A Good Man is Hard to Find Analysis Essay Example

In the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, Flannery O’Connor highlights the two main characteristics of selfishness and faithfulness. O'Connor creates this character that is so entitled to herself that she puts herself and her family in a dangerous situation. The grandmother, wanting to be in control constantly, ends up getting herself and her family killed by a runaway escapee. 

The first main theme O’Connor creates is selfishness and individualism by the grandmother. At the beginning of the story, the grandmother is portrayed as a very selfish person. We find out right away that everything has to be her way. The first line of the whole story is, “The Grandmother did not want to go to Florida.” This shows us she can sometimes be not cooperative and might be a little opinionated. Later in the story, we find out that this turns out to be completely true. The grandmother’s selfishness and lack of consideration for her family comes back to haunt her when at the end she is begging the Misfit for her life. Stephen Brandy explains this in his article, “One of My Babies: The Misfit and the Grandmother.” In this article, Brandy explains at first she seemed to be a  “harmless busybody, utterly self absorbed but also amusing” however, later in the story we learn that she is the cause of all the problems that the family ends up facing. At the end of the story, as the Misfit has a gun pointed towards her head, she begs him for her life and says, “ Jesus! You’ve got good blood! I know you would not shoot a lady!”  This is when the grandmother finally opens up her eyes and realizes that she was the reason why they were in this situation. If it was not for her, she would not have to beg for her life. She was the one who told them to drive down this dirt road because she thought they were in a different state. She was also the reason they crashed, because she had to bring her cat even though she was told multiple times by the family members to not bring it. Even after all of that, she could have saved them, but when the Misfit came up to the wrecked car and asked them if they were alright, the grandmother had to say to him, “Hey I recognize you, aren’t you the Misfit. The one who escaped from prison?” That’s when the Misfit knew he only had one choice and it was to kill the whole family. I think that the grandmother begged the Misfit not only for her life, but she knew that she messed up and wanted to try to change and start over. She wanted to apologize to the family, but unfortunately, she never got the chance. The Misfit ended up not only killing her, but also her entire family.  

Another thing O’Connor tries to highlight in the story is faithfulness. This story simulates and portrays the life of a Christain. It shows the reader how a Cristain walks with Jesus to try and earn his salvation. The whole story is about this grandmother who is selfish and self centered. Throughout the story this grandmother is the cause of all the family's troubles. She acts as if she is better than everyone else and does not care how she treats her family. She refuses to listen to her family and continues to want everything her way even though the family is trying to help her. McDermott explains in his article, “Flannery O’Connor’s Validation of the Unreasonable in ‘A Good Man Is Hard To Find.” that the grandmother refuses to believe truly who she is. “In terms of time the Grandmother is on the edge of eternity. She is a person of diluted faith without any true convictions about what she professes to believe. She is unable to see herself as the habitual liar she is.” At the end of the story, because of her we find out that her and her family are killed by a runaway prisoner. As the prisoner is about to shoot her, she realizes what she has done to her family and begs the prisoner to let her go. This all represents the walk of a Christain. The grandmother is portrayed as the Christain. Just like the grandmother, we as humans live our life mostly thinking and caring for ourselves. We spend our time on Earth living how we want to and do not really listen to God. We like to do what we want to and what we think is fun. We call ourselves Christains even though we do not act like it. These so-called Christains think it’s enough to simply show up to church on Sunday and be forgiven of their sins. Just how the grandmother begged the Misfit for her life, we as Christains beg God at the end of our life for salvation. We realize that the life we lived on Earth was not the walk of Jesus. All our sins we hope are forgiven by God, so we can go live eternal life in Heaven with him. I believe that O’Connor was trying to emphasize that sometimes we are too late to realize the mistakes and type of person we truly were. And once your life is coming to an end, you look back on your life and try to change the bad things about you. You finally realized that you were not the person you thought you were and it is too late to do anything about it. You are stuck with death and rotting in hell for eternity. The grandmother never got to say sorry to her family and died knowing that she was the real reason her whole family died. 

In conclusion, Flannery O’Connor provides us with a story not only explaining how a selfish and self centered grandmother is the real reason behind the murder of a family, but also sympolizes the walk of a Christain trying to find salvation and forgiveness in his later years. O’Connor portrays the characteristics of selfishness and individualism through the grandmother who never had a chance to be forgiven and change for the better. Just like the grandmother, O’Connor paints the picture of a Christain not being forgiven for his wrongdoings which ends up leading to him suffering the rest of eternity.