A Good Man Is Hard to Find Group

Question:

kim812
kim812

In "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor, what kind of moralist is The Misfit?

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Posted by kim812 on Thursday July 9, 2009 at 6:01 PM and tagged with characters, literature, misfit, theme.

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  1. mwestwood
    mwestwood Teacher
    Community / Jr. College

    eNotes Editor

    With the final commentary of the Misfit on the grandmother in "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the Misfit utters his unique moral truth:

    She would of been a good woman...if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life. 

    With this utterance, the reader realizes these are the words of a counter moralist.  That is, the Misfit teaches the grandmother the truth about herself as she is faced with being killed, an action that is counter morality.  For, it is only when faced with dying and being talked to as she has talked to her own family that the grandmother realizes the depravity of her own soul as she sees it reflected in the Misfit:

    Why, you're one of my own children!

    The grandmother's redemption comes as a result of The Misfit's murder--a counter-morality morality.

    Sources:
    http://www.entoes.com/good-man/summary

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    Posted by mwestwood on Thursday July 9, 2009 at 6:55 PM