I thought "A Good Man is Hard to Find" was very interesting. I liked how society can be included in the definition of "Man". As the grandmother gets older, society has become more corrupt.
"A good man is hard to find," Red Sammy said. "Everything is getting terrible. I remember the day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more."
The grandchildren have no respect for their elders. They say whatever they want to no matter who they are talking to. Oates placed a lot of emphasis on "being good." Every chance the grandmother got she told "The Misfit" he was a good man, and came from nice people. I also thought it was ironic that at the very beginning of the story the grandmother asks John Wesley what he would do if the Misfit caught him. Later the entire family is killed by him.
I was confused at the end, Was the Misfit the son of the grandmother???"Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children !"
I enjoyed this story quite a bit and agree with most of the things that you have writen. There is a lot of foreshadowing within the short story, one being that the family will get caught by the misfit in the end. At the end of the story when the grandmorther said that he was one of her babies and one of her own children, she was not speaking literally but metaphorically. He is simply another child lost on the path of life. She is having an epiphany that she is no better than the next person. It is not the good clothes or social status what makes a person any closer to God, but it is simply the faith and relationship that brings you to Him.
ReplyDeleteWhile the Misfit may just be "another child lost on the path of life" as Spencer indicated, i feel that the misfit stands for more than just that. When going back and looking at his characteristics and Bailey's, it almost seems that the Misfit is a Doppleganger of Bailey. While Bailey tends to be really quite with a not so sunny disposition, but always seems to have done the right thing in life. The Misfit is talkative, with a somewhat enlightened sense of self and is known for breaking the law. Even when the grandmother first sees the Misfit, she feels he is "familiar... as if she had known him all her life". In the end when the Misfit puts on Bailey's shirt and is then proclaimed to be the grandmother's son, is almost symbolic of the doppleganger character becoming one, or even the triumph of one part of the doppleganger over the other.
ReplyDeleteYes i agree with the description of society. It seems like corruption has taken over and either authority is corrupt itself or their is no authority in place in the town. There are several ways to think of it, but i would just think authority is also corrupt letting people get away with whatever.
ReplyDeleteThe way the children act towards the grandmother and other elders can show the generation gaps between the family. The grandmother still wears the white gloves to represent innocence and how she has respect for everything while the children are rude and disrespectful to mostly everyone. The story does well in showing how more and more generations are losing manners and proper etiquete towards society as a whole.
ReplyDeleteI like how you think about "being good." It makes me think back to the author's severe religion and what her idea of good truely is. There is obviously no one up to her standards in this story but i believe that if the Misfit would have prayed, I think that the author would have made him a good character. But instead she is attacking anyone who doesnt believe, saying that the non believers are murderes and theives, or just plain superficial. Most people only believe when they are in the most desperate of situations.
ReplyDeleteI think when the grandmother tells the Misfit he was her son she was just trying to put him and her on the same level, being more personal so he wouldn't kill her. There seems to be a lot of religious tone in this work, she wants the Misfit to remember when he was good because good people wouldn't kill anyone. I also see that the author is trying to make a statement that the young generation is disrespectful and mean hearted because the children are terrible.
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