A Good Man Is Hard To Find Analysis Essay

Not all stories are clean and pretty, some stories are dark and twisted like a gnarled oak branch. "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is written with a very dark technique that foreshadows a nasty ending within the first few lines. This darkness follows the rest of the story and hangs in the background of the readers thoughts till the end. Every character in the story is flawed and grotesque in their own ways. The author exaggerates all the flaws to emphasize the point of this story. Starting with the title "A Good Man is Hard to Find" the reader immediately starts to examine all of the men in the story. Upon this examination all of the men are found to be lacking the title of a good man. The father is too self absorbed and would rather be anywhere other than with his family it seems. The shop keeper is far too gullible and perturbed to be considered a good man. Lastly, there are the three bad men at the end of the story. While the "Misfit" has the strongest moral conviction of any character in the story, none of the three at the end it all can claim any part of the term good man. This would leave the reader to believe that a good man really and truly is hard to find. The way the author makes the "Misfit" out to be the character with the strongest moral convictions is another way that the darkness creeps throughout the story. Every other character has been flimsy in their core. The father and husband completely spaces out and is quite disconnected from his family. The children are almost as self centered as the grandmother. The wife is barely conscience of anything going on around her it seems. The grandmother is so utterly self absorbed with her thought of her being a lady that there is room for little else in her mind. Even the shop owner is out of whack, between his inability to tell when he is getting hustled and his thoughts that yesteryear was always so much better than today. Yet the misfit has strong convictions. He alone seems to be able to set his course and keep true to that path. Unfortunately his …show more content…
The grandmothers central role showcases her lack of real emotion or compassion for anyone other than herself. When most people think of grandmothers they do not think of someone so self absorbed or emotionless towards her family and especially her grandchildren. As the main character, the grandmothers views are in the foreground leaning on the reader. This distortion is evident in the other people as well. The children are completely out of control and have no respect for their elders. They are rude to strangers and family alike. The parents couldn 't be bothered to care either how their kids act or even how they interact with them. Even Red Sammy isn 't without his flaws. On the surface he seems as though he may be the good man but this is quickly evaporates as he dismisses his wife so brashly and harps on all of his own misfortunes to his customers. Of course the reader would know that the fugitive wouldn 't be a good man by the time they come up at the end. Even knowing this it is still a bit shocking that they would be such bad men that killing a baby is so easily