Beauchamp 1
Kyle Beauchamp
Dr. Patrick Jackson
English 1102
19 April 2009
A False Reality
In most of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories a number of characters have a hard
time seeing an ultimate reality in their life. They tend to have a distorted grasp on reality
but not all in the same way. In the story “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the Misfit and
the Grandmother are prime examples. The actions and the way of life of the Misfit and
Grandmother are mostly due to the fact that they are living in an false reality where they
are in their own little world, where in the Misfit’s world everything goes with no worry
of repercussion in the Grandmother’s case she can do no wrong because she has a false
perception of what is right.
The Grandmother is a bit of a traditionalist, and like a few of O’Connor’s
characters is still living in “the old days” with outdated morals and beliefs, she truly
believes the way she thinks and the things she says and does is the right and only way,
when in reality that was not the case. She tends to make herself believe she is doing the
right thing and being a good person when in actuality it can be quite the opposite. David
Allen Cook says in his essay, “The grandmother considers herself a ‘"good Christian,"’
but places more emphasis on appearance than substance.” The Grandmother is always
quick to pass judgment on people just because of their looks especially in the case of the
Misfit.
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The Misfit on the other hand is a borderline psychopath, who is extremely violent;
he commits these violent crimes on people and sees nothing wrong with it. The Misfit
does not see the things he does as wrong because he had to serve time in prison for a
crime he claims he did not do, so all of his actions have been paid for by his time in
prison. He told the Grandmother “Jesus thrown everything off balance. It was the same
case with Him as with me except he hadn’t committed any crime and they could prove I
had committed one because they had the papers on me (461).” He compares himself to
Jesus because of his thoughts of his innocence. He believes since neither of them
committed a crime and both got charged for something they did not do that they are the
same. He believes everything wrong he does has been paid for by his unnecessary jail
time.
Both the Misfit and the Grandmother are living in a false reality and just cannot
seem to see the ultimate reality of the world, no matter how many times that they have
been shown that the way they do things is not the right way. They both may be
considered as very different people by appearance, but in actuality they are both living in
a false reality where they always think they are right and nothing they ever do is wrong in
their minds. She tries to make him pray and tells him he is a good man but in the end the
Misfit was going to do what he had to do and he did so with no remorse.
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Works Cited Page
O’Connor, Flannery. “ A Good Man is Hard to Find.” The Ninth Edition. The
Norton Introduction to Literature.
Cook, David Allen. “Light and Shadow: Religious Grace in Two Stories by
Flannery O'Connor.” Comforts of Home. 2002. http://mediaspecialist.org/cooklight.html.