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.
In the beginning of the story, the grandmother was a selfish and manipulative person. By reading the first few sentences, you can notice that she does not want to go Florida because she wants to go to Tennessee to see some relatives. Whenever something runs up against the grandmother’s will, she tries to get it her way. She does not say I want to go to Tennessee, but she try to scarves him with the report of a criminal on the loose who is heading to Florida. She said, “Just you read it.
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.
In the beginning, Atticus is being assertive towards his sister, Alexandra. He says to her, “ Alexandra, Calpurnia's not leaving this house until she wants to” ( Lee 182 ). This shows that even the predigest ways of his own family members will not change his mind about the black community, and he isn't afraid to speak up and defend them. Next, Scout listens to her father be steadfast, and tell her his opinion on the racist ways of the people around them. He tells her that “ white men cheat black men everyday of your life...whenever a white man does that...no matter who he is, that white man is trash” ( Lee 233 ).
Both Source N and O agree with the fact that More lacked compassion for others and was cruel, although they both rely more on opinion rather than hard facts. However P disagrees and states that he was a little bit compassionate and focuses more on the evidence to back it up. Source N agrees with the view that More was a cruel man with little compassion. It states that More was ‘personally responsible’ for burning several people and more things similar to torture. However, it also says that torture and imprisonment was common in that time period and it is true.
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. (Wynne) From the very beginning of the story the grandmother uses a newspaper article about a recent escapee to try to deter the family from driving down to Florida because she would rather go to Tennessee. She warns them that the Misfit is on the loose and if they ran into him it would be trouble. This is ironic because the Misfit is exactly who they ran into on their trip, she was dramatically warning the family of the worst situation possible, and ironically the worst situation possible is exactly what they got. Not all the irony in the story was dark.
Hangcheng Zhou Instructor Fox Writing 102 Section 38 27 Feb.2012 No Absolute Barrier between Good and Evil in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, written by Flannery O’Connor, is an example of Southern Gothic fiction that uses a series of ironic events set in the American South to explore certain values. The author creates two seemingly opposite characters, the grandmother and the Misfit to show her opinions about what is good and evil. The grandmother regards herself as a graceful and devout lady, but actually she is so self-obsessed and shallow that her behavior leads to her entire family’s death. By contrast, the Misfit is an obvious villain who never pretends to be a good man and, quite ironically, he may be the only one in this story who has deep thoughts about life. Through the development of the story, readers may draw the conclusion that there is no straightforward answer to what is good and evil in the world.
The grandmother frequently criticizes others on their behavior, such as when she complains about vacationing in Florida where the escaped convict could be and how it would weigh heavily on her conscience. She criticizes the children’s mother, accusing her of not wanting to travel to a place that would allow her children to “be broad” (261). She criticizes the children for not being respectful of their native state Georgia. She never criticizes herself, not even when she realizes that the house with the secret panel she had been thinking of (and the whole cause of the detour) was not in Georgia but actually Tennessee. In her final moments,
The grandmother wanted to go and see her friends in Tennessee instead of Florida, which is where the family wanted to go. The Grandmother lied and said that the Misfit would be in Florida instead of Tennessee. She did this so Baily, her son, would change his mind about where the family would go for the trip. Throughout the story, the Grandmother is very noisy. She is very concerned with small ideas.
In other words he is the only one that sticks to what he says. On the contrary, he is the opposite of what a "good" person is suppose to be. The misfit I feel has good intentions but doesn't know how to work those good intentions. He is physiologically unstable though, he will never have the normal functions that we use. The misfit is peculiar because of the way he acts towards children.