"A Good Man is Hard to Find"

As I began reading “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” I was actively searching for ties to Christianity knowing that O’Connor was a devout Catholic. Towards the end of the story, I came to the conclusion that O’Connor was mocking what I would call "fake Christians" through the character, the grandmother. The way in which the grandmother carries herself during the plot was very ironic. O’Connor paints this character in a way that makes readers want to roll their eyes at her. She proclaims to be a good Christianly woman, but her actions do not support this. The only time that the grandmother exemplifies true Christian values is when she is staring death in the face. This is what led me to believe that O’Connor was mocking Christians who do not lead a Christian life until they are overtaken by desperation. 

I believed this to be true until I read Conley Greer’s take on the biblical references throughout “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” Greer discusses a biblical reference that I overlooked completely. He discusses the relevance of the grandmother saying the quote, “Gone With the Wind.” (O’Connor 120). Immediately after reading this quote, my mind went to Margaret Mitchell’s, Gone With the Wind. However, Greer discusses that this reference is actually a bible verse, Psalm 103: 15-17. This verse discusses how mankind is only eternal through death, “the grandmother's unknowing biblical allusion is just that: it is an ironic statement from a secularly obsessed sinner who unknowingly comments on the Christian concept of eternal life.” (Greer 52).

    Greer’s commentary then made me shift my original view of the grandmother. While I originally saw her death being an ironic mockery, I now see it as a way for O’Connor to show what she thinks is the most rewarding aspect of Christianity. O’Connor being the devout Christian she is, shows the grandmother in a very unflattering light, until she is faced with death. In her last moments, like the Misfit said himself, the grandmother acted the most Christianly compared to any other moment in the story. Though the situation that the grandmother found herself in was terrifying, in her last moments she acted gracefully and accepted the Misfit for what he was, a sinner but also a child of god. “In this context, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" may end grotesquely, but the allusion to Psalm 103 foreshadows hope in the sense that the grandmother will have an opportunity to experience eternal life when she comes face to face with death.” (Greer, 52). Through the grandmother's final actions, O'Connor shows what she believes it means to be a Christian, which is accepting that you and everyone around you is not only a sinner but also a child of God. 

Sources:

Greer, Conley. Orthodoxy and Allusions in "A Good Man is Hard to Find." The Corinthian: The Journal of           Student Research at Georgia College, 2003.