Where Have All The Good Men Gone?

In the short story A Good Man Is Hard To Find, Flannery O’Connor retains the title of a “Southern Gothic” in her ironic and almost predictable tale of one family’s road trip from hell. One of the defining aspects of the story is O’Connor’s ability to consistently foreshadow throughout the entire narrative. The story opens with the grandmother attempting to deter her son from taking the family to Florida, using the warning of the criminal at large The Misfit as one of her arguments (3). At this point it apparent that this character is integral to the story or else the author would not have introduced him so early. O’Connor uses the grandmother, through her dialogue and actions, to foreshadow most of the dark events that await the unsuspecting family. When getting ready for the long car ride, it is explained to the readers that she is dressed in such a proper manner because “in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (12). This darkly humorous comment acts as an indirect prediction of her and her family’s unfortunate future. O’Connor skillfully sets the stage for the family’s meeting with The Misfit not only through the grandmother, but through other characters as well. When Red Sammy’s wife expresses her would be lack of surprise if The Misfit attacked their diner (43), this re-affirms the reader’s suspicion that an encounter with him is likely.

In addition to the more direct references to death in the story, there are a multiple allusions, some not so subtle, to an inevitable meeting with this unfortunately real-life bogeyman. One is the passing of the graveyard on the way to the diner. When the grandmother points out that it was a family burial ground (24), the parallelism is undeniable. A blatant indication towards death is the description of The Misfits car that the grandmother hails down, which is most accurately illustrated as a hearse-like vehicle (72). Throughout the long-anticipated meeting of The Misfit, O’Connor becomes more and more direct in her references to death. When the escaped killer requests that Bailey and John Wesley step into the woods, it is obvious to the reader that they will not be returning (95). It is the same case when The Misfit asks the mother if she would like to “join” her husband in the woods (125). There is some irony in the grandmother’s being the last of the group to die. She was the only one of the family to casually point out the potential dangers of a mundane car trip. The other irony is that her actions are what ultimately create the sequence of events that lead them to The Misfit. This includes her suggestion to visit the “plantation” (48), her cat hidden in her purse (11), her hailing down the criminal’s car (73), and her recognizing The Misfit (84). When he informs the grandmother that she would have been better off if she had not identified him (85), we begin to wonder if The Misfit really would of spared their lives.

Though the reader knows very little about character of The Misfit, through his conversations he seems to be very ironic. He comes off as almost a proper man with a polite disposition, such as when he apologizes for not being appropriately dressed (100). One of the most contradictory things about The Misfit is his view on killing people. At first this man seems completely amoral, declaring “it’s nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can—by killing someone . . . “(135). However, he contradicts himself by dismissing Bobby Lee’s comment about killing the grandmother, saying that murder had no real pleasure in life (140). O’Connor ends the story with one final irony: the cat. The cause of their accident and ultimate murders becomes the only member to engage The Misfit’s humanity and thus survives.


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