Good Man Are Hard To Find Essay, Research Paper

The story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, is story that tells us how the society is worsening. After I read the story and from the lecture I heard, I kind of had a feeling that the author O’Connor was trying to describe the outcome of the false christian when they encounters the bad situation. When the grandmother encounters with the Misfit, we begin to see just whether the grandmother had faithful christian or not.

In the story, there are many symbols and foreshadowing used by O’Connor to show the characterization of the grandmother and the outcome of the story. It begins with the dress she wears to the trip. Although the grandmother did not want to go to Florida, she ironically dresses in her Sunday best. She was dressed in “A navy blue straw sailor hat… with a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print”. A strong foreshadowing imagery can be read into these lines. Knowing the definite ending of the story, the grandmother’s complicated dress symbolizes a preparation for her coffin. When a person dies, they usually are dressed in their best outfit, just like the grandmother was dressed in what seemed to be her Sunday best. A stronger

foreshadowing is when O’Connor states the reason for the grandmother’s very clean

dress, “in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at

once that she was a lady.” She herself predicts her own death. Unfortunately, she

doesn’t know this yet. It is interesting that in the grandmother’s mind wearing her best

clothes prevent any misgivings about her status as a lady if she was to die. It seems

that the grandmother was prepared for death, her behavior when she encounters the

Misfit shows herself to be the least prepared for death.

Another strong forshadowing image is when the family “passed by a cotton

field with five or six graves fenced in the middle of it, like a small island”. The number

of graves matches the exact number of people in the car. There are 5 people and a

baby. Since a baby is not exactly a full complete person, the number of graves being

“five or six” is appropriate. Furthermore, this particular foreshadowing image leads

directly into the next one. When John asked what the plantation was, grandmother said

“Gone With the Wind”. The grandmother’s reference to the plantation as “gone with the

wind” can be seen as an image symbolizing the family’s death and their souls are

“gone with the wind” as well upon death.

Through out the story, there were many more image symbolizing the death of

the family. For example, the name of the town where the Misfit kills them is

“Toombsboro.” If you divide the word Toombsboro into two words, it sounds very

similar to Tombs and Bury. Another quite interesting imagery is when the grandmother

asks the Misfit, “What did you do to get sent to the penitentiary that first time?” His

answer further foreshadows the death of the family. He says, “‘Turn to the right, it

was a wall, looking up again at the cloudless sky. Turn to the left, it was a wall. Look

up it was a ceiling, look down it was a floor” This description, although used for a jail

cell, it could also apply to a tight grave. Wherever a soul looks, they will see a wall,

indicating where the grandmother will be once the Misfit is finished with them.

The outcome of the story was that all the grandmother’s beauty, nice dress,

and her social standards that determine her idea of goodness became useless in front of

The Misfit. At this urgent moment, all the grandmother’s actions were everything that

would save her life. I think both the grandmother and The Misfit do not understand the

meaning of life. The grandmother believes that she is a good man because she says she

believes Jesus even though she has no faith in Him. All her faith is just talking, and

she never experiences it. She does not know what she is saying. Although she is not

very bad, she would change her character at once if she encounters a situation that she

couldn’t handle it. She will do everything that may change the mind of The Misfit so

that he will not kill her.

After I read the story, I kept wondering why the title of the story was “A

Good Man is Hard to find”. The story does not tell the reader exactly what a “Good

Man” would be. I believe everybody had good and bad inside. Also everybody has his

or her own interpretations of “Good Man”, therefore, nobody can say if a person is a

good man because some might think that person is bad. Most people think that a

person is good if he is nice, good-looking, and polite. What we have to know is that

whether that person is reflecting with love or just acting. People do not look at what is

inside the heart, and how he treats people. They judge a person by the first impressions

as the grandmother does.