Book Review: "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

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Book Review: “A Good Man is Hard to Find” “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a story about Christianity and hierarchy. This story is a classic example of Southern Gothic literature. Through characters, Bailey, Bailey's wife, grandmother, baby Edgar, John Wesley, and Misfit, Flannery O'Connor succeeds in communicating the message of the story that status and class are not all the entities that reflect our true existence. The story by Flannery O'Connor employs a lot of violence because she believes that violence turns his characters to reality, makes them reflect more into moral thoughts than their personal interest (Whitt et al. 56). The Misfit is a pathological killer; he is driven by the instinct to kill, which leads to him killing all family members. He killed the entire family and had a history of incarceration due to his criminal behavior. Flannery O'Connor used the violence in his fiction because she believes that violence turns his characters to reality, makes them reflect more into moral thoughts than their personal interest.

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The grandmother’s hierarchy of beliefs and values sets her against the misfits, creates ground for the entire family killing. She considered herself more superior and important than others (Murray 12). This creates challenges in her relationship with members of the family, The Misfit included. The grandmother's self-centered attitude manifests itself from the start of the story to the time she is killed. Instead of supporting and joining the family plan to travel to Florida, she comes up with a contrary scheme to go to Tennessee. She does all she can, including lying about the security situation in Florida to try and dissuade the family from going to Florida.

When she is overpowered, and she has to travel with the family, she sneaks the cat into the vehicle, which later causes the accident that eventually leads to the tragic killing of the entire family. Her sense of superiority has been criticized. However, her age and understanding of spiritual matters should be seen as a qualification for superiority. She is shown disrespect from every member of her family, an act that can be interpreted as the struggles spiritual people go through in our daily life.

Moreover, the grandmother is depicted as a person who values material things, which led to her failure to marry Teagarden, whom she described as a man who would only bring her watermelons. The obsession with material things betrays her supposed high moral standing. She sees herself as the epitome of what is right and worth emulating. The grandmother is also obsessed with what people wear as a way of judging their worthiness. O'Connor claims that the violence in her story serves a purpose, which informs its use. Everyone is selfish, acts in pursuit of own pleasures and goals, even if it means at the expense of others. Grandmother uses her selfishness to judge others, an act that's attracts disrespect for her by family. Nevertheless, when she is faced with imminent death, she remembers and turns to spirituality, where she experiences a short moment of grace.

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The Misfit kills the family because the grandmother identified him. He says, "Yes'm... but it would have been better for all of you, lady, if you hadn't of reckernized me." The act of identifying him provoked his motives to kill. Nevertheless, there are cues to indicate that he would still have killed all family members regardless of if she had identified him or not. The Misfit's life leans towards the violent moral code. He writes, “the only pleasure is meanness."

The statement implies that he was callous by nature, a person who takes pleasure in inflicting brutality on other people. Killing family members was just part of the continuation of his violent moral code. Any person who fancies inflicting pain on other people as a way of making himself happy would kill at any given opportunity. The Misfit suits this desorption, which explains his act of cruelty.

The Misfit's failure to understand the meaning of life left him a cruel person who so no meaning in life. The author wrote that "Since he cannot prove the answer to himself one way or other, he finds no meaning in life and no pleasantness" (Murray 78). This implies that The Misfit had lost touch with the meaning of life after he failed to understand and appreciate why Jesus resurrected. Whereas his grandmother believes in the story of Jesus, including the resurrection part, The Misfit does not fathom it because he was not there to prove its validity. The grandmother cannot answer the critical question about Jesus' resurrection to the satisfaction of The Misfit. As a consequence, he sees the grandmother as a liar with her instances about religion. The Misfit's thinking is that she would make a good person if someone was there to shoot her endless times. This may imply that she would have died long before she would have her bad behavior that The Misfit talks about corrected (Desmond 136). Consequently, her killing, as desired by the author, transformed her into salvation.

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Moreover, the Misfit must have killed his grandmother for failing to deliver him salvation. He expressed a need for Jesus in his life, “if I had of been there, I would have known (if Jesus was really divine) and I wouldn’t be like I am now” (Murray 78). The statement points out to the desperation in The Misfit's voice; he thinks he would have been a better person if he knew Jesus Christ well. Unfortunately, it was the grandmothers, a person who saw herself as morally upright and devout Christian, a failure that led to the Misfit to fail in his desire to know Christ. Arguably, this frustration contributed to his bitterness with her that led to the killing. It is common for a person to hurt or kill anyone he or she believes contributed to his failures. The Misfit perceived the grandmother as a person who is not only a hypocrite but also a failure (Scott and Streight 98). Nevertheless, The Misfit had psychological issues that left him mentally unstable and violent.

Arguably, The Mist was out to revenge the punishment he had received; he never took his incarceration positively. He sought a way of avenging it at any given moment, which was coupled with his mental health challenges. He becomes upset and hysterical when grandmother talks about Jesus. The way he disapproves of the story of Jesus implies he did not want to hear of the story, ostensibly because of a sense of guiltiness it invokes (Desmond 135-136). The grandmother attempts to have him embrace Jesus can be equated to asking him to confess his sins, mistakes and seek salvation. Nevertheless, this does not work, probably because The Misfit does not accept that he made mistakes that led to his jailing, or he does not approve the society’s moral values.

The Misfit did not approve of his grandmother's spiritual view of the world, which added to his resolve to kill her. Her explanations about Jesus raising a dead man did not convince the Misfit, and he never wanted to hear of it, because he was never there to confirm the story when it

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happened. The Misfit does not appreciate the biblical understanding of the world that the grandmother advocates for (Kirk 102). He also sees the grandmother as a hypocrite, especially when she tries to tell him that he is a good person. He rejects the attempts by the grandmother to lure him into saving her life. The Misfit does not see her as a straight person but rather a bad person who is self-centered (Desmond 136). It is on this account that he rejects her advances to establish favor in him and shoots her into the chest.

The Misfit also kills his grandmother because she identified him after stopping the car; he was in to seek assistance after an accident with other family members. The Misfit did not like the idea of being identified, hence decided that it was not only good for her to die but also the other family members she was with. From the story, the family was trying to hide away from the Misfit, who can be equated to trouble. Spotting him and recognizing trouble are equal. As a troublemaker, he would not have wished to spare her life because doing so would amount to leaving evidence behind (Desmond 135-137). The grandmother not only identified him but also recognized the need to have him saved and accept Jesus Christ in his life, something he did not agree to.

In conclusion, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a realistic story where death is a test of faith. In her last moments, the grandmother reaches out to Misfit, showing him true faith and love, and that is the "Moment of Grace." The Misfit kills the family and grandmother because he is a pathological killer; they identify him, and also for the grandmother's failure to satisfactorily answer the question about Jesus Christ. He also hated her of hypocrisy and was also out to avenge the punishment he had received before. Therefore, several factors contributed to the killing of the entire family.

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Works Cited Desmond, John "A good Man is Hard to Find" Renascence. Winter2004, Vol. 56 Issue 2, p129137. http://web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=0&sid=568b3921-f13e-4c38806c-d908a10ec715%40sdc-v sessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d %3d#AN=11859777&db=asn.

Kirk, Connie Ann. Critical Companion to Flannery O'Connor. United States, Facts on File, Incorporated, 2008.

Murray, Lorraine. The Abbess of Andalusia: Flannery O'Connor's Spiritual Journey. United States, Saint Benedict Press, LLC, 2009.

Scott, R N, and Irwin H. Streight. Flannery O'Connor: The Contemporary Reviews. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Whitt, Margaret Earley, et al. A Political Companion to Flannery O'Connor. United States, University Press of Kentucky, 2017.