A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor

The short story A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O’Connor is a scary story. This story kept me on the edge of my seat as I was reading. The story starts out with a typical family going on a normal road trip. Before they family leaves for the road trip, the Grandmother read an article in the newspaper about a criminal who escaped from jail who was called “Misfit.” As a result of several twists of fate the family ends up meeting the Misfit. From this point on, was when it really started to get scary because the Misfit and his two friends had guns. The Grandmother tried to convince the Misfit that he was a good man even though he was in jail. By doing this she was trying to save herself and her family. If I was in her situation I would act very similar and try to be nice and to persuade him not to kill everyone. Unfortunately, it ends with them all getting murdered and the Grandmother is the last to die. When I was done reading the story, I started to think about how low the odds were that they would actually meet the Misfit. I think it would have been almost impossible, but I guess this family was very unlucky. Because of this, the story that started out seeming very realistic became unrealistic to me.

Significance of the Title of the story:  In my opinion, The title “A Good Man is Hard to Find fits the story perfectly. The Grandmother is always trying to find a good man. First, she talks to the owner of the Bar-B-Q about how now a days it is hard to find good man who is honest. Then when they meet the Misfit she tries to turn him into a good man by showing him what he can really be. She tries to convince him to pray and suggests that maybe he didn’t do anything wrong to go to jail. It turns out that the Misfit was not a good man.  So, she was right that a good man is hard to find.