Literary Analysis Of A Good Man Is Hard To Find

The mentioning of the word “grandmother”, is often followed by an image of a sweet elderly woman who will often encourage, support, and model what type of person another should strive to be. In cases like the one presented by Flannery O’Connor in his short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother possesses qualities that are rarely associated with grandmas. Most fictional characters have flaws and redeemable qualities to parallel living people and the “grandmother” in the story follows the same trend by having some redeemable qualities because she is dishonest, manipulative and selfish.
As seen in the beginning of the story, the grandmother tricks her family into thinking that she has left their cat, Pitty Sing, at home while they leave for their trip. In reality she has snuck the cat in a basket into the car. Her son, Bailey and
As soon as she reveals the unknown man’s true identity, she does not stop once to think about what he could do to her family. Instead, she pleads him to spare her life only. She goes on and on about the Misfit being a good man and that this means he could not possibly be able to hurt a good woman like her. As she tries to convince him to let her live, the Misfit’s companions, kill her family members one by one. She is able to see and hear when her son is taken away, and she does not beg the Misfit to spare her child’s life. Her moment of realization is described as follows, “You’re The Misfit...I recognized you at once! You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you? the grandmother said and removed a clean handkerchief from her cuff and began to slap at her eyes with it.” (O’Connor, 946-947). The grandmother even in a situation that involved harm to her own child, refuses to acknowledge anyone but herself. Her selfish thoughts and actions, prove to the reader that the “grandmother” is in reality a self-centered