Grace, Jesus, and Parenting in Flannery O’Conner’s story “A Good Man is Hard to Find”

Did you think The Misfit was literally the Grandmother’s son? Does it matter? We would love to hear from you on that one.

Flannery O’Connor’s story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” has a family road trip, a supremely annoying grandmother, and a terrifying encounter with the philosophical serial killer, The Misfit. If you’ve ever been haunted by the final pages or wondered what O’Connor was really trying to say about faith and family, this episode is for you.

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What We Tangle With in This Episode

• Christianity and the The Story’s Climax: Is this story trying to tell us something essential about Christianity? We look closely at the fates of the Grandmother and The Misfit and ask: what do their terrifying final moments suggest about O’Connor’s views on grace and redemption?
• The Misfit’s Proclamation: We try to unpack arguably the story’s most quoted and disturbing line: what does The Misfit mean when he says the Grandmother “would have been a good woman… if there had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life”?
• Defining Southern Gothic: We explore how O’Connor uses the grotesque, the religious, and the darkly comedic to define this unique regional style.
• The Significance of Names: Anne and I dig into the names, especially the bratty, unforgettable children: June Star, and the heavily symbolic John Wesley (named after the founder of Methodism).
• The Grandmother, Ourselves, and Parenting: We break down the Grandmother’s character—her superficiality, her nostalgia, and her capacity for a fleeting moment of true grace. This led us to a discussion of our own grandmothers, and the difficult topic of parenting in the face of the children’s behavior in the story.

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Literary Context

• The Misfit and Anton Chigurh: We drew a parallel between The Misfit and other cold, philosophical villains, notably Anton Chigurh from Cormac McCarthy’s No Country for Old Men.
• Sufjan Stevens’s Song: Did you know musician Sufjan Stevens wrote a song titled “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” for his album Seven Swans? We discuss how it’s told from the villain’s perspective, further showing the Misfit’s cultural grip.
• O’Connor’s Background: We touched on the life of Flannery O’Connor, a Southern Catholic who died young at 39 from lupus (like her father). Knowing her intense faith informs the brutal spiritual clarity she brings to the page.

Come ride along with us as we discuss the ultimately deadly back roads of Flannery O’Connor’s dark genius.

Thanks for checking out this episode!