Is it that hard to find a ‘good’ man in this world? According to Flannery O’ Connor, finding a ‘good’ man is hard to do. O’Connor writes the story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” trying to portray the difficulty in finding a ‘good’ man. No one is perfect, but knowing the difference between good and bad is usually not a hard decision. In this story, readers jumble over the title and ask themselves who’s ‘good’ and who’s ‘bad’. At first glance, or after reading the story the first time, the Misfit supposedly portrays himself as the evil character by killing the grandmother. But to me, through careful reading and consideration of new concepts, I believe the grandmother has an ‘evil’ force working through her body that directs her family to destruction and for the grandmother it ironically brings her death; and, the questionable ‘good’ man that is hard to find in O’Connor’s title is the Misfit because he kills the grandmother and the evil possession within her.

The story begins with the family discussing a road trip to Florida, but “The grandmother [is not wanting] to go to Florida… [so] she [seizes] at every chance to change Bailey’s mind. (344

Despite of the inconvenience, the grandmother jumps into the car and is ready to go. The evil grandmother brings with her a decoy, the cat, and no one in the car knows it is in there. The grandmother offers to hold the baby; maybe since she knows this might be one of the last times, and like The Grinch that Stole Christmas she stretches an evil smile across her face. While holding the baby, to the grandmother’s pleasant surprise she jumps when she says, “Look at the graveyard! … That [is] the old family burying ground. (Gwynn 347)” They just happen to pass the family’s graveyard, foreshadowing their death.

The Misfit is a man of his own evil ways, and in the end he is the only survivor leaving the reader to decide whether he is the hero or antagonist in the story. Flannery O’Connor clearly sees the Misfit as a ‘good’ man because she a ‘good’ person is an individual who knocks out evil.

The grandmother speaks of an old plantation that is nearby. No one likes the plantation idea, so the grandmother successfully convinces the children this time by mentioning a secret panel in the plantation. “We never have seen a house with a secret panel! (Gwynn 350)” June Star shrieks. Tension erupts from Bailey, “No! (350)” The grandmother causes more corruption and the children yell and scream at one another. To calm them down and convince them even more, the grandmother continues to explain the beauty of the house. The grandmother successfully gathers the majority of the votes in the car and the car turns around to head for the old plantation. The grandmother tells Bailey to take a random dirt road, but this is not the road of the plantation. This is the road the Misfit is traveling on in the near future. The grandmother needs to stop the car so she startles the cat and Bailey runs off the road. The car tumbles one time over it self and comes to a stop;

Some topics in this essay:
Misfit Gwynn, June Star, Hard Find”, Soon Misfit, Stole Christmas, Misfit John, Florida Bailey, Misfit Florida, John Wesley, O’ Connor, grandmother successfully, finding ‘good’, ‘good’ hard, 354” grandmother, family closer, 357” misfit, grandmother’s evil, secret panel, grandmother tries, evil grandmother,