In Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the third person narrator gives us some insight into the character of a self-righteous grandmother. She is particularly self serving in the sense that she is always lamenting about how the times used to be better than the present ones and, when later on in the tale, she attempts to use religion as a means to keep herself from being murdered.
As the grandmother's family is going on a trip to Florida, they stop at a barbeque restaurant. She converses with a worker there about the "good ol' days": "People are certainly not nice like they used to be," said the grandmother (par. 35). "A good man is hard to find," Red Sammy said. "Everything is getting terrible. I remember they day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more" (par. 43). The grandmother and Sammy believe that most of the people that live during their present time have no moral ethics and decent social mannerisms. Self-righteous people often lament at how everyone else but themselves are in bondage to their own selfish ends. Since they believe themselves to be holy, everyone else can be seen as hell-bound beasts, no matter if a small ray of common chairty emanates from their actions.
Yet one of those brimstone critters, "The Misfit", meets up with the grandmother with a gun in his hand. Fear begins to well up inside the grandmother at her imminent demise so she brings the God-Man to her defense: "If you would pray," the old lady said, "Jesus would help you." "That's right," The Misfit said. "Well then, why don't you pray?" she asked trembling with delight suddenly" (par. 118-120). It would be easy to interpret the words of the grandmother as those that concern eternal salvation, but the word "trembling" conveys fear of death, rather than love for a lost soul. She is emotionally nervous of being shot and the only way she can see of keeping herself safe is to bring about repentance in The Misfit. If he changes his ways, he will not kill her. The ultimate irony of the grandmother is that she is the very kind of person she condemns.
Works Cited: O'Connor, Flannery. "A Good Man is Hard to Find." The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays. 10th ed. New York, London: W.W. Norton and Company, 2011. 396-409.
I do think she has characteristics of those people she dislikes, but I don't think that is all she is. We all have those flaws, and many of us aren't that strong, thus when faced with death, we crumble. I don't think that her savior would have faulted her that. Dr. Hobby mentioned that there is an argument that The Misfit is a Christ figure. I guess that one could say that he is a figure aiming to show her flaws to her. That a character as immoral as him can still be Christ. I don't buy it though. I am going to discuss the idea of her being a Christ figure in my paper (probably). The strength of this story is that it does have such a religious feel to it. It is like a parable with no direct ending, which draws me ever into it.
The grandmother is an interesting character and many times she discusses with other people how there aren't any good men left in the world. I actually think she should have used the word "people" instead of "men" since she herself isn't a good person. I agree with your point on how the grandmother's fear of dying overcomes her morals of self-righteousness. I never even thought of it that way until I read your blog. The grandmother presents herself as a good human but in reality her appearance is nothing but a mask. She loses her morals and begs with The Misfit to spare her life. Even after her family members were shot in the woods she never seemed fazed that they had died; fer only concern was herself.
It's interesting to think about the grandmother's motives for lamenting the lack of good morals in the world. She seems very selfish to preach about morality just so she can save herself, but to a certain extent, can she be blamed for that? How much of people's wish for a "good society" stems from their worries about their personal safety, rather than from generic, abstract concepts of a "better world"? It's a topic the story hints at and one that would be interesting to delve into more deeply.
I do think she has characteristics of those people she dislikes, but I don't think that is all she is. We all have those flaws, and many of us aren't that strong, thus when faced with death, we crumble. I don't think that her savior would have faulted her that.
ReplyDeleteDr. Hobby mentioned that there is an argument that The Misfit is a Christ figure. I guess that one could say that he is a figure aiming to show her flaws to her. That a character as immoral as him can still be Christ. I don't buy it though. I am going to discuss the idea of her being a Christ figure in my paper (probably).
The strength of this story is that it does have such a religious feel to it. It is like a parable with no direct ending, which draws me ever into it.
The grandmother is an interesting character and many times she discusses with other people how there aren't any good men left in the world. I actually think she should have used the word "people" instead of "men" since she herself isn't a good person. I agree with your point on how the grandmother's fear of dying overcomes her morals of self-righteousness. I never even thought of it that way until I read your blog. The grandmother presents herself as a good human but in reality her appearance is nothing but a mask. She loses her morals and begs with The Misfit to spare her life. Even after her family members were shot in the woods she never seemed fazed that they had died; fer only concern was herself.
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to think about the grandmother's motives for lamenting the lack of good morals in the world. She seems very selfish to preach about morality just so she can save herself, but to a certain extent, can she be blamed for that? How much of people's wish for a "good society" stems from their worries about their personal safety, rather than from generic, abstract concepts of a "better world"? It's a topic the story hints at and one that would be interesting to delve into more deeply.
ReplyDelete