Grandmother Responsible for Her Family

Grandmother Responsible for Her Family Death

The unnamed mother in Flannery O'Connor's short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" virtually ignores the attitudes present in society and believes that doing things in accordance with her personal beliefs is likely to generate positive results for her and for her family as a whole. In spite of the fact that she is continuously bombarded with evidence proving otherwise, she concentrates on listening to her heart and even goes as far as to try to impose her point-of-view in front of a ruthless killer that is clearly not interested in her thinking.

One of the worst things about this grandmother is that she is addicted to manipulating people. She does not want to go to Florida, she wants to detour her family, and she even fakes an internal injury at the time when the group has an accident. The Misfit is probably one of the only individuals capable of proving her wrong. The only problem with this is that he is a killer and that his attitude does much more than to correct grandmother's personality.

The grandmother does not realize the harmful effects that her behavior can have in particular circumstances. She blindly acts as if she is not talking with a cruel murderer at the time when she comes across the Misfit. This backfires on her and is ultimately the reason for which she and her family end up being killed by the murderers. Through labeling the Misfit as a blood-thirsty killer she actually influences him in acknowledging that his only option is to kill the whole family.