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Flannery O'Connor: A Good Man Is Hard To Find

It's very bizarre how the grandma goes to great lengths to tell the Misfit what a good man he is, even after her family members were being killed one by one. Was she that desperate to save her own skin that she would say all these nice things to him? And if she survived this, what would she have left? Nothing. All her family members are dead!

Why did the Misfit have this long-drawn out conversation with her and then kill her just as she touched him after uttering her "...you're one of my babies. You're one of my children!" Did he kill her because she touched him or because she said what she said about him being one of her children?

Very confusing, and yet, that's what makes this story so compelling.
 
SeoulMan said:
It's very bizarre how the grandma goes to great lengths to tell the Misfit what a good man he is, even after her family members were being killed one by one. Was she that desperate to save her own skin that she would say all these nice things to him? And if she survived this, what would she have left? Nothing. All her family members are dead!
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I think a main theme in this story is the selfishness of the grandmother. From the beginning of the story her granddaughter says, "She wouldn't stay at ome for a million bucks, afraid she'd miss something. She has to go everywhere we go", and yet, she is complaining like crazy in the beginning of the story.

As far as I'm concerned, yes, she is really that desperate to save her own skin!

SeoulMan said:
Why did the Misfit have this long-drawn out conversation with her and then kill her just as she touched him after uttering her "...you're one of my babies. You're one of my children!" Did he kill her because she touched him or because she said what she said about him being one of her children?
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I'm still not sure about this either, it may be a bit of both. He did say earlier that his parents were the finest people in the world and maybe he can sense the grandmother's selfishness and hates that she is trying to claim to be like his mother.
 
The grandmother is also kinda racist. When I read it through the first time, I thought that she was just like any other Southerner who talked about Black people like the way she did. But, after the second reading, she may just be downright racist.

Funny how the most Christian and scripture-recitin' folks are the most embarrassing and hateful folks you'll ever meet. Well, maybe not you, but certainly me.
 
SeoulMan said:
The grandmother is also kinda racist. When I read it through the first time, I thought that she was just like any other Southerner who talked about Black people like the way she did. But, after the second reading, she may just be downright racist.
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I think you have to keep in mind that this is set in the South in the 1950s so she sounds just like everyone else probably.

SeoulMan said:
Funny how the most Christian and scripture-recitin' folks are the most embarrassing and hateful folks you'll ever meet. Well, maybe not you, but certainly me.
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I definitely agree with this though.
 
That is one of the most gruesome and pointless stories I've had the misfortune to read.

The grandmother couldn't bring herself to believe her family was being massacred, she was in shock. I think she kept telling him he was a good man because if she played that up she hoped to appeal to his conscience. Unfortunately for her he had no conscience.
I don't particularly think she was selfish, she only wanted to be included in the family and her son was impatient with her. The son sounds like the selfish one to me.

Yes some Southerners used to speak that way, but not nice people, that word was not acceptable to nice families, wasn't used. It certainly wasn't allowed in my family. Ever. And yes, I was around in the 1950's.
 
pontalba said:
The grandmother couldn't bring herself to believe her family was being massacred, she was in shock. I think she kept telling him he was a good man because if she played that up she hoped to appeal to his conscience. Unfortunately for her he had no conscience.
I don't particularly think she was selfish, she only wanted to be included in the family and her son was impatient with her. The son sounds like the selfish one to me.

