Combo with "A Good Man is Hard to Find" and 4 others

Summary

The grandmother tries to convince her son, Bailey, and his wife to take the family to east Tennessee for vacation instead of Florida. She points out an article about the Misfit, an escaped convict heading toward Florida, and adds that the children have already been there. John Wesley, eight years old, suggests that the grandmother stay home, and his sister, June Star, says nastily that his grandmother would never do that. On the day of the trip, the grandmother hides her cat, Pitty Sing, in a basket in the car. She wears a dress and hat with flowers on it so that people will know she is "a lady" if there's an accident. In the car, John Wesley says he doesn't like Georgia, and the grandmother chastises him for not respecting his home state. When they pass a cotton field, she says there are graves in the middle of it that belonged to the plantation and jokes that the plantation has "Gone with the Wind." Later, she tells a story about an old suitor, Edgar Atkins Teagarden. Edgar brought her a watermelon every week, into which he carved his initials, E. A. T. Once he left it on the porch and a black child ate it because he thought it said eat. The family stops at a restaurant called the Tower, owned by Red Sammy Butts. Red Sammy complains that people are untrustworthy, explaining that he recently let two men buy gasoline on credit. The grandmother tells him he's a good man for doing it. Red Sam's wife says she doesn't trust anyone, including Red Sam. The grandmother asks her if she's heard about the Misfit, and the woman worries that he'll rob them. Red Sam says, "A good man is hard to find." He and the grandmother lament the state of the world. Back in the car, the grandmother wakes from a nap and realizes that a plantation she once visited is nearby. She says that the house had six white columns and was at the end of an oak tree-lined driveway. She lies that the house had a secret panel to make the house seem more interesting. Excited, the children beg to go to the house until Bailey angrily gives in. The grandmother points him to a dirt road. The family drives deep into the woods. The grandmother suddenly remembers that the house was in Tennessee, not in Georgia. Horrified at her mistake, she jerks her feet. Pitty Sing escapes from the basket and startles Bailey, who wrecks the car. The children's mother breaks her shoulder, but no one else is hurt. The grandmother decides not to tell Bailey about her mistake. A passing car stops, and three men get out, carrying guns. The grandmother thinks she recognizes one of them. One of the men, wearing glasses and no shirt, descends into the ditch. He tells the children's mother to make the children sit down because they make him nervous. The grandmother suddenly screams because she realizes that he's the Misfit. The man says it's not good that she recognized him. Bailey curses violently, upsetting the grandmother. The grandmother asks the Misfit whether he'd shoot a lady, and the Misfit says he wouldn't like to. The grandmother claims that she can tell he's a good man and that he comes from "nice people." The Misfit agrees and praises his parents. The grandmother continues telling him he's a good man. The Misfit tells the other two men, Hiram and Bobby Lee, to take Bailey and John Wesley into the woods. The grandmother adjusts her hat, but the brim breaks off. The Misfit says he knows he isn't good but that he isn't the worst man either. He apologizes to the grandmother and the children's mother for not wearing a shirt and says that he and the other men had to bury their clothes after they escaped. He says they borrowed the clothes they're wearing from some people they met. The grandmother asks the Misfit whether he ever prays. Just as he says no, she hears two gunshots. The Misfit says he used to be a gospel singer, and the grandmother chants, "pray, pray." He says he wasn't a bad child but that at one point he went to prison for a crime he can't remember committing. He says a psychiatrist told him he'd killed his father. The grandmother tells the Misfit to pray so that Jesus will help him. The Misfit says he's fine on his own. Bobby Lee and Hiram come back from the woods, and Bobby Lee gives the Misfit the shirt Bailey had been wearing, but the grandmother doesn't realize it's Bailey's. The Misfit tells the children's mother to take the baby and June Star and go with Bobby Lee and Hiram into the woods. Bobby Lee tries to hold June Star's hand, but she says he looks like a pig. The grandmother starts chanting, "Jesus, Jesus." The Misfit says he's like Jesus, except Jesus hadn't committed a crime. He says he gave himself this name because his punishment doesn't seem to fit the crime people said he committed. A gunshot comes from the woods. The grandmother begs the Misfit not to shoot a lady. Two more gunshots come from the woods, and the grandmother cries out for Bailey. The Misfit says that Jesus confused everything by raising the dead. He says that if what Jesus did is true, then everyone must follow him. But if he didn't actually raise the dead, then all anyone can do is enjoy their time on earth by indulging in "meanness." The grandmother agrees that perhaps Jesus didn't raise the dead. The Misfit says he wishes he had been there so he could know for sure. The grandmother calls the Misfit "one of my own children," and the Misfit shoots her in the chest three times. Bobby Lee and Hiram return, and they all look at the grandmother. The Misfit observes that the grandmother could have been a good woman if someone had been around "to shoot her every minute of her life." The Misfit says life has no true pleasure.

Climax

When she spotted and identified the Misfit

Flannery O'Connor

Who wrote A good man is hard to find?

Violence in Action

" I have found that violence is strangely capable of returning my characters to reality and preparing them to accept their moment of grace"

Conflict

"Conflict appears in [A Good Man is Hard to Find] as the duality of matter and spirit, the body and the mind. Although many an American writer before her has been preoccupied with this peculiar, almost Manichean, duality, O'Connor's conception and resolution of the problem are unique."

Character criticism (The Misfit)

"Miss O'Connor's memorable antagonist is an astute madman who deliberately placed himself in opposition to Christ. The Misfit is cast into a hopeless situation because of the demonic aspects of the world, and his sense of alienation is intensified by his belief that God has abandoned him."

