to elude us. On the path to becoming good, the first step is identifying what does not qualify as good.

Sources Cited

“Definition of Good.” UNC-Chapel Hill Libraries, Oxford English Dictionary,

www-oed-com.libproxy.lib.unc.edu/view/Entry/79925?rskey=d7aiwZ&result=1#eid.

O’Connor, Flannery.  “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”  American Studies at the University of

Virginia, 2009, http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/goodman.html.   Originally published in

T he Avon Book of Modern Writing .  New York: Avon Publishing, 1953, pp. 27-33.

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A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

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Hear Flannery O’Connor Read “A Good Man is Hard to Find” (1959)

in Audio Books , Literature | April 24th, 2024 Leave a Comment

Flan­nery O’Con­nor was a South­ern writer who, as Joyce Car­ol Oates once said, had less in com­mon with Faulkn­er than with Kaf­ka and Kierkegaard. Iso­lat­ed by poor health and con­sumed by her fer­vent Catholic faith, O’Con­nor cre­at­ed works of moral fic­tion that, accord­ing to Oates , “were not refined New York­er sto­ries of the era in which noth­ing hap­pens except inside the char­ac­ters’ minds, but sto­ries in which some­thing hap­pens of irre­versible mag­ni­tude, often death by vio­lent means.”

In imag­in­ing those events of irre­versible mag­ni­tude, O’Con­nor could some­times seem outlandish–even cartoonish–but she strong­ly reject­ed the notion that her per­cep­tions of 20th cen­tu­ry life were dis­tort­ed. “Writ­ers who see by the light of their Chris­t­ian faith will have, in these times, the sharpest eye for the grotesque, for the per­verse, and for the unac­cept­able,” O’Con­nor said. “To the hard of hear­ing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and star­tling fig­ures.”

In April of 1959–five years before her death at the age of 39 from lupus–O’Connor ven­tured away from her seclud­ed fam­i­ly farm in Milledgeville, Geor­gia, to give a read­ing at Van­der­bilt Uni­ver­si­ty . She read one of her most famous and unset­tling sto­ries, “ A Good Man is Hard to Find .” The audio, acces­si­ble above, is one of two known record­ings of the author read­ing that sto­ry. In her dis­tinc­tive Geor­gian drawl, O’Con­nor tells the sto­ry of a fate­ful fam­i­ly trip:

The grand­moth­er did­n’t want to go to Flori­da. She want­ed to vis­it some of her con­nec­tions in east Ten­nessee and she was seiz­ing at every chance to change Bai­ley’s mind. Bai­ley was the son she lived with, her only boy. He was sit­ting on the edge of his chair at the table, bent over the orange sports sec­tion of the Jour­nal . “Now look here, Bai­ley,” she said, “see here, read this,” and she stood with one hand on her thin hip and the oth­er rat­tling the news­pa­per at his bald head. “Here this fel­low that calls him­self The Mis­fit is aloose from the Fed­er­al Pen and head­ed toward Flori­da and you read here what it says he did to these peo­ple. Just you read it. I would­n’t take my chil­dren in any direc­tion with a crim­i­nal like that aloose in it. I could­n’t answer to my con­science if I did.”

After you lis­ten to this rare track, you can fol­low this link  to a record­ing of O’Con­nor read­ing her 1960 essay, “Some Aspects of the Grotesque in South­ern Fic­tion,”  in which she writes: “I have found that any­thing that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the North­ern read­er, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called real­is­tic.”

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Flan­nery O’Connor Reads ‘Some Aspects of the Grotesque in South­ern Fic­tion’ (c. 1960)

Hear Flan­nery O’Connor’s Short Sto­ry, “Rev­e­la­tion,” Read by Leg­endary His­to­ri­an & Radio Host, Studs Terkel

Flan­nery O’Connor’s “Every­thing That Ris­es Must Con­verge” Read by Estelle Par­sons

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70+ A Good Man Is Hard to Find Essay Topics

Welcome to A Good Man Is Hard to Find Essay Topics page prepared by our editorial team! Here you’ll find an extensive collection of the short story essay topics and ideas! Literary analysis, characters, themes, & more. Get inspired to write your own essay!

• 🔬 Literary Analysis
• 🎭 Characters
• 📊 Compare & Contrast
• 🗺️ Navigation

🎓 References

🔬 literary analysis of a good man is hard to find.

• What is the symbolism of the characters’ names in A Good Man Is Hard to Find ?
• Analyze the use of foreshadowing in the grandmother’s utterances.
• Which literary devices does O’Connor use to create the uncanny feeling in her readers?
• Dialogues in O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find
• What does the wood where the family gets killed symbolize?
• Track the cues that relate each character to a given social class.
• How does nature reflect the characters’ feelings and intentions?
• Analyze the irony of the grandmother’s actions that cost the lives of the entire family.
• How does the timeline of A Good Man Is Hard to Find match its plot development?
• What does the car represent in the short story? Analyze its role for the characters’ descriptions.
• A Good Man is Hard to Find: literary analysis
• Enumerate the situations when the grandmother acts as a bad person. Are they evenly distributed throughout the text?
• Where does each character find their salvation?
• The cat is an important symbol. What does it represent?

