Grandmother vs. the Misfit in A Good Man Is Hard to Find

Grandmother vs. The Misfit in A Good Man is Hard to Find In the story A Good Man is Hard to Find by Flannery O Connor, the theme is strongly supported throughout the story and is stated in the title of the story itself. In A Good Man is Hard to Find, O Connor uses symbolism throughout the entire story to represent faith and death. O Connor foreshadows death when the family goes to the town Toomsboro. The graveyard in the plantation is a symbol of death, and O Connor also writes, It was a big black battered hearse like automobile (357) which symbolizes that the family s transportation to death has arrived. Also, the grandmother secretly snuck the cat into the car and goes against Bailey s wishes. The cat springs†¦show more content†¦The story views the life of the grandmother and her pathetic view of life and how she tries to convince the Misfit into believing what her beliefs are. It is no accident that the grandmother and her entire family are killed, the family s vacation is doomed from the beginning. In the end the Misfit says she would have been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life (361). O Connor is trying to imply that there are ways to be protective through religion considering the grandma tried to save herself by preaching to the Misfit through Jesus. However, the grandma didn t achieve this through her religious ways or beliefs, but in an intimate moment with reality. She is saved in her final moments of life and learns the difference between good and evil. Unfortunately, the grandmothers causes the death of her family and then herself, due to her own selfish self centered behavior. Flannery O Connor brings to the reader through symbolism of faith and death of the outside world through her feelings and beliefs about religion and society. 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