What Does a Good Man Even Mean?

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“WHAT DOES A GOOD MAN EVEN MEAN?” In “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the grandmother uses the word “good” in all directions. She first utilizes it to Red Sammy, the man who runs The Tower, after he madly complains about how untrusting people are. He asks her why he let two strangers charge their gasoline and didn’t pay for it. She says to him “Because you’re a good man” (186). In this case, her definition of “good” seems to include unawareness and bad judgement, none of which are “good”. The grandmother then utilizes the word “good” to the Misfit. After she and her family get into a car accident, the Misfit and two other men approach them in a ditch. She recognizes him from the newspaper. She asks him whether he’d shoot a lady. He never actually says he would or wouldn’t, he just says “I would hate to have to” (190). The grandmother considers being a lady moral and the Misfit’s answer proves that he doesn’t have the same morals as she does. She fiercely calls him a “good” man, hoping he wouldn’t deny it. Her use of “good” is bias since she states he is not common. In the end, the grandmother’s classification of “good man” states that “good” doesn’t imply “moral” or “courteous”. For her, a man is a “good man” if his values are coordinated with her own. Red Sammy is “good” because he trusts people at random and greatly remembers more innocent times with which the grandmother also remembers. The Misfit is “good” because she believes he wouldn’t shoot a lady. She realizes her expectation proves to be not true because the one thing “good” about the Misfit is his theory in living out his moral code of
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