Flannery O’Connor is one of the most prodigious American writers, whose work is usually filled with gothic elements and a gloomy atmosphere of impending doom. Her goal was to “assault the consciousness of the complacent and worldly wise” (Leonard 48). O’Connor’s most famous short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” was published in 1953 and follows a family getting executed by an escaped convict who calls himself “The Misfit.” Surprisingly, the protagonist of the story is not the killer but the grandmother. Her depiction exemplifies Southern hypocrisy that transforms into self-awareness when faced with imminent death.
The grandmother is intensely preoccupied with her image as a lady. To prepare for the family road trip, she puts on a flowered straw hat and a navy-blue dress so her body can be identified as a lady’s “in case of an accident” (O’Connor, A Good Man 9). As her family is systematically murdered, the only justification she can find for her life is that it is unseemly to shoot a “lady” (O’Connor, A Good Man 15). Despite her obsession with being perceived as outwardly respectable, the grandmother is deceitful and manipulative. She accuses her son of being a bad parent for bringing his children to Florida, The Misfit’s territory, when in fact, she merely wants to visit her friends in Tennessee. She sneaks her cat into the car without her son’s knowledge, which eventually precipitates their car accident. When the grandmother wants to visit an old house she saw as a girl, she “craftily” lies to the children that the house contains a secret panel so they will become agitated and convince their father to make a detour (O’Connor, A Good Man 8). Abruptly realizing that the house was actually in Tennessee, she vows not to mention it to her son and feigns an injury so as not to incur his wrath. Despite her image of a genteel, conscientious lady, the grandmother is a selfish hypocrite whose irresponsibility directly leads to the death of her family.
She is nostalgic for her antebellum past, complaining that in her time, “children were more respectful of their native states and their parents” (O’Connor, A Good Man 5). In a barbecue joint, she discusses “better times” with Red Sammy and convinces him that Europe is entirely at fault because of their postwar financial dependence on the U.S. (O’Connor, A Good Man 7). She fondly recalls her youth on plantations. Looking at a destitute black child, the grandmother is unmoved by empathy or sorrow and merely objectifies him. She exclaims that he is a “cute little pickanniny” that would make a wonderful painting (O’Connor, A Good Man 5). The grandmother also believes in a social hierarchy based on ancestry, as she tells The Misfit that he does not look like he has “common blood” and “must come from good people” ((O’Connor, A Good Man 11). The grandmother’s moral code stems from her pre-Civil war childhood, and she cannot adjust to contemporary reality.
The grandmother is generally disrespected by her other family members and makes feeble attempts to assert authority. Her son, Bailey, and unnamed daughter-in-law pretend they do not hear her when she is trying to make a point. When she invites Bailey to dance, “he only glared at her” (O’Connor, A Good Man 6). Her granddaughter, June Star, derisively describes the grandmother’s incapability to stay home: “she wouldn’t stay home to be queen for a dayâŠshe has to go everywhere we go” (O’Connor, A Good Man 4). In order to keep up some semblance of authority, the grandmother unnecessarily nags Bailey about the speed limit and publicly scolds her granddaughter. Out of some perverted desire to seem clever, she shrieks that she recognizes The Misfit and sets off the murder of her family. As her son is led into the woods, she commands him to “come back this instant!” instead of trying to save him (O’Connor, A Good Man 12). The grandmother’s underhanded manipulation and nagging are ways to reinstate her authority to a family that routinely dismisses her.
The grandmother arrives at self-awareness only by the end of her life. After pitiful attempts to offer money or inspire piety in The Misfit, his voice cracks, and her “head cleared for an instantâŠand murmured, ‘Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!’” (O’Connor, A Good Man 16). She touches his shoulder, and he immediately shoots her in the chest. The grandmother recognizes another human being instead of a useful tool for the first time in the story. Flannery O’Connor said that at this point, she realizes that she is “joined to him by ties of kinship which have their roots deep in the mystery she has been merely prattling about so far” (O’Connor Mystery and Manners 112). This moment of grace is the reason for the story’s existence as a testament to the strength of character revealed in a violent situation (O’Connor Mystery and Manners 112). With this gesture, the grandmother is shown to ultimately have “a good heart,” even if she “lacked comprehension” (O’Connor Mystery and Manners 110). The Misfit concludes that she would have been a good woman “if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (O’Connor, A Good Man 16). The grandmother understands her mistakes and displays compassion only in her final moments.
In O’Connor’s seminal short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” the grandmother is a complex character. She is selfish, manipulative, excessively obsessed with public perception, and unknowingly sets off a chain of events that leads to her family’s death. She reminds every reader of their own grandmother or great-aunt (O’Connor Mystery and Manners 110). However, in her final moments, she is able to recognize the humanity of a fellow person and achieve grace.
Works Cited
Leonard, Douglas Novich. âEXPERIENCING FLANNERY OâCONNORâS âA Good Man Is Hard To Find.ââInterpretations, vol. 14, no. 2, Scriptorium Press, 1983, pp. 48â54.
O’Connor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. New English Library, 1962.
O’Connor, Flannery. Mystery and Manners, edited by Sally and Robert Fitzgerald, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1961.