“A Good Man is Hard to Find” By Flannery O’Connor

Significant Quotations “I found out the crime don’t matter. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you’re going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it.” According to the Misfit’s theory, no matter what the crime, large or small, the punishment will be the same. The idea of being punished for an unremembered crime alludes to the Christian belief in original sin. All human beings are born sinners for which they will be eternally punished; in this sense, humans “forget” their crime, but are punished nonetheless, as the Misfit suggests.

Moment of Grace The grandmother has her moment of grace when she recognizes the Misfit as one of her “own children.” For the first time, she recognizes how similar she is to the Misfit; she is acknowledging their common humanity. She realizes she is not morally superior, as she has always believed. Both of them are struggling in their own ways to come to terms with the difficult and often ambiguous tenets of the Christian faith.

Significant Quotation “She would have been a good woman,” The Misfit said, “if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.” The Misfit understands two things: Despite her obvious belief in her moral superiority (conveyed through her self-proclaimed identification as a “lady” and religious instruction) the grandmother is not a good woman. She is flawed and weak. When facing death, the grandmother has the capacity to be a good woman. *If the grandmother could have lived her life at gunpoint, so to speak, she could have gained the self-awareness and compassion that she’d lacked.

Moral Codes A moral code is a set of beliefs and behaviors that people abide by to live what they consider to be a reasonable, fulfilling life. The term moral doesn’t necessarily mean “good”; it’s simply a code of conduct. The righteousness of a person’s morals is completely subjective. At first glance, it seems the Misfit’s code is misguided, but it is actually the grandmother’s code that is flimsy and inconsistent.

The grandmother Built her moral code on the characteristics she believes make people “good.” She places great stock in being a lady- this emphasizes appearance over substance. At the same time, she repeatedly deceives her family and lacks even a basic awareness of the world around her. Despite her professed Christian faith, she is unable to pray when she finds herself in a crisis and even begins to question the power and divinity of Jesus.

The grandmother Never turns her critical eye on herself to inspect her own hypocrisy, dishonesty, and selfishness. She sneaks the cat into the car, lies to the children about the secret panel, and opts not to reveal that she made a mistake about the location of the house. When the Misfit systematically murders the family, she never once begs him to spare her children or grandchildren. She does plead for her own life because she can’t imagine the Misfit wanting to kill a lady. She seems certain he will recognize and respect her moral code, despite his criminal ways.

The Misfit Adheres to a moral code that remains consistent and strong. Believes punishment is always disproportionate to the crime and in the end the crime doesn’t even really matter. He is genuinely baffled by religion. While the grandmother accepts faith unquestioningly and weakly, he challenges religious beliefs and thinks deeply about how he should follow them or not follow them.

The Misfit He lives under the assumption that religion is pointless and adheres to his own kind of religion: “No pleasure but meanness.” His moral code is violent and never wavers-in the end, he is the one who triumphs. He demonstrates a deep conviction that the other characters lack. He seriously questions the meaning of life and his role in it. He has carefully considered his actions in life and examined his experiences to find lessons within them. Because of this, he reveals a self-awareness that the grandmother lacks. Twisted as it might be, he can rely on his moral code to guide his actions; the grandmother cannot, and in the last moments of her life, she recognizes his strength and her weakness.

Theme: What makes a “good man?” The grandmother applies the label “good” indiscriminately until it loses its meaning entirely. She applies it to Red Sammy after he has obviously been swindled- in this case, her definition of good seems to include gullibility, poor judgment, and blind faith- none of these are inherently good. She next applies it to the Misfit, desperately calling him a good man- this seems to rest entirely on her claim that he doesn’t have “common blood.” For the grandmother, a man is a “good man” if his values are aligned with her own.

Recipients of Grace Both the grandmother and the Misfit are recipients of grace despite their many flaws, sins, and weaknesses. This suggests even people like the grandmother and the Misfit have the potential to be saved by God. When the grandmother recognizes she is flawed, just like the Misfit, she has clarity, and more importantly, compassion. God has granted her grace just before she dies. The Misfit also is open to grace at this moment. Although he claimed earlier that there was “no pleasure but meanness” in life, he now denies there is any pleasure in life at all. Killing has ceased to bring him happiness, suggesting that he, too, may harbor the possibility to change.