Wesley ViolaExpository Writing

Dec. 13, 2013Final Paper

In A Good Man Is Hard to Find, one of the two central characters, The Misfit, is

at once a villain and not a villain. Though his actions are unequivocally violent and

criminal, the character himself does not seem to have an evil or brutish disposition;

his manners are polite and he has a certain sophistication. O’Connor reflects the

strangeness of this character with certain details in the story’s setting, creating an

appropriately eerie atmosphere that emphasizes the meaningful, dual quality of The

Misfit.

The Misfit is a character with seemingly incompatible traits: he is genuinely

both a gentlemen and a cold-hearted murderer. Judging from his appearance,

speech, and gestures, he is distinctively civilized; the reader first sees him stepping

out of a car wearing “scholarly” glasses and greeting the unfortunate family with a

pleasant “good afternoon”(954). He never fails to address the grandmother either

as “lady” or “ma’am” (955). Yet as The Misfit is polite, he is also malicious: as he

holds a black hat in one hand (a respectful gesture upon meeting someone), he also

holds a gun in the other. He apologizes to those – “I’m sorry I don’t have on a shirt

before you ladies”– he shortly thereafter murders (956). The Misfit’s good manners

are also not pretended as if he was mocking his victims for fun. Real concern for

offending the ladies is seen in his body language as he “hunches his shoulders

slightly” and “looks up suddenly and then away deep in the woods as if he were

embarrassed” (956). The Misfit is at once genuinely well mannered and extremely

malicious.

O’Connor reflects the unique, frighteningly strange quality of the Misfit’s

character in the story’s setting. Several times the characters remark about the

bizarre, almost impossible condition of the sky: “Ain’t a cloud in the sky,” [The

Misfit] remarked, looking up at it. “Don’t see no sun but don’t see no cloud neither”

(955). This eerie intermediate between a beautiful, sunny day and a dark, cloudy

one closely parallels the seemingly impossible duality of The Misfit’s character.

The image of the cloudless, sunless sky also emphasizes an important point

of the story: it is possible, as in The Misfit’s case, to have good manners yet not be a

good person just as it is possible for the sky to have no clouds yet no sun. This idea

contrasts with the grandmother’s understanding of what makes for a good person.

For her, these necessary qualities are learned manners and outward appearance.

Seeing no clouds in the sky, she considers it a beautiful day just as she can look at

The Misfit and decide that he is good: “Yes, it’s a beautiful day,” said the

grandmother. “Listen,” she said, “you shouldn’t call yourself The Misfit because I

know you’re a good man at heart. I can just look at you and tell” (955).

Flannery O’Connor’s story shows very strikingly with The Misfit that good

manners, upbringing, and outward appearance do not necessarily make a person

good. These are superficial qualities to take into consideration when judging a

person. Ironically, the grandmother can only see these qualities when confronted

with The Misfit, yet The Misfit, on far lower moral ground, can see past them to the

true moral character of himself and the grandmother.