A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Name : Akromu Wajihan

Class : IVA Indralaya
Mk : Literature
Verbal Response
1. Engaging
from this story, we can conclude that every mankind has different views and attitudes in responding to
or exploring the path that they think is right. I think for the cases that occur in this story, namely
murder, there is no doubt that it is a crime for whatever reason, because crime is still crime.
but maybe other people have different opinions and views. Which is the message can be taken from
the story, maybe it's that this misfit, this murdering man... He has his own internal logic, and we have
to notice that he's not killing out of thirst for blood, exactly. He's actually trying to have happiness in
his own twisted way. He has his own view of life and he came to that view of life as a person in
prison. He felt that he had been imprisoned unjustly, and that the police had trumped up some false
charges. And maybe it raises the question about: Do we truly have justice in our legal system? Do we
sometimes make mistakes? Do our laws always get administered fairly? Do the punishments get
administered fairly? And do some people go into prison, a better people than they come out?

2. Describing
"A Good Man Is Hard to Find" is an early work in the O'Connor canon, it contains many of the
elements which come to characterize the majority of her short works of fiction. Most of her stories
contain an individual who has a strong feeling of self-confidence or feels that he has lived in such a
way that his conduct cannot be questioned. As did the Greek tragedians, O'Connor appears to look
upon these characters as being in a state of hubris (a condition characterized by overbearing pride and
a sense of being beyond the rule of fate) and sees them as being ripe for catastrophe. Thus, in story
after story, these individuals are brought to a crisis point in their lives, and they see their self-
confidence destroyed by events, or else they experience a moment of grace which causes them to
reevaluate their past lives and to see the world in a new and spiritual light. In like manner, many of
the stories end in violence because O'Connor felt that it frequently took violence to awaken the self-
satisfied individual to the shortcomings of life.
3. Conceiving
Now why is Flannery Conner showing us a family that is so unlikeable, and then a rather complex sort
of murderer character who is simply labled "the misfit?" In fact, the misfit is the only one who's
actually sort of thoughtful in his one weird way. It's sort of a scary mindset that he has. He says
something like, "The only pleasure there is in meanness and being mean." he has thought about life
and has come to the conclusion that there's no point in it, but nobody else has thought much about it at
all, you know.

so why are we shown these characters? This story tends to present our cultural called the darkness of
human nature, and to point out that people can be on the wrong path even if they seem to be on the
right path. So, while at first we want to judge this murderer as being totally on the wrong path, we
actually end up finding out that this grandmother who considers herself so high and mighty is on the
wrong path too. And actually their all on the wrong path. So perhaps the whole story is a bit of a
warning and a bit of a scolding to all of us who could be shallow and judgemental, as well as those
who might be outright criminal, that really all of us are in the same boat, and that we can't judge too
harshly because we're all flawed. So that might be one thing to take away from the story.
4. Explaining
This is a story about a family who is planning a road trip from Georgia to Florida. The grandmother,
an old, talkative woman, really wants to go to Tennessee, but her son, Bailey, insists on Florida.
Despite the grandmother's warnings of an escaped prisoner, The Misfit, Bailey, the grandmother,
Bailey's wife, and three children, John Wesley, June Star, and a new born, pack up and head out to
Florida. As they are travelling, the grandmother mentions a nearby old house with treasure in it, which
entices the family to investigate it and leave the road. However, when the grandmother realizes that
the house she is thinking of is in Tennessee and not Georgia, she gets startled, causing Bailey to lose
control of the car. The car tumbles off the back road and into a little ditch, but no one is hurt.
As they assess the damage to the car, the family is approached by another car with three
men. The men seem friendly, but are all carrying guns. Quickly, the grandmother recognizes one of
the men as The Misfit. The Misfit instructs his two partners to take Bailey and John Wesley in the
nearby woods and shoot them. Then he instructs them to take Bailey's wife with the newborn and June
Star in the woods and shoot them as well. Meanwhile, the grandmother tells The Misfit that he's too
good of a man to shoot an old lady. In the end, The Misfit shoots the grandmother. Through The
Misfit, we see a person who has been worked by the prison system. His mind is murky and his
thoughts, while interesting, leave the grandmother and readers questioning themselves about religious
and philosophical ideals. But more importantly, the system has affected The Misfit to the point where
he doesn't truly remember why he was incarcerated. Maybe time isn't the only thing that prisoners
lose. Maybe to be truly institutionalized means that one experiences change, yet fails to
understand why. One of the lingering questions at the end of the story is whether The Misfit is
literally the grandmother's son or not.

5. Connecting
I kinda like this story, it sheds how cruel human can be. we might think of this misfit as what might
be called a sacrificial figure who is doomed to be the sinner so that everyone else can pretend that
they're not sinning. we're a scapegoat of a sort. If we can put all the evil there where we can see it
plainly, then we don't have to examine ourselves, where evil might be a little harder to see, and we
might be less likely to want to admit it. we become the dark person who must be sacrificed so that
everyone else can feel okay.
6. Interpreting
Shantz Grace and spiritual blindness are the profound themes to be gleaned from a family's
nightmarish road trip that is Flannery O'Connor short story a good man.

The author could have presented this scenario as more symbolic, but there are clues in the story that
support this notion. Although not sure, The Misfit thinks that he was put in prison because he
murdered his father, which does coincide with the absence of the grandmother's husband. At the end
of the story, the grandmother also refers to The Misfit as her son.

7. Judging
This is a disturbing short story because nobody's really a hero. There's
no one to root for; everybody's bad. We feel a little bit for the grandmother because we see the story
mostly through her eyes, but actually we don't like her much either because she's a bit of a loudmouth,
she's quite judgemental, and she's pretty superficial. She wants just her being a lady to prevent the
misfit from killing her, and she thinks that somehow he'll spare her just because she's a lady, when she
should be pleading for the lives of her other family members, including her son.

So there's nobody to really root for, and that makes me think that Flannery O'Conner
is presenting us with a bit of a puzzle, a moral puzzle: Who is right in this story? Is anyone right? If
no is right, then where is rightness? Is it right that they all die? You know, is the misfit right about the
grandmother when he says somebody should have shot her every day of her life. He's obviously
disgusted with her, and tired of her mouthing off and just talking a lot.

Visual Response
https://youtu.be/oLQIyQor6-A