Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find brings to light the flimsy
moral code of maturing generations. To O’Connor, people have shifted too far from the
ultimate (Christian) truths that they once strictly abided by. In this short story O’Connor
argues that the sensibilities of science and psychology have led to the degradation of
spirituality, which has caused the decline in importance of morals in society. A Good
Man provides a view of two amoral characters, both of whom have strayed from their
religious beliefs. The Grandmother is a superficial woman who holds herself to a high
moral standard (or so she thinks), and the Misfit is a violent criminal whose moral code is
quite different, but much stronger than the Grandmother’s. When the Grandmother is
faced with her own salvation, she finally sees her own shortcomings.
Early in the text, as the family prepares for a vacation to Florida, Grandmother
raises many objections about not wanting to go there to avoid an escaped criminal, The
Misfit. She tries to convince her family of the dangers of their destination as an attempt
to persuade them to go where she wants to go, to Tennessee. At this point, O’Connor
begins to reveal the weakness of the Grandmother’s character and the contradictions in
her morals: the Grandmother was “the first one in the car, ready to go,” (p. 139). Also,
she was dressed to the nines to ensure that no one could mistake her as a lady. She wears
a nice dress, a matching hat, and white gloves, almost as if she was prepared for an
unexpected encounter. In this way, the Grandmother is showing her “goodness” on the
outside: her nice, ladylike clothes indicate that she is someone of good social standing, a
good upbringing, and proper manners. O’Connor also uses the word “thin” to describe
the Grandmother’s fingers and face. In the Bible, thin fingers are a sign of timidity,
which represents fear, which is a sin. This could mean that the Grandmother was fearful
of people and what was becoming of the world, or it could mean that she was fearful of
her own sins. O’Connor juxtaposes the Grandmother’s “leathery thin face,” (p. 140) with
the baby’s smooth one, to illustrate the Grandmother’s shortcomings of goodness and
grace.
As the family embarks on their road trip, the Grandmother continues to play her
role as a woman who takes strength of character and discipline very seriously, such as
when the children’s rudeness and poor manners become an issue, to which the
Grandmother responds by reminiscing about how people were nicer, kinder, and more
appreciative in her day. This is especially apparent when the family stops for lunch and
one of the children, June Star, insults the restaurant owner, which leads to a discussion
between the owner and Grandmother about the scarcity of good people. O’Connor uses
this scene to illustrate how people, especially of older generations, view badness as
something new and exclusive to young people, such as when the Grandmother laments
that “people are not as nice as they used to be,” (p. 142). The nostalgic feeling of good
days gone by is too hard to ignore for the Grandmother, and in this way she reveals that
she feels superior to others by saying that things were better in her day and that if the
children were hers, they would be much better-behaved.
The constant passing of blame and judgment from the Grandmother is a tool that
tells the reader that goodness and morality are dependent on the person, not their
upbringing or age. Her goodness is also contradicted when she convinces the family to
go to an old plantation, knowing that she would have to lie to get them there. The turning
point comes when the family rolls their car into an embankment and is found by the
Misfit and two other criminals. The three men arrive in a “hearse-like” automobile,
which is an ominous symbol of judgment day. Additionally, O’Connor notes that the
Misfit looks down on the family, indicating his superiority and authority.
O’Connor uses the family’s position in the ditch after the initial accident, next to tall,
dark, deep woods to illustrate the forthcoming danger, and again right before the
Grandmother reveals the Misfit’s identity to the group: “Behind them the line of woods
gaped like a dark open mouth,” (p. 145). Since the Grandmother doomed the family by
outing the Misfit, the two sidekicks take the family members, in pairs, into the woods to
be killed. O’Connor uses nature imagery to illustrate the bleakness of this Judgment
Day: the dark forest represents the mystery of death and - since wood is a pure, primal
material according to the bible - the family’s return to God.
As her family is picked off, the Grandmother does not plead for her family; rather,
she argues for her own life because she believes that she is too good a lady to be killed.
She judges morality not by strength of character, but rather by goodness, which often
means a tidy appearance; the Misfit looked scholarly, and not “common,” as she points
out. It is on this ground that she tries to convince the Misfit that he could also be saved.
O’Connor compares the Grandmother’s weak, superficial faith, while based in
Christianity, to the Misfit’s strong, yet violent, faith; even though the Grandmother
claimed to follow Christian values, they were not strong enough to save her. As the two
continue to discuss Jesus, the Grandmother sees some of her own flaws in the Misfit,
which is what she meant when she said “You’re one of my own children!” (p. 148), when
she finally realized that she was not superior to anyone else, and tried to be
compassionate with the Misfit.
O’Connor argues that a person’s morality is only as strong as their actions. The
Grandmother was selfish, deceitful, and oblivious to the fact that her actions caused the
death of her family.