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Grandmother did not want to go the Florida like the rest of her family
o A story about a criminal heading that way in the newspaper made her even more
sure of her decision
Grandmother treated the young African American child like he was a tourist attraction
(“look at the cute little pickaninny…wouldn’t that make a great picture…”)
Racial slurs make this book unpleasant to read, make me dislike the grandmother who I
initially felt bad for because the family didn’t seem to care for her much (both adults
ignored her report on the criminal and the little girl replied sarcastically)
Claimed a black boy ate her watermelon when she never got it one afternoon
Red Sam has trust issues, grandmother and wife agree that no one can be trusted
Gma lied about a house with a secret panel to get the kids riled up and eager to see it
o there was no panel and she just wanted to stroll down memory lane
The gma had realized that the house was not in Georgia but in Tennessee
o This error led to a terrible accident
 Maybe she has dementia: always speaking of the past but never the
present or even future endeavors
 Could also explain her eagerness to remain in her native state and not go
to Florida
Very clear June star does not like her grandmother, prolyl cause she’s racist
After the accident, they are approached by 3 odd men, one of who happens to be the
misfit, the criminal the gma read about in the paper
The gma continuously complimented the criminal (bashing him earlier) in attempt to
save her family
Shots from the woods, gma asks misfit if he prays(no), he goes over his life story, comes
to realize he doesn’t know why he got sent to jail even though they had papers on him
Misfit calls himself that because he can’t connect his wrongdoings with the punishment
received (doesn’t understand why hes being punished if he doesn’t remember doing
anything wrong)
o Misfit states that jesus rasing people from the dead showed life was off balance
 This somehow correlates to his crimes
 If he had seen jesus raise someone from the dead, his crimes would be
wrong, but if not then they would be justified (indulge in meanness)
Gma recognizes the misfit as one of her own children, this realization scares him causing
him to shoot her 3 times (he was wearing her sons shirt at the time)
“it’s no real pleasure in life”
At sam’s the gma was talking about how a good man is hard to find and that no one
could be rusted but that quickly changed when she encountered the misfit
The author’s purpose for naming the story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” essentially
foreshadows the end of the story. During her conversation with Red Sam, the two discussed
how awful and untrustworthy people can be. However, after he car accident she trusted in the
Misfit and proclaimed that he was a good man. This act went against her belief but with her life
on the line, she hoped for something different. The good man she hoped the Misfit to be was
“the other kind” of person most people encounter. The title reaffirms the belief that people
cannot be trusted, and selfishness will always get in the way of goodness. O’Conner’s story does
endorse that the past is better than the future because when the grandmother was speaking to
Red Sam and his wife, they kept referring to the behavior of people in the past and how people
nowadays cannot be trusted. The term is revised at the end because it refers to a submissive
approach to life. She calls the misfit a good man despite him being a criminal because she feels
the need to please him to save her life. Earlier in the story, she calls Red Sam a good man after
he was “scammed” by two men. Good is not connected to being kind because in both situations
they were not acting to benefit the other party. What is good to the grandmother fits her
values and beliefs.