Ryan Gunn
ENGL 2604
Professor Welch
4/6/11
Definitions of Good in Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find
Flannery O’Connor’s short story A Good Man is Hard to Find follows a
tragically flawed family traveling to Florida on vacation. Each member of the family
comes across as audacious and disrespectful. The two exceptions are the mother,
described as “innocent as a cabbage”(616), and her newborn baby, both of whom are
flat characters who say little or nothing, and, in the case of the mother, function
only as a foil. The plot centers on the matriarchal, unnamed grandmother who
laments the old days when everyone was expected to be a gentleman or a lady. In
these modern times she refuses to be complacent and bend to the needs of her
family. But, her selfishness leads directly to the family’s death. The other focal
character in the story, a convicted murderer and prison escapee, nicknamed the
Misfit, lives by the motto: “No pleasure but meanness”(626). Both the grandmother
and the Misfit abide by their own strict moral codes that alienate the two of them
from the rest of modern humanity. In A Good Man is Hard to Find, O’Connor uses
labels like “good man” and “lady” ironically to help reveal the problematic moral
codes of the grandmother and the Misfit.
When the family is preparing to leave for Florida, a destination that the
grandmother is not happy with, the old woman clothes herself in a formal hat and
dress, claiming that “in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway
would know at once she was a lady”(617). Her words suggest that the traits which
qualify someone as a “lady” are more material than moral, and reveal the
grandmother’s vanity. Similarly, when the grandmother tells the story of Edgar A.
Teagarden bringing her a watermelon, she mentions that “she would have done well
to marry Mr. Teagarden because he was a gentleman and had bought Coca-Cola
stock when it had first come out and that he had died only a few years ago, a very
wealthy man”(619). Her definition of a “gentleman” includes a willingness to dote
upon a lady. This skewed interpretation of the complimentary labels of “lady” and
“gentleman” becomes the distinguishing characteristic of the grandmother and her
hypocritical value system.
Her troubled values show clearly in her liberal but incorrect use of the phrase
“good man.” When stopping with her family for food at the “Tower”, a barbeque joint
run by Red Sam, the grandmother refers to Sam as “a good man” because he
allowed two strangers to borrow gas on credit. However, the men never return to
pay. By that reasoning, a good man is gullible and foolish. But what the
grandmother is really saying is that a good man is someone who’s moral code falls
in line with her own. Sam’s willingness to dote upon people who he perceives as
“good” fits the grandmother’s definition of “gentleman.” When calling Red Sam a
good man, the grandmother fails to notice the harsh way he treats his wife. He
repeatedly orders her around the restaurant and tell her to stop bothering the
customers, meanwhile he does nothing but engage in idle chit-chat with the
grandmother. Labeling Red Sam a “good man”, the grandmother condones the
mistreatment of Sam’s wife. They share a hypocritical value system full of double
standards and selfish loopholes. Together the grandmother and Red Sam mourn the
lack of “good men” in modern times. Because she can identify with this man,
something she is unable to do with her family, she labels him “a good man”.
During the drive, the grandmother’s interactions with the other members of
the family further show her hypocrisy. Before the family leaves the house, Bailey
specifically tells the grandmother she cannot bring her cat, Pitty Sing. Defiantly,
the grandmother hides Pitty Sing in her valise, an action that ultimately leads to
the family’s death. This act of rebellion demonstrates the grandmother’s lack of
respect for Bailey’s authority. However shortly into the trip, the grandmother
preaches to the children about the value of respect. This series of events exposes a
double standard in the grandmother’s value system: she desires respect, but is not
willing to give it. The grandmother’s hypocrisy is further revealed when she follows
up the lecture with blatantly racist observations about “a Negro child standing in
the door of a shack”(618). The grandmother’s interactions with the children provide
both insight into the grandmother’s corrupt moral code, and the sociopathic nature
of the children. The old woman tells the children tales of hidden passage ways and
treasure in an old plantation she used to live in, using them as puppets to progress
her own agenda of knocking the vacation off track. The grandmother’s manipulative
side shows up again later in her dealings with the Misfit. While Bailey has little
problem dealing with the complaints of his mother, he is unable to handle the
children kicking and screaming for a trip to the plantation. While sidetracked on a
dirt road supposedly leading to the fabled plantation, Pitty Sing escapes from the
grandmother’s valise, frightening Bailey, and causing him to crash the car. The
grandmother’s disregard for her son’s authority as head of the family indirectly
caused all of their deaths.
