Flannery O'Connor

The two major characters (the Grandmother and the Misfit) in Flannery O'Connor's short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" present two of the possible responses to Jesus Christ. Their meeting brings no change in the response of the Misfit, but it does bring about a radical change in the Grandmother, a change which awakens her, for probably the first time in her life to her intimate spiritual connection to another human being. Her transformation, coming a moment before her death, is the heart and soul of the story.

The Grandmother is the epitome of the self-described Christian who professes faith and spouts platitudes but in fact has no idea of the meaning of the faith she claims to live by. The Misfit, on the other hand, has thought long and hard about the meaning of the life of Jesus with respect to salvation, and he has come to the conclusion that he cannot believe because he was not there in person to see Jesus raise the dead. If he had been there, the Misfit says, he would believe and follow Jesus, but "I wasn't there. . . . I wisht I had of been there. . . . It ain't right I wasn't there because if I had of been there I would of known . . . and I wouldn't be like I am now" (12).

Because he was not there with Jesus to witness His raising the dead, the Misfit has decided that God does not exist, and he acts accordingly, doing as much damage to others as he can manage. To the Misfit, those are the two choices, and the only two choices, that the words, actions, life an

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change, and because she in fact does change, and radically. Her awakening symbolizes what the Catholic O'Connor herself sees as the heart and soul of Catholic fiction: A door is always open to possibility and the unexpected in the human soul. Its center of meaning will be Christ; its center of destruction will be the devil (Brinkmeyer 20). The Misfit has chosen the way of the devil, because, to him, that is the only choice other than the way of Christ. The Grandmother, facing danger, says, to herself and/or the Misfit, "Pray, pray," and, later, "If you would pray, . . . Jesus would help you" (O'Connor 10). She has ostensibly chosen the way of Christ, but her words come only as a means whereby she hopes to save herself from what appears to be the imminent approach of death. In fact, ironically, it is her statement of doubt about Jesus that finally propels her for probably the first time in her life to see another human as a being in need of her love. She says, to try to appease the Misfit, "Maybe [Jesus] didn't raise the dead," but the impact of the words land in her soul and lead her to make the redeeming move of her life: She saw the man's face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry and she murmured, "Why,

Category: Literature - F