A Good Man is Hard to Find

Don't forget to check out my editing services.

Reading this story, I realized I block out the racist undertones in Flannery O'Connor stories. Probably because unfortunately, it is of the time and if I don't gloss over it, I will be upset by it. So moving along, A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery  O'Connor is a good segue to The Name of the Rose, which I'll talk about next week, because they share similar themes. A family has an ill-fated encounter with an escaped convict named The Misfit.

This is a story that perplexes me. It feels like it's missing details for all of the characters. Bailey, his mother, his wife, and three children drive from Georgia to Florida for a summer vacation. The grandmother seems to be the root character; all of the action surrounds her. She also plays a bit of an antagonist. She sneaks her cat on the trip and complains about going to Florida instead of Tennessee, where she wanted to go. She seems like a nuisance to the family, which reminds me of the mother from Everything that Rises Must Converge. However, it isn't clear why the mother is a nuisance. All the reader gets is how the family reacts to her, which I read as indifferent or mildly annoyed.

It may be harsh or rash, but I blame the family's demise on the grandmother. She insists on seeing a house from her childhood, but realizes she has confused the location and in her confusion she disturbs her cat, who causes the car accident. Then, she waves down a car full of murders (of course she couldn't have known this, so I'm not faulting her here) and then she identifies The Misfit (this is where I place blame). Even The Misfit says it would have been better if she didn't identify him. The two henchmen swiftly kills the husband and son, then and wife and daughter and baby, which I found it odd that the family didn't put up a fight. The grandmother is the only one that pleads for her life. The details we learn about The Misfit wasn't enough for me and the discussion of Jesus seemed underdeveloped.

The line that sticks with me is "'She would have been a good woman,' The Misfit said, 'if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.'" When I read that, I felt like Kanye West asking Kobe Bryant "What the $%*# does that mean?"

The story can be found here. Check it out and let me know what you think. Happy reading until next time! Next week is two parts on The Name of the Rose.