The family has no real connection or love up until they come across the Misfit and his gang of murderers. When the Grandmother says at the end, "You're one of my children," she makes the first connection in the story (O’Connery 152). In O’Connor’s stories all are sinners, but she believes that they can all be saved even the worst of them. Most stories by O’Connor have religion and in “a good man is hard to find” she utilizes someone’s “last words” to show that even in the end religion is still there. In the story “a good man is hard to find” the author uses the theme as well as the setting to show some aspects of religion in her
The Misfit rambles on almost in a trance or dreamlike state about how he had not committed the crime that caused him to be locked up in jail. The grandmother trying to connect with the upset man approaches him one last time in a nurturing way, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” (272). She does not mean this in a literal sense but in a religious way that the two of them have something in common- hoping he will realize this and grant her free. She reaches out to touch him on his shoulder and it is during this moment when he gets spooked and shoots her in the chest killing the woman.
When Lil Bit first began being taken advantage of she didn’t know what was happening and that it wasn’t ok. She didn’t have someone like Sister A. there to tell her that she needed to be protected. Similar to the way that Father Flynn is presented as a overall good guy, Vogel attempted to create Uncle Peck as a very flawed human being, using pathos in order to try to make the reader connect with him. However its not that simple to make the audience connect with a pedophile. Lil Bit has a monologue where she pities her uncle and wonders what happened to him to make
After being in an accident, the family sets along a ditch, shaken up from the wreck when The Misfit and his accomplices arrive offering assistance. The grandmother tells The Misfit that she knows he is a good man, and comes from nice people. She loses all her moral value by trying to persuade The Misfit to spare her life even after he orders Bobby Lee and Hiram to take her family’s lives. The grandmother does not stand her ground towards the escaped inmate by offering him all the money she has on her, and by saying “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?” Even when she states that Jesus may have not raised the dead. The grandmother is obviously Christian and begins to pray when she learns that The Misfit may take her life.
O’Conner creates a crazy grandmother who unfortunately causes the bad situation. O’Conner creates a sick and dark character in “The Misfit”. “The Misfit” seems to be mentally ill seeing as everything he say contradicts his self. He is respectful however O’Conner’s readers never know if it is sarcastic or not. The grandmother tries to bring out the good in “The Misfit” to save her own life but it never comes.
In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother is the main character. She is a snobby old woman who only has faith is these words, “I’m a lady” (pg. 507). In her last moments of breath, she tries to plead with her murderer, the Misfit, by adding prayer and Jesus into the picture when she knows that Jesus and prayer are not the faith she is using to save her life when she says to the Misfit,
A Good Man is Hard to Find Analysis In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," O'Connor exposes a happy-seeming family to unexpected and graphic horror. The family sets out with the intent to enjoy a vacation, but ends up being blindsided by fate. This is similar to O'Connor's own life story, with her unexpectedly losing a parent at a young age. The story's protagonist is a woman that is obsessed with the past, and it would be easy to understand how a woman who lost her father at the age of fifteen not being able to fully recover from the trauma. However, O'Connor didn't intend to represent herself through the Grandmother, since the old woman displays many negative character traits such as arrogance and stupidity.
There must be some element or another that caused their different children’s responses. The question is: What did Ruth do differently than her father to be more loved and more respected by her children than her father was by his. The difference between Ruth and her Father is that Ruth had an innately greater purpose within her strictness that her Father lacked. Both Ruth and her Father physically abused their kids, but their purposes were different. In Chapter 6 Ruth beats up her son Billy for his inability to recite a passage in the Bible on Easter in front of the church.
After taking all the actions from the grandmother and the Misfit into consideration, readers view that the grandmother naturally obtained grace and has given grace to the Misfit. As the grandmother continues to talk to the Misfit, she doesn’t realize how selfish and self-centered she is, all she wants to do was to save herself from danger. Throughout the whole story, there has been details about the cruelty and selfishness of the grandmother. She is a manipulator, she uses indirect actions to get satisfaction for herself. There's a part at the beginning of the story where the grandmother uses the kids to convince her son to turn back and go visit the old house she mentioned.
Johnny wants his family to accept him, he want to be loved by his parent. He has never gotten that love because his mother didn’t love him and his father was a drunken alcoholic, who abused him. He seeks acceptance from the gang, and although stabbing Bob, which is completely out of character, as Ponyboy says “Johnny is the quite one”. (chp.1). He does it to protect Pony and so the gang would love him more and let him be a part of it.