Did "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" shock you? Why or why not?

This is an answer that you yourself need to decide-were you shocked?  I know that I was.  You are right; it started off as kind-of funny.  You have the whiney grandmother, the family vacation in the car, the pet cat...all fodder for some pretty funny situations.  Even when the cat leaps, causing them to wreck, it is still mildly amusing.  But then, as the car wrecks and The Misfit and his gang come onto the scene, the mood changes drastically.  Family members are brought back into the woods.  I was left feeling, okay, what is going on here?  Are they REALLY taking them back there to kill them?  I felt a bit betrayed, actually; I was reading along, really enjoying things, so I expected The Misfit to be another element of comedy somehow.  But nope.  It isn't. And then at the very end, as the grandmother finally shows a bit of softness, shows some vulnerability, the Misfit simply shoots her twice in the chest.  Pretty shocking.

So, in the end, it did shock me, because it was so unapologetically violent.  An old lady and her entire family just wiped out, shot to death.  It is a complete surprise, considering the rather sardonic comedy routine that the story was up until that point.  If I had been better prepared for it, if it had been grim before this point, or violent, the ending wouldn't have been so shocking.  Anyway, those are just my thoughts; I hope they help to get your engines running a bit.  Good luck!

Did you find "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" to be a disturbing story?

The definition of "disturbing" is when peace and harmony are interrupted or interfered with. In O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the peace and tranquility of the family traveling for a holiday are fatally interrupted when they take a wrong road and come in contact with The Misfit and his gang. The family may have escaped unharmed if the grandmother had not identified the men as escaped convicts, which makes one feel sorry for the family. Probably the most disturbing fact of the story, however, is the polite, yet carefree, way that the deaths are carried out. For example, the Misfit says the following:

"Lady, . . . would you and that little girl like to step off yonder with Bobby Lee and Hiram and join your husband?"

Then the mother simply says, "Yes, thank you," and walks her daughter and herself into the woods to be killed like her husband just was. The mother doesn't put up a fight, or argue, or try to escape! Another disturbing thought is how easily the other men carry out The Misfit's orders. These men kill men, women, and children without a second thought! After the surprise of such evil wears off, a reader might realize just how desensitized and callous some people can become; however, each reader might find a different part of the story that disturbs him or her in a different way. Which part of the story upsets you?