Misfit, He Said, \"Because I

¶ … Misfit, he said, "because I can't make what all I done wrong fit all I gone through in punishment," (O'Connor 131). The antagonist in Flannery O'Connor's short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" struggles with finding meaning in life. His existential probing is not reflected in any of the other characters in the story. Because of his genuine existential queries and the emotional numbness that he has cultivated throughout his life, O'Connor manages to portray a deadly psychopath in a sympathetic light. The reader is encouraged to relate more to the killer than to the tale's protagonist: the nameless Grandmother who is demanding, talkative, and stubborn. Her family is portrayed in a similarly ambiguous and unsympathetic light: Bailey continuously laments their "predicament" without truly standing up to the Misfit and his gang. The little girl June Star pipes up at annoying moments and even demonstrates morbidity, as when she exclaims after the accident, "But nobody's killed." The narrator notes that June Star said those words "with disappointment." The only "good man" in the story might be the ancillary character Red Sam, who utters the phrase that titles the story. Through "A Good Man is Hard to Find," Flannery O'Connor presents a twisted, distorted, and morally ambiguous view of life, seen primarily through the eyes of a murderer.

The Misfit, a ruthless sociopath, presents an existential crisis for readers to contemplate. He is more than a homicidal maniac: The Misfit is a man who has lost a sense of meaning and purpose and who also lacks the ability to love. The Misfit is also the most self-aware character in the short story. While conversing with The Grandmother, he notes that his father once claimed of him, "it's some that can live their whole life out without asking about it and it's others has to know why it is, and this boy is one of the latter," (129). After uttering this recollection of his dead dad, The Misfit apologizes for not wearing a shirt in front of the ladies. His concern for manners and proper decorum seems in direct contrast with his bloodlust. However, Flannery O'Connor purposefully presents the conundrum to suggest that, as The Grandmother states, "I know you're a good man." The only other time the Grandmother called someone a "good man" was with her encounter with Red Sam.

Religious imagery permeates "A Good Man is Hard to Find." Red Sam runs a restaurant called The Tower. For example, the Tower of Babel in the Bible was portrayed as an atrocity against God, who struck down the Tower. Parallel to the Biblical tale, The Misfit strikes down the Grandmother precisely because she "babbles." He notes, "She would have been a good woman...if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life," (133). The Misfit is thus portrayed as a god-like figure in the story. O'Connor's decision to capitalize his name and not the grandmother's underscores Flannery O'Connor's purposeful comparison of The Misfit to deity. Moreover, at several points, The Misfit is shown standing over the other characters, like the grandmother: when he first emerges from the car, "the driver looked down," and then he is shown "looking down at" the family (126).

Although he is compared to divinity, The Misfit is not a "good man," just as the Grandmother is not a good woman. O'Connor purposely alludes to the Old Testament because the deity described there is not necessarily "good" in the sense that He brings joy to human beings. Rather, the Biblical God is vengeful, full of wrath and disgust for humanity. God is, in many ways, like The Misfit. He brings disasters upon humanity and punishes people, often for no reason, as in the story of Job. The Old Testament God is then compared with Jesus Christ, about whom the grandmother and The Misfit exchange many words. Based on their discussions, it is clear that The Misfit has contemplated the nature of Jesus far more than the grandmother, who simply relies on her faith. The grandmother continuously pleads with The Misfit to "pray." However, his response is an intellectual investigation of the nature of Jesus; The Misfit has lost his emotional connection with a God who he feels allows life to be so meaningless. The Misfit states, "Jesus thrown everything off balance. It was the same case with Him as with me except he hadn't committed any crime and they could prove I had committed one," (131). The Misfit here compares himself directly with Jesus, but he does so logically, noting that he is a common criminal. The Misfit's disillusionment is directly related to his inability to understand cruelty, torture, and pain. The Misfit's mention of his father's death hints that perhaps The Misfit became a sociopath because of his inability to properly digest life's cruel accidents.

Accidents are a major theme within "A Good Man is Hard to Find." O'Connor emphasizes the theme of accidents when the children scream "We've had an ACCIDENT!" (125). The car accident, moreover, occurred directly because of the grandmother's accidentally mistaking Tennessee for Georgia. The fact that the cat, a blameless, morally exempt creature, actually causes Bailey to drive off the road underscores the central theme that life often entails meaningless and painful accidents. Interestingly, the cat "rubs itself up against" the leg of The Misfit after he has shot the entire family.