Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" starts as an innocent family who wants to go on a vacation to Florida. The grandmother does not want to go and chastises them about "The Misfit" and how they should not let their children go near the murderer. They do not listen to grandma and go on with the vacation. As they travel, the grandmother criticizes how people act today and tells them about the "good ole days"." She mentions a dirt road with a house and a secret panel with treasure that interested the kids. As they travel down the dirt road, the grandmother remembers it is the wrong one and makes a ruckus that involves a car accident. Everyone is ok, but they come across "The Misfit." One by one, they take the family into the woods to kill them, leaving the grandmother last, letting her talk continuously about Jesus and how he has good blood. "The Misfit" does not want to listen and kills the grandmother anyways. To analyze the story, I want to focus on the grandmother's past stories, her Grace, and the misuse of "good"" in people.
On the ride to the vacation destination, grandmother talks nonstop about the past as she travels through memory lane towards Florida. It starts with the young boy, John Wesley asking to travel through Georgia fast to "not look at it much" " (428). That started grandma off, "In my time, children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else"" (428). The grandmother seems very critical for someone who seeks attention with stories from her past. She tells the kids to respect her elders, but at the beginning of the story, she tells her son, Bobby, and daughter-in-law that they are not doing what is right for their children by bringing them towards "The Misfit." She also, in a way, whines that she wants to go visit her friends somewhere else. The family gives her the choice to stay home since she does not want to go so badly, but she insists on coming because she does not want to miss a thing.
