After reading Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the first time I was shocked by the conclusion of the story. The gruesome ending actually made me gasp out loud. I was so startled and surprised that I immediately read the story a second time. The more I read the more I started to think that the grandmother is actually the catalyst for every major event in the story.
The grandmother’s growing dissatisfaction with the moral judgment of her family is evident from the start of the story. She criticizes her son, Bailey for taking his children to visit Florida even though they have been there before. The grandmother wants the family to take a trip to Tennessee so she can see some of her old friends. She hides her selfish motives by saying “They would see different parts of the world and be broad” (O’Connor 2). After the grandmother chastises the children for being rude to Red Sam and lies about the secret panel on the house in order to rile up the children in order to convince Bailey to stop at the house, I caught on to the fact that the grandmother is a complete hypocrite. It becomes clear that she’s only interested in her own pleasures, none bigger than her status as a lady.
This obsession with her own social status leads to the death of her grandmother and the end of the lives of her family members. I felt no sympathy for the grandmother when she was shot because her decision to bring her cat on the trip, and her ploy to visit the house (which she realizes isn’t even in the same state) directly caused the family’s car to crash. The grandmother never pleads for The Misfit to spare the lives of her family, only to spare her own by exclaiming “you’ve got good blood! I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady!” (O’Connor 20). It then became apparent to The Misfit that the grandmother was not a lady at all and doesn’t hesitate to shoot her.
I was also very shocked at the ending of the story and did not see a family trip ending with the death of the grandmother. You say that you feel no sympathy for the grandmother when she was shot because she you think that she had set herself up for the outcome. But it makes me wonder if the grandmother was really aware of what she was doing or what her intentions were even prior to the trip to Florida. Although the grandmother may have presented herself as a complete hyocite throughtout the story, I don't think that she was aware of some of the consequesnces of her thoughts and actions.
ReplyDeleteWhat do you think we can learn from the grandmother's critical nature? good post!
ReplyDeletethis really helped me get a better understanding of this story!
ReplyDelete