Hi, I'm Rebecca Balcarcel. Let's talk about "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the short story by Flannery O'Conner.
This is a disturbing short story because nobody's really a hero. There's
no one to root for; everybody's bad. We feel a little bit for the grandmother because we
see the story mostly through her eyes, but actually we don't like her much
either because she's a bit of a loudmouth, she's quite judgemental, and she's pretty
superficial. She wants just her being a lady to prevent the misfit from killing
her, and she thinks that somehow he'll spare her just because she's a lady, when she should
be pleading for the lives of her other family members, including her son.
So there's nobody to really root for, and that makes me think that Flannery O'Conner
is presenting us with a bit of a puzzle, a moral puzzle: Who is right in this
story? Is anyone right? If no is right, then where is rightness? Is it right that they
all die? You know, is the misfit right about the grandmother when he says
somebody should have shot her every day of her life. He's obviously disgusted with her,
and tired of her mouthing off and just talking a lot. There's very little
redemption in this story. Almost nobody changes or grows. Maybe the grandmother discovers
something at the very end. When she's about to be killed, she says, "Oh, you
could be my child." So that implies a little bit of deeper awareness about this murderer,
but that is the tiny little bit of growth, if any. Some people say that the
children and the- the mother and father come together as a family, that they actually bond
more and join more in this moment of death than they every have before,
because we see that at the home they are disconnect, they're argumentative, fractious... They insult
eachother, and then when they're on the road, they're grumpy.
The one child is kicking the back seat, you know, behind his father, the driver. Man,
that is super annoying. Uh, the little girl is rude when they are at the roadside
diner or eating place. She's tap dancing, and someone tries to give her a compliment,
but she says something rude back. So neither of the kids is really nice. There
is a baby, who we can figure is blameless. The parents, well, the dad is kind of surly,
he doesn't say much, he's mostly barking, uh, disappointments and commands.
The mother is not portrayed as especially effective or interesting. She's not especially
feeling or especially smart. They're just rather shallow people, and I don't
think we're supposed to like any of them very much, including the grandmother who, you know...
She says a few things that are interesting or entertaining, but she
also lies. Uh, as much as she's on a high horse, judging everybody else, she, uh, doesn't
reveal the fact that she realizes, "Oh my gosh, this is not even where we're
supposed to be. This is not the state I was thinking of. I got it wrong." Uh, she does
sneak that cat into the car, and the cat is what causes the car accident, so...
Mmmm, nobody is likeable.
Now why is Flannery Conner showing us a family that is so unlikeable, and then a rather complex
sort of murderer character who is simply labled "the misfit?" In fact,
the misfit is the only one who's actually sort of thoughtful in his one wierd way. It's
sort of a scary mindset that he has. He says something like, "The only pleasure
there is is in meanness and being mean." Um, he has thought about life and has come to
the conclusion that there's no point in it, but nobody else has thought much
about it at all, you know, so... Alright, so why are we shown these characters? Well,
one reason might be because Flannery O'Conner tends to present the darkness of
human nature, and likes to point out that people can be on the wrong path even if they
seem to be on the right path. So while at first we want to judge this muderer
as being totally on the wrong path, we actually end up finding out that this grandmother who
considers herself so high and mighty is on the wrong path too. And actually
their all on the wrong path. So perhaps the whole story is a bit of a warning and a bit
of a scolding to all of us who could be, uh, shallow and judgemental, as well
as those who might be outright criminal, that really all of us are in the same boat, and
that we can't judge too harshly because we're all flawed. So that might be one
thing to take away from the story. Uh, others point to the empathy that does finally show
itself as the family is dying. The, uh, little boy does take his father's
hand, and the mother says, "Yes, please, please, I want to join my family in death." So, there's
a little family unity there, there's a little family feeling, and even
though it's pretty bleak, the nuclear family there does die together, and perhaps they
appreciate eachother more than they ever have, and that's a little lesson to
be learned there. If any other message can be taken from the story, maybe it's that this
misfit, this, uh, murdering man... He has his own internal logic, and we have
to notice that he's not killing out of, uh, thirst for blood, exactly. He's actually trying
to have happiness in his own twisted way. Uh, he has his own view of life
and he came to that view of life as a person in prison. He felt that he had been imprisoned
unjustly, and that the police had trumped up some false charges. And maybe
it raises the question about: Do we truly have justice in our legal system? Do we sometimes
make mistakes? Do our laws always get administered fairly? Do the
punishments get administered fairly? And do some people go into prison, uh, a better people
than they come out? Lastly, we might think of this misfit as what might be
called a- a sacrificial figure who is doomed to be the sinner so that everyone else can
pretend that they're not sinning. He's a scapegoat of a sort. If we can put
all the evil there where we can see it plainly, then we don't have to examine ourselves, where
evil might be a little harder to see, and we might be less likely to
want to admit it. He becomes the dark person who must be sacrificed so that everyone else
can feel okay.
Well, these are some ideas that we can take from the story. Hopefully you'll join me another
video sometime. Be great to see ya.