🎭 A Good Man Is Hard to Find Characters

• Who are the protagonist and the antagonist in the short story?
• The Grandmother in A Good Man Is Hard to Find
• Do you think the grandmother really changed for the better in the end?
• Why couldn’t the grandmother sympathize with the African American people?
• In your opinion, did The Misfit kill his father?
• What was the role of society in the formation of The Misfit’s character?
• Why were June Star and John Wesley so ill-bred?
• Which traits do the grandmother and The Misfit share?
• Analyze the feministic message in the image of the children’s mother.
• What made Bailey a bad father, husband, and son?
• Explore the moral code of The Misfit.
• Why does the grandmother consider Red Sammy Butts “a good man?”
• Invent another character who could be a good man in the short story.

🌻 Essay Topics on A Good Man Is Hard to Find Themes

• How does the theme of children’s education in the short story show up through the family relationships?
• How do good and evil coexist in the short story?
• Themes & motifs in A Good Man Is Hard to Find
• What does grace mean for the grandmother before her death?
• How does the author manage to show the theme of family through the worst possible example?
• Religion in A Good Man Is Hard to Find
• Does religion make people kinder to each other in A Good Man Is Hard to Find ?
• What role does religion play in interpersonal relationships in the short story?
• How does the theme of Jesus show up in the characters, and what are the differences?
• Flannery O’Connor explores the theme of moral decay. What can be done to remedy the problem?
• Violence in A Good Man Is Hard To Find
• Which characters reflect the theme of honesty in A Good Man Is Hard to Find ?
• Why is the definition of “a good man” so elusive?
• How does the theme of goodness exist in the short story without a single positive character?
• What does morality mean for the grandmother, and how does she use double standards?
• Why is society an adverse factor for children’s development in the short story?
• Why is nostalgia a negative feeling in A Good Man is Hard to Find ?
• How does class make you a good or bad person by default?

⌛ Essay Topics on the Context of A Good Man Is Hard to Find

• How did O’Connor’s Catholic education influence her prose?
• What do you know about the Jim Crow era in the American South?
• Analyze the reasons for the grandmother’s nostalgia in view of the racial inequality?
• Which views of the characters are no longer tolerable nowadays, and what has changed the way people think?
• Why did Flannery O’Connor write such macabre stories?
• Why didn’t the abolishment of slavery improve the position of African Americans, as O’Connor describes it?
• Why does Southern Gothic tend to describe strange and eccentric characters?
• Is O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find a horror story or a realistic story, and why?
• Analyze the reasons for O’Connor’s criticism of religion in her prose.
• Which values did the grandmother uphold as a woman from the South?
• Explore the reasons why such a genre as American Gothic emerged.
• Why were the plantations and mansions in the short story so forsaken?
• Use your knowledge of history to predict what kind of people June Star and John Wesley would have become if they had survived.

📊 A Good Man Is Hard to Find: Compare & Contrast Essay Topics

• What does O’Connor’s prose lack to become dark romanticism, as that of Edgar Allan Poe?
• A Rose for Emily and A Good Man is Hard to Find
• What are the differences between the “freaks” and “outcasts” of Henry Crews and Flannery O’Connor?
• Compare the effect of catholic education on the fiction of Flannery O’Connor and Ann Rice.
• Compare the goodness of the characters in Good Country People and A Good Man Is Hard to Find .
• Psychoanalytical analysis of A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Revelation
• How could Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily inspire O’Connor to write A Good Man Is Hard to Find?
• Compare the depiction of sin and hatred in The Cask Of Amontillado by Edgar Poe and A Good Man Is Hard to Find by O’Connor.
• Compare and contrast the use of irony in A Good Man Is Hard to Find and The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant.
• A Good Man Is Hard to Find vs Good Country People: themes & characters analysis
• Compare the importance of human life in A Good Man Is Hard to Find and To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.
• How do people dehumanize African Americans in O’Connor’s and Harper Lee’s prose?
• Critics described Wise Blood by O’Connor as “low comedy and high seriousness.” Why can we say the same about A Good Man Is Hard to Find ?

Looking for inspiration to write your own essay on A Good Man Is Hard to Find? You are welcome to visit our essay examples page ! And don’t hesitate to use our topic generator if you need any help while formulating your essay title.

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Bibliography

IvyPanda . "70+ A Good Man Is Hard to Find Essay Topics." August 13, 2023. https://ivypanda.com/lit/a-good-man-is-hard-to-find-study-guide/essay-topics/.