“A Good Man is Hard to Find”: Exploring Moral Ambiguity

Introduction

‘A Good Man Is Hard to Find,’ first published in 1953, was one of the most famous stories written by Flannery O’Connor. Flannery O’Connor was a Catholic who argued with questions of being good and evil and the possibility of divine grace. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the grandmother and Misfit follow moral codes that concern their decisions, actions, and perceptions. Although at first sight, the Misfit seems to be misguided, it is actually the grandmother that proves to be confusing and inconsistent.

Body

Conflicting Moral Codes

The grandmother assembled her code on the traits she believes make individuals “good.” She makes herself appear to be a lady; however, at the same time, she misleads her family through the actions taking place and lacks awareness of the world around her. Despite her apparent loyalty to Christianity, she lacks the ability to pray when she finds herself in a crisis and begins to question the power and divinity of Jesus. The Misfit, however, sticks to a moral code that remains consistent. Through his experiences as a criminal, he believes that the punishment is always disproportionate to the crime and that the crime, in the end, doesn’t even really matter. Whereas the grandmother accepts faith as it is but poorly, the Misfit likes to challenge religious beliefs and considers whether or not he should follow or not follow them. He believes religion is pointless and adheres to his own kind of religion, “No pleasure but meanness.” His moral code is violent and never wavers, and in the end, he is the one that prevails.

The grandmother’s definition of what it means to be ‘proper’ is symbolized by her very appropriate traveling outfit. O’Connor writes:
“In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.”

Presentation vs. True Morality

The grandmother’s main concern seems to be about presentation above all else. During this life-threatening accident, the grandmother’s least concern is knowing that there’s a chance her entire family might be killed; her main worry is the Misfits’ opinions of her. She shows interest in her soul even when she faces death, but because we assume she believes her soul is already as pristine as her ‘navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim.’ She begs him not to shoot a lady,’ as if not murdering someone is protocol. She repeatedly reassures him that she can tell he’s ‘not a bit common,’ as if the lineage is somehow connected with morality. The Misfit himself knows he ‘ain’t a good man,’ even if he ‘ain’t the worst in the world either.’ As Bailey is led into the woods, the grandmother “reached up to adjust her hat brim as if she were going to the woods with him, but it came off in her hand. She stood staring at it, and after a second, she let it fall on the ground”. The things she thought were important to her are failing her, falling uselessly around her, and she now has to figure out something to replace them. She then finds the idea of prayer, but it’s almost as if she’s forgotten how to pray. “Finally, she found herself saying, ‘Jesus, Jesus,’ meaning, Jesus will help you, but the way she was saying it, it sounded as if she might be cursing.” All her life, she believed she was a good person, but like a curse, her definition of goodness cross paths with evil.

Redemption and Divine Recognition

The Misfit openly rejects Jesus, saying, ‘I’m doing all right by myself,’ but his frustration with lack of faith suggests that he’s given Jesus a lot more thought than the grandmother has. When faced with death, the grandmother mostly lies, flatters, and begs to save her own life. But at the very end, she reaches out to touch The Misfit and utters those rather puzzling lines, ‘Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!’ which could possibly indicate that the grandmother finally recognizes the connection among human beings. She may finally understand what The Misfit already knows that there is no such thing as ‘a good man,’ but that there is good in all of us and also evil in all of us, including in her. This may be the grandmother’s moment of grace, her chance at divine redemption. O’Connor tells us that ‘her head cleared for an instant,’ suggesting that we should read this moment as the truest moment in the story. The Misfit’s reaction also suggests that the grandmother may have hit upon divine truth. As someone who openly rejects Jesus, he recoils from her words and her touch. Finally, even though her physical body is twisted and bloody, the grandmother dies with ‘her face smiling up at the cloudless sky’ as if something good has happened or as if she has understood something important.

Conclusion

O’Connor’s main focus is to show how most people treat their deaths as an abstraction that will never really happen and don’t give enough consideration to life after death. ‘She would have been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.’ The grandmother, who always thought of herself as a better person than those around her, at her final point in time for one brief moment at the end, was good.

References

1. O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” A Good Man Is Hard to Find and Other Stories. Harcourt Brace, 1955.

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