Yes some Southerners used to speak that way, but not nice people, that word was not acceptable to nice families, wasn't used. It certainly wasn't allowed in my family. Ever. And yes, I was around in the 1950's.
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Exacly, and don't forget those spoiled grandchildren!:D
 
pontalba said:
I don't particularly think she was selfish, she only wanted to be included in the family and her son was impatient with her. The son sounds like the selfish one to me.
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I wonder if I see the grandmother as selfish because I am a daughter and not a mother. Are you a parent pontalba?
 
impalpable said:
I wonder if I see the grandmother as selfish because I am a daughter and not a mother. Are you a parent pontalba?
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No, I didn't have any children. I'm not far from the age that the grandmother seems to be, maybe a decade younger, so I guess my sympathies are more with her. I kept wondering why on earth the mother and father didn't discipline those brats, I know I'd have not gotten away with anything like that.
 
pontalba said:
No, I didn't have any children. I'm not far from the age that the grandmother seems to be, maybe a decade younger, so I guess my sympathies are more with her. I kept wondering why on earth the mother and father didn't discipline those brats, I know I'd have not gotten away with anything like that.
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Yeah I can definitely see this point of view as well, but I just find the grandmother to be so despicable for some reason.
 
impalpable said:
Yeah I can definitely see this point of view as well, but I just find the grandmother to be so despicable for some reason.
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She wasn't the brightest bulb on the tree, that's for sure, but I don't think she was selfish, just on the simple side and felt like her family wanted to get rid of her, which they probably did. 'Course we don't know the back story on her either. But I think she was just lonely.
 
This is the kind of story that I think the Coen Brothers (No Country for Old Men, Blood Simple, Fargo) could make. Great local flavor plus a bit of violence and mayhem.
 
There is a lot of God and religion in this story, so we probably shouldn't minimize their importance. For example, both the grandmother and the Misfit talk a lot about God and Jesus just before he shoots her. Is the Misfit the devil? If so, how come I find the grandmother more reprehensible?

Also, why did the title come from Red Sammy at the Tower diner where they had BBQ sandwiches? He says, "A good man is hard to find...Everything is getting terrible." Is this just a sign of things to come? Is that the reason why the author picked the title from this point in the story? Is the "good man" supposed to be the Misfit? Or is the "good man" supposed to be about Man in general, as in humankind? Or is the "good man" supposed to be the grandmother, taking "man" in the genderless sense?

So many questions...
 
SeoulMan said:
Well, dammit! That is ironic! Now, I have to revisit the whole religious theme in the story and perhaps reevaluate the grandmother character. Shoot!

Thanks for the info!
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:lol::lol:


I wanted to add that I don't think that the grandmother was selfish.These women in our lives raise us,and whoever is a parent "raising" is not a simple word, and what does her son and daughter-in-law and the kids do? It angers me , because I felt that "ok, we are all grown up now and you are too much of a hassle"

She was disrespected and even at the end she wanted to believe that Misfit could not be that bad.
 
Sorry to intrude so late, but this discussion intrigued me. So here are a very pennies' worth based on a quick single read just now (over at the bookstore café :whistling: )
I don't think the grandmother was selfish. She was certainly intrusive, but I think she was well-meaning and wanted to be part of the scene, and that she honestly thought it was helpful and that she was contributing. That can be a little much to take sometimes. I think her conversation with the Misfit was her way of "making nice" to try to butter him up. I think that, earlier than the rest, she may well have understood what the situation was, given that it was exactly what she feared was going to happen, and that guns were showing.
I don't know who the Misfit was, or represented, but he sure was a magnificently written character. Perfect proof that O'Connor really knew how to write! In browsing through other stories, I think her style was magnificent. Plain, simple, pitch-perfect, unadorned spoken American. Hard to do.
And that's 3 cents worth, and all that comes to mind.. :flowers:
 
I read a little bit about Flannery O'Connor and apparently, she injects religious themes, brutally shocking violence, and epiphanies into her work. She said that people are most themselves when confronted with violence, that they retain the most indispensable part of their character during these traumatic moments.
 
She seems to be a brilliant writer. I'm not sure how much of her darkness or violence I can take.
 
Both she and her father died fairly young of Lupus, she was ill for several years before she died, and it certainly seems to have infected her writing to make it dark and depressing.
I just read another of the short stories in the collection, You Can't Be Any Poorer Than Dead, and really while the violence is not as present, it has a casual violence about it that is quite depressing.
 
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