Julian Hovind
Prof Amy Snider
English 100, Essay #2
March 7, 2008
The Hypocrite Grandmother: “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor
In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, a grandmother’s perfect world is turned upside down by the events of a family trip. Everything the grandmother does show what kind of person she is and leads to her death. The grandmother contradicts everything she says about being a good person because she is stuck in her memories; she believes she knows best, and she is a stubborn catholic.
During the family trip to Florida, she reminisces about her youth and how good it was. The memories the grandmother experiences during the trip are not completely correct and have a lot of wrong details. The first big mistake she makes is getting the family to look for a house she remembers, except it is in a different state. This leads the family down a path they will never return from. After a bit of a scare, her memory gets back in order and her starts remembering flawlessly. She remembers the Misfit’s face, which seals the family’s fate. Her memories lead the family directly to the Misfit and get her and the family killed for it.
The grandmother and her family died because she is too proud to admit she is wrong. She felt it is necessary to always be right and so she tried to control the world around her. Every trip the family took the grandmother would write down how many miles they traveled and she always wore a flower, so that if something happened, they would know she is a woman by the violet she is wearing. These are just a few of the examples from the text that prove she likes to control her reality. Control is even extended to June Starr, her granddaughter. A story about a rich gentleman from the south is told to June to bring her amusement and to convince her of the type of man she should marry. She completely disagreed with her grandmother’s choice in men. Later on in the family’s journey, they run into a man called the Misfit. The Misfit is the man who completely turned the grandmother’s perfect world upside down. During her conversation with the Misfit, she tries to reinsert control by convincing herself and the Misfit that he is a good man that has no common blood in him. He disagrees and shoots her.
Just before the grandmother is shot by the Misfit, she has an epiphany. She completely and selflessly forgives the Misfit for his crimes, which shows that she is a strong catholic and that she follows Jesus’ teachings. She believes that salvation comes from prayer and that if you ask Jesus for help he will help you. The Misfit does not accept God, so the grandmother tries to push her beliefs on him to save his soul and tells him many times that he should pray to Jesus for help. Soon after the grandmother has her epiphany, and is shot by the Misfit. The grandmother has such strong catholic beliefs because she is a southern woman and grew up in a family that believed Jesus was the saviour.
Although the grandmother is a strong catholic, she is not saved and she is far from perfect. She is stuck in her memories most of the time which leads the family straight to the Misfit and their deaths. The grandmother is old so she believes she knows best and tries to control the world around her. She wears a flower to make sure she will be identified as a woman if something happens to her. Finally, she is a stubborn catholic. She proves this by pushing prayer on the Misfit throughout their whole conversation and trying to make him believe that he will receive salvation through his prayers. When her world was turned upside down by the psychotic killer known as the Misfit, she had no place to turn but to Jesus for help. At this point not even Jesus could save her.