The story, written by Flannery O’Connor, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” comes from a third person who is focused on grandmother. From the point of view, this story is written by O’Connor in the style of fiction, which shows a fictional story, where she writes: «My subject in fiction is the action of grace in a territory held largely by the devil” (Exploring Literature, 1145). Also, the Exploring Literature book by Frank Madden in the detailed content states that this story is related to the title of “Faith and Doubt” under the heading “Fiction” (Exploring Literature, xxiv).
The story is described on the southeast side of America (Florida, Tennessee).
The heading tells the story of a middle-class Atlanta family killed by a criminal known as the Misfit, en route to Florida. In the history, much attention is paid to the commonplace details of family existence: to quarreling children, an irritable father, a soft mother and a manipulative grandmother, whose unreliable memories lead to the last disaster. O’Connor believes that under the ordinary surfaces of modern life is a real and terrible evil that can invade without warning.
Her view of the modern world is gloomy. Her characters in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” comprehends a terrible fate.
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In his story, O’Connor describes the area where our heroes visit: “She said she thought it was going to be a good day for driving, neither too hot nor too cold” (1146). “She pointed out interesting details of the scenery: Stone Mountain; the blue granite that in some places came up to both sides of the highway; the brilliant red clay banks slightly streaked with purple; and the various crops that made rows of green lace-work on the ground. The trees were full of silver-white sunlight and the meanest of them sparkled” (1146). “They stopped at The Tower for barbecued sandwiches. The Tower was a part stucco and part wood filling station and dance hall set in a clearing outside of Timothy” (1147). “The road looked as if no one had traveled on it in months” (1150).
“A Good Man Is Hard to Find” [1955] shows O’Connor’s Christian vision. The story of O’Connor usually opposes forces to each other: a spiritual world focused on the relationship between man and God, with an emphasis on sin and salvation.
Its main characters have well-established ideas about themselves, about human nature and the world. They are trying to streamline their lives following their views of the world. In my opinion, the course of action in the story moves to the moment when the main characters recognize the falsity of their views.
This short story usually has the tone of Catholicism associated with scenarios of life and death. Often the catalyst of this recognition is another character, such as the Misfit in “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” whose opinion is a clash with the main character (grandmother) serving as a foil for her. The villain declares: “She would have been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (1155).
There are very few differences between the character of the grandmother and the character of the Misfit, except for their social viability. Both remain selfish and extreme individualists who will lie, steal, manipulate, and kill to influence their own goals. In the hands of Flannery O’Connor, this egoism and individualism collide at the point of disaster and lead to the death of five innocent people.
