Literary Analysis of A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery OConnor

Table of Contents

Selfishness
Individualism
Grace
Prejudice and Racism
Works Cited

Bailey and his wife, together with the three kids and their grandmother, decided to visit Florida. During this time, The Misfit had escaped from prison and was on the run. Along the way, the grandmother recognizes a childhood plantation, and she yearns to visit it (Flannery 2). She convinces Bailey, her son, to stop so that she can take a view. She was not sure whether it was the actual place or she had confused, and during the time of pointing the direction for Bailey to follow, her cat slips, and it lands on the shoulders of Bailey, leading to an accident, but there were no fatalities. As they wait for help, they encounter The Misfit, who decides to kill the whole family.

Selfishness

Every action the grandmother takes deviates from the interest of the family. She is more focused on her appearance as she spends more time on fancy dresses and hats. She is also heard saying that she will dress well so that if an accident occurs by chance, people will know she was a lady at some point (Flannery 5). She is also deceitful as she deceives her son Bailey into accepting that she brings her cat, which later became the cause of the accident (Zhao). She deceives her son to take her see the old plantation, which took longer than twenty minutes as she previously claimed (7). To deceive the family more, she tells them the old plantation house had silvers luring them into a dangerous direction. Every act the grandmother takes portrays a clear image of selfishness, including lying to her family about the distance to the plantation.

Individualism

Being the main character, the grandmother is more concerned with the spiritual purpose of human beings without understanding the undermining factor. The grandmother asks The Misfit to embrace spirituality while The Misfit focuses on his bad manners of dressing improperly (Rea 169). They both neglect the well-being of the surrounding, which in this case is the family. John Wesley and June Star, children to Bailey, are incited by their grandmother as she argued that visiting the old plantation was to be educational even if the aspect of egocentrism was clear. Even after the accident, the grandmother does not bother to inquire about the condition of the family. Instead, she proceeds to claim that she had injured an organ, of which no one answered since they had started noticing her individualism.

Grace

The grandmother and The Misfit portray the two sides of grace. The grandmother is seen to self-proclaim herself as the righteous person and commands The Misfit to seek salvation. The grandmother cannot effectively utter a prayer as her fear starts to grow of what is to happen next (Rea 202). Despite calling herself righteous, she suffers from moral weakness since she lies to her family and lures them to unnecessary danger due to her selfishness. On the other hand, The Misfit is a known murderer who yarns to kill the whole family without a solid reason. OConnor uses these two characters to undress the morally decayed society that hides behind religion.

Prejudice and Racism

The grandmother argues that only good people have the ability to share the good character. She is seen reacting to a naked African-American child and keeps on insisting that the kid would make an impressive picture. Being the oldest, the grandmother was supposed to show the kids several ways to appreciate nature (Flannery 8). However, her remarks made the grandchildren lose interest in her since they were seen exchanging comic books as their grandmother was yelling through the window whenever she saw an odd am amusing scenario (Zhao). Self-righteousness is another fundamental weakness of the grandmother as she can be seen telling the restaurant owner, Red Sammy, that the problem witnessed currently in the US can be traced back to Europe because they acted a suggestive way, indicating they had much money.