36 pages • 1 hour read
Flannery O'ConnorA Good Man is Hard to Find
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1955A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Good and Evil
The most prominent theme in the story—mentioned even in the title—is the idea of goodness and, by extension, the notion of evil. The grandmother labels several characters in the story “good” men, including both Red Sammy and The Misfit himself. Her definition of goodness has few firm characteristics other than a connection to one’s blood and heritage. For example, she insists that The Misfit would never shoot a lady because he comes from good people with good blood. Her definition of goodness is also related to her own personal thoughts and beliefs. Essentially, people who agree with her opinions are good people in her mind.
By contrast, The Misfit seems to have an idea of the separation between good and evil, but he does not hold one in higher regard than the other. For example, he recognizes that Jesus is the personification of goodness, but as he has no evidence that Jesus existed, he sees no value in living a traditionally good life. He finds pleasure in meanness, or evil like murder. This idea is the result of his incarceration, which he feels was unrelated to his actions.
This indifferent but consistent outlook on morality gives The Misfit the perspective necessary to recognize that the grandmother is not truly the good person she believes she is. Her one true act of goodness only occurs when she is afraid for her life. Before this moment, her actions were dubious at best. For example, she sees a poor Black boy by the side of the road with no pants but does not feel compassion for him. Instead, she indicates that he is somehow below her and simply desires to paint his poverty into a picture.
The author uses these characters and their ideas of good and evil to comment on Southern religious society in the postwar era. She concludes that the performance of goodness is ultimately meaningless in its disingenuousness, especially in a world that gives no preference to goodness.
Punishment and Original Sin
The theme of punishment is explored at length in the story, most notably in relation to The Misfit character. He spends quite a bit of time explaining to the grandmother that he was punished by the justice system for a crime he does not remember committing. This experience shapes his nature and results in his lack of guilt for killing the entire family. Rather than concern himself with good and evil— even to avoid punishment—he simply acts to chase his own pleasure through meanness.
The Misfit’s punishment is likely a reference to Original Sin, which, according to Christian religions, is something all humans are born with and cannot escape through any of their own actions. He tells the grandmother: “I found out the crime don't matter. You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you're going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it” (Paragraph 122).
Later, in in discussing whether Jesus died for humanity’s sins, he opines: “If He did what He said, then it's nothing for you to do but thow away everything and follow Him, and if He didn't, then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left” (Paragraph 133). He is essentially saying that if Jesus did truly die to absolve humanity of Original Sin, then it is worth living a moral life. However, if Jesus did not absolve Original Sin, then there is no reason to do so. Since The Misfit and his associates drive away at the end of the story, seemingly never to be punished, it seems that a lack of just punishment extends beyond human law and into divine law.
The Changing South
The South is woven through the entire story, especially the interplay between pre- and postwar Southern society. The grandmother is deeply nostalgic for the days when she visited plantations and had old-fashioned gentlemen callers. Although she is not old enough to remember pre-Civil War America, she is very much a product of that society, from her racist views to her desire for traditional manners.
She and Red Sammy associate the past with safety and goodness. They recall a time when most people were generally good, such that they could leave doors unlocked and take people at their word. They generally ignore the negative aspects of the past, including racism and misogyny. Even The Misfit reminisces about the past and his father, when he was young and had an understanding of the world as opposed to his confusion post-incarceration.
All of the characters conclude that the present is somehow worse than the past. The present is characterized by ambiguity, uncertainty, and a lack of goodness. In a way, this view of the present symbolizes the South in general, which struggled to define its identity after the Civil War. In many ways, the South was and is characterized by uncertainty and tension, often leading to violence.
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By Flannery O'Connor
