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1. 
   renelane Teacher
   High School - 11th Grade

   eNotes Editor

   The misfit's final words : "She would of been a good woman ... if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life," reflect that he does not have much faith in the generosity of spirit, unless there is something to be gained from it. She would not have uttered kind words to him had her life not been on the line. His disastrous upbringing, coupled with his life of crime have hardened him, and he sees the dark side of human behavior. He interprets the grandmother's comments as only being said in preparation to meet her maker.

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   Posted by renelane on Thursday October 18, 2007 at 9:22 AM
   
   

2. 
   sagetrieb Teacher
   Doctorate

   I would add the comment to that interpretation as to what O'Connor's tone is in presenting the Misfit's final observation.  Does he speak the truth? After all, the title of the story is "a good man is hard to find," "man" referring, I think, to human being in a generic way.  We are all deeply flawed, O'Connor suggests, and that is what we share as human beings:  an original state of sin through which we must find redemption. The grandmother acknowledges her connection to him when she calls him one of "her babies," suggesting that she participates in the production of evil, that good and evil are not dialectical opposites but rather deeply related. So, his words offer wisdom on the events of the day, that he in some way does her a good deal by murdering her because in doing so he gives her the opportunity to be "good."

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   Posted by sagetrieb on Thursday October 18, 2007 at 4:13 PM