A Good Man Is Hard to Find The Grandmother's Grace

"A Good Man is Hard to Find": The Grandmother's Grace Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" tells the metaphorical tale of a family's fatal confrontation with The Misfit, an escaped serial killer. The incidents and characters throughout the story are aspects of a plot intending to symbolize the spiritual grace passed from one human to another, without regard for kindness or evil. The prominent character in O'Connor's story is the grandmother, who …

…who vehemently shot her family are joined by spiritual ties of kinship. The Misfit's response to her grace coincides with his statement, "No pleasure but meanness" (203), and when he says, "She would of been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life" (203), he only proves his necessity in the grandmother's religious realization and the contrast between the superficial exterior and the spiritual grace of her soul.