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   cybil Teacher
   High School - 12th Grade

   eNotes Editor

   Because I don't know which book you're using, I cannot indicate the page numbers, but I can point out some passages that show the grandmother's faith. In her conversation with the Misfit, she tells him, "If you would pray...Jesus would help you." She calls on "Jesus" a number of times, but as O'Connor notes, we're not sure if she means "Jesus will help you" or "she might be cursing" as she begs the Misfit "not to shoot a lady."

   The Misfit's view of Jesus is that he "thown everything off balance" because he "raised the dead." That knowledge leaves the Misfit, he believes, with two choices: "thow away everything and follow Him," or if Jesus didn't raise the dead "enjoy the few minutes you got left ... by doing some meanness...." In response to this remark, the grandmother collapses and mumbles "not knowing what she was saying and feeling so dizzy that she sank down in the ditch," she said "Maybe He didn't raise the dead." Her faith is being tested. When she reaches out to the Misfit and declares, "You're one of my own children!" as she touches him, she experiences what O'Connor refers to as her "moment of grace," a time when she recognizess that she shares some trait with the Misfit despite their obvious differences. Here is her religious epiphany; when she spoke of Jesus before, her beliefs were superficial.

   Sources:

   http://www.enotes.com/good-man/grandmother

   http://www.enotes.com/good-man/themes

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   Posted by cybil on Friday October 24, 2008 at 7:00 AM