dotted outline of a black cat sitting within a basket in front of an older woman wearing a sundress

A Good Man Is Hard to Find

by Flannery O’Connor

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1. What role does fate play in the story?

Quick answer:

A summary of how the grandmother's personality is off-putting and how one of her traits leads to the family's fate: The self-centeredness and racism of the grandmother in "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" are two examples of her off-putting character. Through a series of events, including Pitty Sing's running away and knocking over the basket, Bailey crashes into a ditch, inciting the wrath of an escaped convict. The fact that she refers to blacks as "pickaninnies" only adds to her racist attitude. Her actions ultimately result in her death, but also in the deaths of many others.

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In order to illustrate the role fate or destiny seems to play in the story, you will want to capture the way the family seems fated to meet with the Misfit from almost the very beginning of the story, when the grandmother learns of the criminal's escape and tries to persuade her son to go a different direction. Perhaps you could draw a map, with the family's car on one side, driving on a dotted red line moving toward a large red "X" in the middle of the picture and the Misfit's car on the other side, also driving on a dotted red line moving toward the same large red "X." This might show how they were destined to run into one another.

As for how the grandmother's actions doom the family, you might consider drawing a picture of her cat, Pitty Sing, sitting in the basket at the grandmother's feet. Had it not been for the startled cat, who the grandmother was not supposed to bring anyway, Bailey would not have wrecked the car, and the family would never have caught the attention of the Misfit and his gang.

One of the grandmother's most off-putting traits is her self-centeredness. She talks about how people and things used to be so much better in the past, but she does not recognize how the past was not better for everyone. She's a total racist and she ignores the way Red Sammy speaks dismissively and rudely to his wife. You could draw a picture of her pointing out the car's window at the black child she calls "pickaninny."

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1. To the extent that foreshadowing is the equivalent of destiny in a work of literature, the family seems to be destined or fated to run into the Misfit. The grandmother mentions him in the first paragraph of the story:

Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it.

Of course, the family will head in the direction of the Misfit, because Bailey, the father, ignores the grandmother.

Later, the Misfit comes up again in conversation. When they stop for lunch, the grandmother asks Red Sam and his wife:

Did you read about that criminal, The Misfit, that’s escaped?

The wife says that she would not be surprised if the Misfit attacked the restaurant. At this point, it seems fairly clear that an encounter with the Misfit is destined.

2. The grandmother manipulates the children to whine until the family heads down a deserted road to see an old plantation. She then realizes it is the wrong road. To make matters worse, the cat she hid in the car springs up and lands on Bailey, causing him to roll the car into the ditch. All of this leads to them being caught by the Misfit and his gang. To makes matters worse, the grandmother reveals that she knows he is the Misfit. This means the Misfit will have no choice but to kill the family to silence them.

The story ends with closure because the grandmother experiences God's grace when she can see that the Misfit is just like her own son. She forgives him for what he has done to her family.

3. The Grandmother is a pain in the neck in multiple ways. She complains of not wanting to go to Florida when the rest of the family does want to go. She tells the children that children were more respectful in her day. She complains that people used to be nicer. She asserts that she is lady, which she assumes makes her superior to others. She shows herself to be a racist in how she talks about the "cute little pickanniny." She wants to have her way and to be in charge—and she tries to get her way by using underhanded methods, such as sneaking the cat in the car. She is the last person who one would expect to be touched by God's grace.

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