A Good Man is Hard to Find

“The grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” 

This is a strong example of foreshadowing; the grandmother has worn her best clothes and hat so that if an accident happens, people will know she is a good woman of quality. Later, she is lying dead in a ditch by the side of the road, still in her fine clothes, although they are torn, and her hat is ruined. This quote also emphasizes the grandmother’s preoccupation with appearances, which is a strong theme in the story.

“‘In my time,’ said the grandmother, folding her thin veined fingers, ‘children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then. Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!’ she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack. ‘Wouldn’t that make a picture now?’”

This quote illustrates the difference between the grandmother’s beliefs and her actions, as well as demonstrating her connection to the past. She waxes nostalgic about the past, when people had better manners and were respectful. However, in the next breath, she uses a racist slur to describe a Black boy outside the window and dehumanizes his struggle by saying she would like to paint him in a picture. 

“They passed a large cotton field with five or six graves fenced in the middle of it, like a small island. ‘Look at the graveyard!’ the grandmother said, pointing it out. ‘That was the old family burying ground. That belonged to the plantation.’

‘Where's the plantation?’ John Wesley asked.

‘Gone With the Wind,’ said the Grandmother. ‘Ha. Ha.’” 

This quote contains another example of foreshadowing, as the family of six pass a graveyard with six headstones, indicating their future deaths. Furthermore, the grandmother explains to the children that the plantations she remembers so fondly no longer exist. 

“‘It isn’t a soul in this green world of God’s that you can trust,’ she said. ‘And I don’t count nobody out of that, not nobody,’ she repeated, looking at Red Sammy.”

When the family stops for lunch, the grandmother speaks with Red Sammy, the owner of the establishment, and his wife about how times are changing and about the moral decay of society. They repeat several times that no one can be trusted. However, in this quote, the wife indicates that no one at all, even her husband, should be trusted. This comment becomes relevant when considering that, had the family not trusted the grandmother’s recollection of the plantation, then they likely would not have been killed.

“‘A good man is hard to find,’ Red Sammy said. ‘Everything is getting terrible. I remember the day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more.’” 

This is the section of the story from which Flannery O’Connor takes the title of the work. Red Sammy agrees with the grandmother and his wife that no one is trustworthy anymore. In contrast to the past, when they agree most people were good, it is hard to find a good man nowadays. This is borne out in the story, as none of the characters, including Red Sammy, can really be said to be good people.

“‘Listen,’ she said, ‘you shouldn’t call yourself The Misfit because I know you’re a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell.’”

The grandmother tries to convince The Misfit not to kill her, telling him that his name is a misnomer because he must be a good man, deep down. However, this statement fails to connect with him, and he says that he gave himself that name as he feels as though he does not fit into the world and the façade of goodness people put on.

“‘Nome, I ain't a good man,’ The Misfit said after a second as if he had considered her statement carefully, ‘but I ain't the worst in the world neither. My daddy said I was a different breed of dog from my brothers and sisters. ‘You know,’ Daddy said, ‘it's some that can live their whole life out without asking about it and it's others has to know why it is, and this boy is one of the latters. He's going to be into everything!’”

The Misfit explains a bit about his past and his family. He tells the grandmother that his father—whom he was accused of killing—told him that he was a person who always had to know why the world worked the way it did. Similarly, the Misfit tries to understand why he was incarcerated for a crime he does not remember, but he ultimately concludes that there is no reason. The world does not follow any sort of rules he can see, and he knows he will be punished anyway. This is why he chooses to live his life for the pleasure he finds in hurting people.

“The grandmother noticed how thin his shoulder blades were just behind his hat because she was standing up looking down on him. ‘Do you ever pray?’ she asked. He shook his head. All she saw was the black hat wiggle between his shoulder blades. ‘Nome,’ he said.” 

In this section, the grandmother first introduces the idea that prayer and forgiveness could save The Misfit. The way that O’Connor describes the characters’ positioning is important—the grandmother stands over the Misfit, who is kneeling. This is the image of a confessor standing over a repentant sinner. However, it soon becomes apparent that these stances do not represent the dynamic these characters will have, as The Misfit does not pray and has a powerfully reasoned argument against it.

“‘I never was a bad boy that I remember of,’ The Misfit said in an almost dreamy voice, ‘but somewheres along the line I done something wrong and got sent to the penitentiary. I was buried alive,’ and he looked up and held her attention to him by a steady stare.” 

The Misfit explains that he does not remember the crime he committed that got him sent away to prison. He later explains that the court told him that he killed his father, but he knows this to be a lie. While in the penitentiary, he was “buried alive” and left to pace and think. This is where he developed his philosophy of amorality.

“I found out the crime don’t matter. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you’re going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it.” 

The Misfit tells the grandmother what he has learned from his experience of the world: that actions do not matter. Good people are not necessarily rewarded, and bad people are not necessarily punished. In his view, everyone will be punished sooner or later, so he would rather do what he wants than spend his life trying to be—or pretending to be—good. This is likely a reference to Original Sin in the Bible, which resulted in all humans being damned regardless of their actions. The Misfit has concluded from his experiences that the latter is true, which is why he’s a bad man.

“Alone with The Misfit, the grandmother found that she had lost her voice. There was not a cloud in the sky nor any sun. There was nothing around her but woods. She wanted to tell him that he must pray. She opened and closed her mouth several times before anything came out. Finally, she found herself saying, ‘Jesus. Jesus,’ meaning, Jesus will help you, but the way she was saying it, it sounded as if she might be cursing.” 

Faced with The Misfit’s reasoning about the way he behaves, the grandmother is momentarily speechless and then tries to fall back on her suggestion that he pray for forgiveness. However, the words sound not like a plea but like a curse—further evidence of the grandmother’s fluid faith. She had called out to Jesus, but when she realizes He will not save her, she almost involuntarily reverts to a curse.

“Does it seem right to you, lady, that one is punished a heap and another ain’t punished at all?” 

The Misfit challenges the grandmother and her simplistic views on faith to reconcile the fact that, in life, some people commit sins that go unpunished while others are punished for sins they did not commit. The grandmother has no answer to this. It is also one of the examples The Misfit uses in explaining why he feels no need to be good.

“‘Jesus!’ the old lady cried. ‘You’ve got good blood! I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people! Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady. I’ll give you all the money I’ve got!’” 

The grandmother, afraid for her life, cycles through several statements to try to save her life. She argues again that The Misfit has good blood and therefore would never shoot a lady. Then, she argues that shooting a lady would not be the moral action or as Jesus would act. Finally, desperate, she offers him money. This sequence is indicative of the fact that the grandmother’s faith is fluid; she will act in her best interest, whether doing so follows a moral code or not.