The grandmother reads in the newspaper about a convicted killer, The Misfit, who has escaped from the Federal Pen, and is headed towards Florida. She seizes her opportunity, and points out to Bailey of the breaking news. Her son is easily persuaded by his mother and plans are changed to have the family vacation in east Tennessee. There are times when we opt to be deceitful to others in hopes of protecting a self-image that has been created by our own lies; as a result, we only cause excruciating pain or harm to those who surround us. Unfortunately, the grandmother is not able to see the damage that she causes by her character.
She manipulates her son by giving him a newspaper and Grandmother says, “’The Misfit is a loose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people’” (O’Conner 420). The family was set on going to Florida, but Grandma wanted to go to Tennessee to see friends. O’Conner stated, “The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind” (420). The grandmother wanted to go and see her friends in Tennessee instead of Florida, which is where the family wanted to go.
The story begins with the grandmother trying to persuade the family not to travel towards Florida but perhaps go to Tennessee instead. This is based on the grounds that "The Misfit", an escaped criminal is on the loose somewhere in Florida. The ironic part of this is that the grandmother is the only family member to conjure up, bad things happening to the family. She bases this solely on the fact that they were traveling in the same direction as “The Misfit”. This negative thinking quite possibly could have led to the ultimate rendezvous between the convict and the family.
A Good Man is Hard to Find In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, what seems to be a pleasant tale of a good family on vacation takes an evil turn. This short story by Flannery O’Connor explores the nature of good and evil in man. The theme of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is forgiveness despite the good or evil nature of man. O’Connor asks the questions “What makes a ‘good’ man?” and “Does an evil man deserve forgiveness?” Through development of unique characters, O’Connor seeks to answer these questions. The grandmother has a very specific idea of what makes a quality person, but her son is a grumpy bland man and her grandchildren are spoiled brats it seems.
She thought that maybe if she looked like a good Christian, The Misfit would have mercy on her. The story opens with a family getting ready for a vacation, family which dad, Bailey, is the leader, given what he says goes. A grandmother, knowing her place is insignificant uses manipulation on the younger children and her own beliefs about what is right or wrong to get what she
No pleasure but meanness.” He was an extremist—a black or white thinker. If he had believed that Jesus had raised the dead he would have been good only out of compunction and not from a sincere heart. At one point he had been a Christian but apparently lost his faith. However, he ended up fulfilling his father’s prophecy that he was not good like his siblings were but was instead predisposed to getting into trouble. Perhaps this is why he killed his father.
Irony in A Good Man is Hard to Find The short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” written by Flannery O'Connor, is an excellent example of literature with irony because there are so many small different ironic twists to it. Almost every aspect of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is ironic. These ironies reveal the irony of the south in general, the irony of loving yourself and the idea of your upbringing so much that you put others down. Flannery O'Connor uses a lot of irony and religious references and aspects in her writing. O'Connor's irony can be seen as sacramental, not because it works with the stuff of religious belief and non-belief, which it does, but because it itself operates as a vehicle of revelation.
Even though he was probably in some state of depression from not receiving a lot of appreciation for being in the war, Krebs was going against his Christian morals by lying all the time to make him seem more important and like someone he was not. Also in the passage, his mother asks him if he loves her, and he responds by saying, “No.” (Hemmingway 191) Seeing his mom crying, he changes his mind and begs his mother to believe that he loves her. Krebs had not wanted to get a job and did not want to make an effort to get a job, but after hurting his mother, when his mother asked him to go get a job, Harold changes his ways and goes and gets a job in Kansas
Elie Wiesel: His Journey of Faith What are people without faith? Some find it a necessity, unable to function without it. Others find it pointless, untrusting God’s of will. This question is answered in Elie Wiesel’s memoir, Night, with his journey of faith throughout the Holocaust. Elie struggles to find trust in God, for he feels his God has abandoned him, allowing his people to live in such pain.
The grandmother and the Misfit of “A Good Man is Hard to Find” are different because the grandmother does not think it is too late to pray to God but the Misfit does not want to think about God because the life he lives. The Misfit is also someone who will not only kill you physically with the crimes he commit but also verbally by the remarks he makes, “Nome, I ain't a