Garrett Byrd
Dr. Brown
English-110
30 March 2015
Not Your Typical Grandmother Great characters make a story. As avid readers, we often remember our favorite stories not based on the story line, but based on the strong characters within the story. In the story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” written by Flannery O’Connor, the grandmother is the central character. Posed as a “know it all,” she thinks of herself as a proper lady, honest, wise, and bases her life on the past. O’Connor portrays the grandmother as a very manipulative, highbrow, selfish, ungodly old woman, unlike your typical grandmother. These are clearly uncommon characteristics of what one would consider to be a maternal grandmother. It is these characteristics which make the grandmother such a strong and memorable character in O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”
As early as the second line of the story, O’Connor introduces the reader to the grandmother’s manipulation. “She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind” (O’Connor 294). From the onset, O’Connor begins to set the stage and reveal the grandmother’s manipulation skills. “Now look here, Bailey,”… “see here, read this,” and she stood with one hand on her then hip and the other rattling the newspaper at his bald head. Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did” (O’Connor 294). She possesses great manipulation skills as she never confronts Bailey directly by saying that she wants to go to Tennessee, but instead she scares him with the possibility of running into a criminal. She even uses the grandchildren as pones to get her way. “The children have been to Florida before. You all ought to take them somewhere else for a change so they would see different parts of the world and be broad” (O’Connor 294). Again, the children are used in order to get her way when she wants to see an old planation home. The allure of secret treasure is sure to get the grandchildren in agreement. “There was a secret panel in this house,”…”and the story went that all the family silver was hidden in it when Sherman came through bit it was never found…” (O’Connor 299). Knowing that Bailey will not deviate from their journey, she speaks about a secret panel to excite the children who in turn beg and plead to their father to stop, turn the car around, and visit such a place. The grandmother is indeed a masterful manipulator.
Through O’Connor’s writing the grandmother can be described as an elitist. This is a very important characteristic of herself. While the others in her family are comfortably dressed for their long journey, she is dressed quite the opposite. “…the grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with bunch of white violets on the brim and navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and that her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet” (O’Connor 295). Her intentions are clear “in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (O’Connor 295). As Miles Orvell observes, “she is somewhat prescient in this regard, for if she is not precisely dressed to kill, this remnant of Southern gentility is, as it turns out, dressed to be killed” (Orvell 131). Having a proper and ladylike appearance, even in death, is critical to the grandmother’s sense of self-worth. In addition to her appearance, she values manners and respect. When John Wesley disrespects his native state of Georgia, calling it a lousy state, the grandmother quickly replies, “In my time, children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else” (O’Connor 296). She also thinks much of wealth and social status saying “would have done well to marry Mr. Teagarden because he was a gentleman and had bought Coca-Cola stock when it first came out and that he died only a few years ago, a very wealthy man” (O’Connor 297). Lastly, as an elitist from the old South, she values blood lines from the family and her past, as she points out to her grandchildren. “That was the old family burying ground. That belonged to the plantation” (O’Connor 296). In her mind, she is good and better than those around because she is from the right blood. Even when encountered by the MisFit, she attempts to connect on this level in order to save her own life. “I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people!” (O’Connor 303). Ironically, this doesn’t even appeal or faze the MisFit into thinking twice about his actions. Preston Browning observes that at her moment of crisis, faced with death, the grandmother resorts to the tools that have served her well in life: her external appearance of Christianity and her beliefs in good breeding (Browning 56). Yet, both her manipulation skills prove inept and her social background provide her with no common thread with the MisFit. Her life is not spared.
Lastly, O’Connor characterizes the grandmother as selfish and provides many examples showing her selfish behaviors. The day of the trip the grandmother secretly packs her cat because as she says, “he would miss her too much” (O’Connor 295). Clearly, this indicates what she thinks of herself and how she views her position within the family, as being more important than anyone else. Her granddaughter, June Star best describes her grandmother this way, “She wouldn’t stay at home for a million bucks. Afraid she’d miss something. She has to go everywhere we go” (O’Connor 295). This is a prime example showing the grandmother’s selfish behavior and consistently placing herself above others. Even when the family suffers an automobile accident, she does not worry about their possible injuries. Knowing that her son is upset with her because she is responsible for the accident, she acts as though she is hurt. “I believe I have injured an organ” (O’Connor 301). Clearly, a typical grandmother would be more concerned about the health and safety of her loved ones instead of her own safety. Her selfishness is quickly brought to light upon encountering the MisFit and his gang. Once again, she places herself above others by pointing out to him “you wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?” (O’Connor 303). It is here that she totally leaves her family, without any thought, and tosses them aside in order to save her own. O’Connor’s stories, suggests Dorothy Walters, tell of people in need of salvation and the violence that they encounter which wakes them up to that need (Walters 23). She never begs to the MisFit to save the life of her son, her daughter-in-law, or her grandchildren. Instead, she attempts to convince him that he is a good man, even though she does not believe this to be true. She believes that if she can connect with him on his level then at least her life will be spared. Browning says it well when he observes, “The grandmother . . . displays a soul so empty that it seems to reverberate with the echoes of her own incessant chatter. . . . [she is] smug [and] self-willed” (Browning 54). The center of her soul is not filled with God or love for her family, but for her own being—her selfishness. The grandmother gives a false image of someone who appears good outwardly, yet internally her life is full of inconsistencies since she does not really know Jesus. She tells the children, “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!…Wouldn’t that make a picture, now?” (O’Connor 296). These are words from a racist. Viewing herself as a Christian lady with her references to the Bible, Jesus, and praying, she definitely displays some very un-Christian-like values.
In conclusion, Flannery O’Connor creates a strong and memorable character in the grandmother in the classic short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” She lived a life of false illusion based on her manipulation, selfishness, and lack of true understanding and love for Christ. She is not your typical grandmother. O’Connor succeeds at creating unique characters, such as the grandmother. As avid readers, we remember them and this makes us appreciate her writing.

Works Cited
Browning Jr., Preston M. Flannery O’Connor. Carbondale: Southern IL. UP, 1974.
O’Connor, Flannery. “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” 40 Short Stories: A Portable Anthology. Beverly Lawn. 4th ed. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2013. 294-308. Print.
Orvell, Miles. Invisible Parade: The Fiction of Flannery O’Connor. Philadelphia: Temple UP, 1972.
Walters, Dorothy. Flannery O’Connor. Boston: Twayne, 1973.