After the car crash, when the Misfit shows up with his guns and his
henchmen, the grandmother immediately labels him, saying, “I know you’re a good
man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from
nice people”(623). The Misfit expresses that he takes pleasure in causing others
pain, which reveals his selfishness. His selfish actions allow the grandmother to
identify with him and call him “a good man”. Even as he is about to shoot her she
insists that he is “good” because he they share values. While the grandmother never
seemed to get along with her son, Bailey, in her final moments of life the
grandmother comes to the realization that her own selfish immorality is present
inside the Misfit. She exclaims, “Why, you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own
children!”(627). She sees him wearing one of her son’s shirts and recognizes him as
more of a son to her than Bailey ever was due to their aligned moral codes.
Although more immoral than the grandmother, the Misfit is more realistic in
his definitions of “good man” and “lady”. When the grandmother repetitively refers
to him as “a good man” he responds, “nome, I ain’t a good man…but I ain’t the worst
in the world neither”(624), implying that he has a clear definition of good and evil.
While the grandmother’s moral code relies on self delusion, the Misfit recognizes
that he is evil and has built his morality around that fact. When he states, “I’m
sorry I don’t have on a shirt before you ladies,” the Misfit shows that he is a polite
man, despite his wickedness, and that he only uses the term “lady” out of civility
instead of as a label on a certain standard of person. This awareness, on the part of
the Misfit, renders the grandmother’s plea, “you wouldn’t shoot a lady, would
you?”(623) meaningless, because, to the Misfit, a “lady” could refer to any female,
regardless of status. Finally, in the last lines of the story, the Misfit reveals himself
as the only character who truly understands the definition of “good” when he says of
the grandmother, “She would’ve been a good woman…if it had been somebody there
to shoot her every minute of her life”(627). As he identifies the goodness of an old
woman in a time of desperation he is also acknowledging a similar goodness buried
somewhere within himself.
As a devout Catholic, Flannery O’Connor saw the moral codes represented by
the grandmother and the Misfit as severely threatening to the family values upheld
by the Catholic Church. The grandmother exhibits a faux-Christianity, where she
maintained a Christian appearance, but not a corresponding lifestyle. When the
Misfit calls the resurrection of Christ into question the grandmother hastily
responds, “Maybe he didn’t raise the dead”(627). O’Connor uses the grandmother’s
willingness to change her beliefs to satire modern family’s and criticize how easily
corrupted they have become. The Misfit represents a different kind of threat to
Christian values: nihilism. The Christian value system is based on the idea that
your actions in this life will determine your afterlife. Nihilists believe there is no
meaning to anything including death. Because of this, nihilist’s such as the Misfit,
have no reason to obey any laws or morals that do not bring them pleasure. When
talking to the grandmother about the existence of God, the Misfit states, “It’s
nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can—
by killing somebody or burning down his house”(626). His lack of regard for laws,
man-made or theological, shows his extreme nihilism.
At the close of the story, both the grandmother and the Misfit experience a
dramatic change in their moral codes altering their personalities from how we came
to know them during the tale. The grandmother starts the day dressing formally so
there will be no mistake that she is a lady should she be in an accident. Particular
emphasis is placed on her navy blue sailor’s hat during the description of her
wardrobe. This hat becomes a symbol for her definition of the word “lady,” and
subsequently the basis for her moral code. When the hat is damaged in the crash, so
are her ethics. She starts to question her own beliefs, such as whether Jesus raised
the dead, something she never would’ve done before. When she reaches out to touch
the Misfit, she is attempting to achieve a connection with another human being,
something her unremitting self-serving behavior has prevented her from having.
This action on the grandmother’s part incites a change in the Misfit’s morals as
well. While, previously, he had lived by the maxim, “no pleasure but
meanness”(626), he now is able to realize there is good somewhere is everyone,
including himself. This changes his perception of what is pleasurable, leading him
to say the final line of the story “It’s no real pleasure in life”(627), indicating a
possible end to his selfish behavior.