Rhonda Massengill "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Conner

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by O’Conner is based on extended family and their lifestyle. In this short story we have two women with very different lifestyles. The grandmother is the head of the house and what she says usually goes. The wife is subjective to her husband and does what her husband says for her to do. The grandmother is worried about her outward appearance and states our looks will determine whether we’re women or not. The mother on the other hand, is more worried about the well being of the family. Lastly we have how the grandmothers’ selfish ways end up causing the death of the family. She directs the family to go to a house off the main road. In the mean time they end up going down a dead end road and wreck the car. This could have been avoided if the grandmother would have admitted she was wrong about the turn to begin with. Instead of her admitting she was wrong she convinces her son to continue down the road. Right after the wreck they are approached by three men. The grandmothers’ mouth gets them in trouble from the beginning. She says I know who you are you are the man they call the misfit. The man who escaped from prison and the man say “yes’em I am that man”. The grandmother is trying to reason with the misfit in saying “I know you’re a good man” and the misfit says “nome. I ain’t a good man”. Shortly afterwards they take her son and grandson Bailey into the woods and kill them. The grandmother realizes she needs to start praying in order to save the family from the mess she got them into. The misfit kills all of them but the grandmother; he waits till the last to kill her.
What I felt was unique was the way the grandmother had died. She had died looking up toward heaven. I found this scene to be ironic because she never accepted the death of Jesus. One thing is for certain was the grandmother had forgiven the misfit for what he had done. This is played out when she touches his arm and says you are like one of my babies. This angers the misfit and in return he kills her. The misfit states at the end that she would be a good woman if every minute of her life someone was there to shot her.