Question

In flanneryo’connor’s “a good man is hard to find”, the climax of the story comes in the final paragraphs, in the encounter between the grandmother and the Misfitl. Discuss this complex interaction. What is its import? What, if anything does the grandmother gain from her interaction with the Misfitl? Does the Misfitl gain anything from the grandmother? Why does the grandmother touch the Misfitl, and what does this connection imply?

Answer 1

• In “A Good Man is Hard to Find", the story symbolizes religion.There is a conflict between the grandmother and The Misfit. The grandmother brings up praying to Jesus in the hope that she can persuade The Misfit to spare her life by acting as if she was religious. It turns out that The Misfit has probably thought about Jesus more seriously than she has. But The Misfit thinks that there’s no point in life, and he has nothing to live for, because he has doubt in Jesus.
• The grandmother would like to think of herself as a lady with a good notion of what the world is and also as a good judge of character - viz, she likes to think that class and wealth are synonymous with a person's and/or its life's worth, that she knows what makes a man a criminal, that she also knows what makes her son and grandchildren' s times worse than hers, etc.
• The Misfit, taking away all her pretences - by separating her from her family, by telling her his own story and imparting his own ideas on Christ while threatening her life and thus making things all the more urgent and to the bone,has her face her true identity once alone with him.
  
• The conflict within the grandmother is that she does not realize her sin of pride,but in her dying moment she has an ephiphany in which she realizes that she is no better than the Misfit.In a moment of saving grace,the grandmother reaches out to the criminal,humbling herself.
• Due to time limit,remaining can be asked as another question,they will be answered,thankyou for your cooperation