“A Good Man Is Hard to Find”
is one of O’Connor’s most frequently anthologized short stories, and it
makes an excellent illustration of her ability to combine grotesque
humor with serious thematic material.
The story opens as a family prepares to go on vacation in Florida. The
story focuses immediately on the grandmother, who wants to visit
relatives in east Tennessee and who uses the escape of the Misfit, a
murderer, from prison to try to persuade her son, Bailey, to change his
mind. He refuses. The two grandchildren, John Wesley and June Star, are
quickly characterized as smart alecks who nevertheless understand their
grandmother and her motives very well. When the family sets out, the
grandmother is resigned to making the best of things. She is first to
get into the car and has even, secretly, brought along her cat. As she
rides along, her conversation is conventional, self-centered, and
shallow.
When the family stops for lunch at a barbeque stand, their
conversation again turns to the Misfit, and the adults agree that people
are simply not as nice as they used to be. Later, back in the car, the
grandmother persuades Bailey to take a road which she imagines (wrongly,
as it turns out) will lead by an old mansion. Suddenly the cat escapes
its basket and jumps on Bailey’s neck, and the car runs into the ditch.
As the family assesses its injuries, a man who is obviously the Misfit
drives up with his armed henchmen. The grandmother immediately feels
that she recognizes him as someone she has known all of her life, and
she tells him that she knows who he is.
