A Good Man Is Hard to Find

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The denouement is broadcast when the Misfit shoots the grandmother without even hesitating at the end of the story. All things were leading to this outcome. The grandmother seemed to know that her death was approaching. As she was pleading for her life, she tells Misfit that he should pray and that Jesus would help him. She had her epiphany at the moment of her death. The grandmother died with a smile on her face. It was upon her death that she became good as she was smiling up to heaven. Misfit stated after shooting her that “she would have been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (O’Connor, pg. 481). The Misfit realized that killing was a crime and not enjoyable when saying, “It’s no real pleasure in life” (O’Connor, pg. 481).

The irony around the main characters, Misfit and the grandmother. is that their outward image and how the world would see them, is the opposite of who they were. There was more goodness and sincerity in the criminal as compared to the grandmother. Flannery O’Connor uses vivid elements of ironic symbolism and foreshadowing to lead to the gruesome ending. Upon the family’s death, there was a sort of epiphany for the grandmother and the Misfit. The ending of the story brought about the simple reality that actions of an individual represent true goodness as opposed to how much they talk about being a good person. The story ends where foreseeable death lead to salvation and evil defined a “good man”.

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Work Cited

O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man is Hard to Find." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Ed. Kelly J. Mays. Shorter 12th ed. New York: Norton, 2016. 470-481. Print.