A Good Man Is Hard to Find

“It’ll take a half a hour to fix this here car, Hiram called, looking over the raised hood of it.” (O’Connor 15).

When I was reading this quote, I thought the Misfit and his buddies will turn into good men and really help the family. Until I read the last page, I thought the story will have a happy ending.

A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor is a very interesting story with a twist at the end. Although the grandmother was very controlling, she wanted to go to Tennessee to protect the family from meeting the Misfit, the criminal, who was heading to Florida, and this fact was a good excuse to achieve her goal. Even though she later convinced her son Bailey by manipulating the children to see an old house I would not say it was her fault they got into a car accident and, because she waved at a car passing by to get help, the family got killed by the Misfit and his gang. Despite the fact she was obnoxious, selfish, and full of herself, she was the only one who was trying to save the situation. To avoid a potential tragedy, she was trying to make the Misfit believe he is a good man and that he probably got in prison by mistake.

The story tells us that Bailey was a weak man who was not able to make a decision. He always got convinced by either the grandmother or his children. If he knew how to react in certain situations, such as the one right after the accident, it would have been him who waved at the passing car for help. He did not even make any attempt to save the family when they found out who was the criminal in the car they had stopped. Probably because the grandmother knew that it is hard for her son to make up his mind, she took over the leadership.

Hana Pasekova