Flannery O’ Connor’s, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” is a compelling story about a grandmother attempting to show everybody how proper she is. The story, however, is useless without symbolism. Using the grandmother’s hat, nostalgia, and the definition of the good man itself, we see how the grandmother wants to represent herself. These three things also symbolize who the grandmother really is, and represent her demise, propelling the story to a brutal climax.
While symbols are noticeable throughout the entirety of, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” perhaps the most obvious use of it is in the grandmother’s hat. She wears the hat for one purpose, and that is to show how lady-like she is. The grandmother’s hat, then, is a representation of her propriety and moral code, when in reality the grandmother is the most reprehensible of all members in the family. To begin, the grandmother prepares with the family for their car trip, taking great care to look nice in the event of a car accident, which happens . She does this because, in the event of her death, she wants anybody who happens upon her body to think she was a nice, caring, proper lady; the hat is supposed to tell them this. Essentially, she is more concerned with what people think of her dead body, than what they think of her actions in life, which later reflect a cold, calloused individual. The grandmother is entirely unconcerned with the idea that she, as well as the rest of her family, would be dead in the event of this supposed car accident. All that matters to her is she has her at, and is presumed a lady by the crowd that happens upon her car. It reveals how selfish and immoral she truly is in comparison to who a real lady really would be in such a situation. When the family is involved in a real car accident, wherein nobody dies, they meet the Misfit. The grandmother’s hat falls apart, and her façade of morality falls apart with it as she begins to offer up her family to save her own life.
Nostalgia is symbolic throughout the text as it ties directly to the concept of a, “good man,” no longer existing. Moreover, the grandmother’s nostalgia is what inevitably reveals her lying immorality, leads to the car accident, and gets the family killed. Throughout the trip, the grandmother grows bored and begins to talk about a suitor she had when she was a young woman; he brought her watermelon and she reveals she probably would have married him because he was a gentleman . This seems inconsequential, but the grandmother admits she has yet to meet a man like this early suitor, Edgar Teagarden, and that he was a good man. There are no more like him, thus establishing the link between nostalgia and good men; there is none to be found now, so why bother? Who can be trusted? Even Red Sammy admits, “A good man is hard to find.” The grandmother wants to visit a home wherein she was visited by Teagarden, but will not admit she cannot remember where it is. She gets the family lost throughout her venture for nostalgia, which leads them to the car accident, and then to the Misfit. The Misfit himself has stories of nostalgia, symbolizing the metamorphosis of society, and how he has been deprived of several chances to be a good man, as the grandmother suggests he actually is. He admits he is not, and kills her, along with the rest of the family. Nostalgia, then, symbolizes when it was easy to find a good man, and everything they stood for long ago. As the story continues, it also begins to symbolize when individuals like the grandmother and the Misfit had more chances to make better decisions with their life, and not just be a “good man,” but to be better people.
Finally, the story finds a symbol in the “good man” himself. The definition is elusive, as the grandmother does not seem to know the true definition between good and bad herself, but applies the definition of a “good man” liberally whenever she feels the need. In doing so, it loses all meaning. She first calls Red Sammy a good man after he remarks about people being untrustworthy. The grandmother only applies this definition because she agrees with what Red Sammy is saying, not because he fits the criteria to be a good man. In Red Sammy’s case, she believes a “good man” should be gullible and easily swindled, as Red Sammy paid for gasoline for two strangers without realizing. These are not necessarily the traits of a “good” person, but as the story goes on, we begin to realize the definition of a “good man” begins to symbolize who the grandmother is, not who a good man is. We see this in finality when the grandmother calls the Misfit a good man. He is an escaped convict, which is the first reason he is likely not a good man, but the primary reason she calls him a good man is because she desperately wants to be seen as a lady, even in death. She labels the Misfit a “good man” and asks if he would ever shoot a lady, a question the Misfit never answers verbally . The Misfit does shoot the grandmother because he inherently is not a “good man” but in the story, the definition of a good man had more to do with the grandmother being seen as a moral woman. Moral women are not shot on the side of the road; they make convicts see the error of their ways and leave to see more of their days. A “Good man” was symbolic of who the grandmother wanted to be, not what a “good man” was.
In sum, symbols played a large part in, “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” They were representative of key parts of the story, and helped propel the plot. Moreover, they showed who the grandmother truly was. The grandmother’s hat was representative of how she wanted to be viewed, as a lady. Nostalgia was symbolic of a time when a “good man” seemed easier to find, but also when it would have been possible to be the individual the grandmother wanted to be, not who she was trying to trick everybody into thinking she was. Finally, the definition of a “good man” was not about men in general, but more symbolic of whom the grandmother wanted to be and how she wanted to be treated. Without these symbols, the story would have meant nothing.
Works Cited
O'Connor, Flannery. A Good Man is Hard to Find. Boston: Penguin, 1953. Print.