Significant gesture

"The Grandmother is at last alone, facing the Misfit. Her head clears and she realizes... she is responsible for the man before her... I think myself that if I took out this gesture and what she says with it, I would have no story"

Character criticism (The Grandmother)

"The old lady lacked comprehension, but she had a good heart... It is true that the old lady is a hypocritical old soul; her wits are no match for the Misfit's, nor is her capacity for grace equal to his; yet I think the unprejudiced reader will feel that the Grandmother has a special kind of triumph in this story which instinctively we do not allow to someone altogether bad." (David Galens)

The Importance Christianity in the Story

"What we encounter at the beginning of the story-and absurdly comic narrative of a family trip that is almost a parody of Wilder's "The Happy Journey to Trenton and Camden"-gradually assumes the proportions of a wholesale revolt against the cultural distortions of Christianity."

The grandmother is the author of the families troubles

...

Conflict

2 faiths against each other

Point of View

3rd Person Objective

Point of View

3rd person

A Good Man is Hard to Find

About a family who decide to vacation down to Florida from Georgia. Unfortunately on the way down they have an accident, after which they meet up with convicts and are then shot, one by one.

Theme

Although people are flawed, grace can be extended to everyone.

Grandmother

An irksome woman who lives with Bailey and his family. Bailey's mother that throughout the story insists that the family should go to Tennessee. She also often refers to herself as a "lady."

Bailey

Atlanta resident with a wife and three children and his live in mother. He crashes their car on a family trip to Florida when he gives into the grandmother's wishes to visit an old plantation.

John Wesley / June Star

Bailey's demanding, self-centered children. Their bratty behavior apparently results from a lack of parental discipline.

the misfit

Dangerous escaped prisoner who comes across Bailey and his family on a dirt road after they have crashed. We see that he is having an internal debate of the meaning of life and his purpose in it. lives by a moral code that involves murder and remorselessness, but he also spends time wondering about Jesus. Because he doesn't know for sure whether Jesus really raised the dead, he has opted for "meanness" as a way of giving his life meaning. He doesn't see himself as a terrible person. His two henchmen kill the entire family, and shoots the grandmother himself.

June Star

Daughter of Bailey. Granddaughter of The Grandma. Talks disrespectfully to The Grandma. "We Had an Accident!" Taken out in the woods with her mother and newborn sister and shot by Bobby Lee in the woods of Georgia.

The Misfit

Escaped con on the loose somewhere going towards Florida. With Bobby Lee and , sees The Grandma's family vehicle accident. Has Bobby Lee shoot all of The Grandma's family out in the woods of Georgia. Shoots the Grandma 3 times in the chest when she trys to touch him when his back is turned. Says the law said they had papers on him for what he did but never saw those papers. Doesn't know anymore what he did wrong to end up in jail. Jesus was the only one who raised the dead and he shouldn't have done it.

Author of A Good Man is Hard to Find

Flannery O Connor

A Good Man is Hard to Find

Flannery O'Connor

Disability

Flannery had a family history of Lupus disease, it affected her parents and left her with a walker. The way she was treated because of her disability sickened and angered her. In most of her stories, characters had disabilities that fascinated others around them which was a reflection of her own life.

Historical

Flannery was a part of the Modernism movement an age of disillusionment and confusion—just look at what was happening in history in the US during these dates—this period brought us perhaps our best writers. The authors during this period raised all the great questions of life...but offered no answers.

Symbols

Grandma's clothes

Protagonist

Grandmother

Characters

Grandmother, Mother, Mistfit, Bailey, Red Sam and his wife, JuneStar, John Wesly, the Misfits goons

The Grandmother

Main character of the story. Very upbeat. Dresses like a lady for the family vacation so that if she is found after an accident they'll know that's what she was. Takes her cat with her on the family trip, unbeknownst to the rest of the family. Has a son named Bailey, whom she calls Bailey Boy. Is a Christian. Insists Bailey take a detour on a dirt road in Georgia because she wants to find her old house. Try's to talk The Misfit into sparing her life as she knows he's a good man. The Misfit puts on her son's shirt after he has the son killed then she takes her figurative talk regarding his goodness to heart and trys to touch The Misfit. The Misfit shoots her when she trys to touch him on the shoulder near the end of the story.

baby

Male child of Bailey and his wife. He is unidentified by name.

Conflict

Man vs. Man Man vs. Self

Red Sammy Butts

Restaurant operator who agrees with Bailey's mother that the world is in a state of decline.

Antagonist

Misfit

Setting

On their way to florida

Red Sam

Owner of truckstop where the family stops during their vacation drive. Has a monkey chained to a tree.

Pitty Sing

Pet cat of Bailey's mother.

Mood

Pleasant

Hiram, bobby lee

Prisoners who escaped with The Misfit.

Baileys wife

Quiet woman who spends her time feeding or holding her baby. She is unidentified by name.

The action of grace by the granmother

Reaching out for/to touch "The Misfit"

John Wesley

Son of Bailey. Grandson of The Grandma. Talks back to The Grandma and The Misfit. Is disrespectful to The Grandma. Is taken out in the woods with his father and shot by Bobby Lee.

Type of story that A Good Man is Hard to Find is

Southern Gothic

Theme

Superficial Faiths, Antagonism

Bailey/Bailey boy

The Grandmothers son. Bald, blue parrot shirted husband and father of June Star and John Wesley. Is on edge going on vacation. The Grandma's cat jumps on him and he crashes their car while they are looking for The Grandma's old homestead. Is taken out with his son and shot by Bobby Lee, The Misfits partner.

The daughter in law

Wife of Bailey, mother of June Star, John Wesley and the newborn. Is taken out with the newborn by Bobby Lee and shot in the woods of Georgia.

Grotesque, O connor

origin of southern gothic and its author

themes

rustic, good vs evil, racism, lack of empathy, death, irony, religion

southern gothic

supernatural, ironic, unusual events to move the plot along.