In Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man Is hard To Find,” the character known as the Misfit plays the ever-so-common villain role. In this particular story, the Misfit has a strange twist to his style of being a villain. When defining the word “misfit” one may say, a person poorly adjusted to his or her environment. With this information at hand the reader knows early to expect trouble from this character. The name alone explains the theme and plot of the story. The Misfit says his name comes from the punishments that he received from society, not fitting now remembering the crimes he has committed. In the Misfit eye’s he has done no wrong to be treated the way society has treated him.
The Misfit lived up to the name in which he was called. He believed that society made him the way he was, and they where responsible for his actions. When speaking, the Misfit appears as a well-spoken and polite person. Even when Bailey disrespects his mother, “the Misfit reddened. ‘Lady,’ he said, don’t you get upset. Sometimes a man says things he don’t mean. I don’t reckon he meant to talk to you thataway” (O’Connor 359).
That statement shows that the misfit indeed had a decent side to him. The misfit goes on about his up bringing from a child to his current status and personal life, which he also believes helped shaped his demeanor. When the Grandmother suggested that he must have come from fine people, he simply replied, “Finest people in the world”(359).
The Essay on Misfit Society Connor Grace
Mary Flannery O'Connor's believed that contemporary society was drastically changing for the worse. O'Connor's obvious displeasure with society at the time has often been attributed to her Catholic religion, her studies in the social science field, and the fact that the celebrated lifestyles of the elite southern whites were "Gone with the Wind.' Evidence of society's "demise' is woven into the ...
In addition, he goes to say, “God never made a finer woman than my mother and my daddy’s heart was pure gold” (359).
With a statement like one would think that the Misfit was being a bit sarcastic when it comes to his parents. It’s a true mystery about the way the Misfit actually feels about his parents. Many would say that the misfit didn’t care for his parents at all. One would say the major influence of the Misfit becoming a finish product revealed at the end of the story is the penitentiary. Being in jail for something that he didn’t think he did made him feel as if he was “buried alive” (O’Connor 361).
Even when facing the grandmother, he couldn’t recall what he done. All the Misfit knew is that they had papers on him. When in jail, he was told he killed his daddy he replied, “ My daddy died in nineteen ought nineteen of the epidemic flu and I never has a thing to do with it” (O’Connor 361).
That statement alone shows the reason why the Misfit turns out the way he is.
