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A Good Man Is Hard To Find Essay

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In Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “A Good Man is Hard to find,” she tells the story of a family going on vacation, making a wrong turn, and consequently being brutally murdered by a Misfit and his crew. But the story also possesses a detailed vision of the grace and ultimate redemption offered to the Misfit. O’Connor shows the Grandmother’s final moment when she extended grace towards the Misfit, however, many people have made arguments to how they think it ends. For example, Stephan C. Bandy responds in “ ‘One Of My Babies’: The Misfit and the Grandmother,” and claims that even if the Misfit had been shown true grace, he would reject it. However, Matthew Fike, in “The Timothy Allusion in ‘A Good Man is Hard To Find’” believes the Misfit was startled because he felt the Holy Spirit, who he had been trying to deny his entire life, and emphasizes the cleaning of his glasses as spiritual …show more content…
Therefore, he creates another parallel and compares the Grandmother to the mature widows in the story of Paul. “The Grandmother is not godly, prayerful, or trustworthy like the positive widow he mentions” (Fike 313). Fike states that the widow’s duty is to teach her children and grandchildren about their religious duty, but the Grandmother fails to do this, which creates a “family disorder”(Fike 313). When she attempts to convert the Misfit in the final moments of the story it shows her selfishness and lack of faith, Fike claims. He then places the Grandmother in comparison with “the young widows from who he counsels” (Fike 313). The Misfit’s desires for destruction, death, and violence is his way of voicing his need for the saving power of grace, Fike argues. In the final moments, the Grandmother expresses to the Misfit his need for redemption, and the Misfit recoils and shoots her, but Fike believes this was the moment he finally realized he needed to be

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