“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” Lecture
Notes
SUMMARY
Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” (1953) is a Southern Gothic tale centered around a family road trip that ends in sudden and violent tragedy. The narrative follows a grandmother traveling with her son Bailey, his wife, and their three children on a vacation to Florida. The grandmother, a self-righteous and manipulative woman, tries to redirect the trip toward Tennessee, and uses various tactics, including fabricated nostalgia and fear of a criminal known as “The Misfit,” to influence the family.
After a detour prompted by the grandmother’s faulty memory, the family ends up stranded on a remote dirt road. They are soon approached by The Misfit and his gang. One by one, the family members are taken into the woods and murdered. In the climactic final moments, the grandmother, facing death, attempts to appeal to The Misfit’s sense of morality and shared humanity, calling him “one of my own children.” The Misfit kills her anyway, and the story ends with his reflection that the grandmother “would have been a good woman… if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.”
1. Themes
• Grace and Redemption: The story explores Christian ideas of grace, particularly in the grandmother’s final moment of recognition and compassion. Her attempt to connect with The Misfit is interpreted by some critics as a moment of divine grace—an unearned, sincere gesture that briefly elevates her beyond her prior self-centeredness.
• Goodness and Moral Hypocrisy: O’Connor critiques superficial notions of morality. The grandmother constantly refers to people as “good” based on class, appearance, or manners, yet shows little genuine moral integrity herself. Her version of “goodness” is contrasted sharply with The Misfit, a murderer who is paradoxically more introspective about the nature of morality and justice.
• Violence and the Grotesque: A hallmark of Southern Gothic literature, O’Connor uses grotesque violence not for shock alone but as a tool to confront characters with existential truths. The abrupt violence of the ending forces both characters and readers to reckon with questions about evil, faith, and redemption.
• Faith and Doubt: The Misfit represents a kind of tragic philosopher who struggles with religious belief. He is tortured by the question of whether Christ truly rose from the dead, acknowledging that if Christ did, then one must devote their life to Him; if not, then life is meaningless. This tension encapsulates one of O’Connor’s central concerns—the difficulty and necessity of belief in a fallen world.
2. Characterization
• The Grandmother: Initially depicted as self-serving and manipulative, the grandmother represents an outdated and performative Southern gentility. Her journey throughout the story culminates in a moment of possible transformation—her final gesture suggests a fleeting but genuine moment of selflessness.
• The Misfit: A complex antagonist, The Misfit is articulate, philosophical, and deeply disturbed. His reflections on life and punishment add depth to his character, turning him into more than just a villain. He is a foil to the grandmother, exposing her hypocrisies and prompting her ultimate moment of grace.
QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER
• Is the grandmother’s final act one of genuine grace, or is it another manipulative tactic? How can we tell?
• How does O’Connor use setting and regional dialect to establish tone and character?
• What does The Misfit mean when he says the grandmother “would have been a good woman… if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life”?
• How does the story reflect O’Connor’s Catholic worldview?