Reflection on Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

Even after reading Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” a couple of times I struggle to discriminate the exact emotions that it triggers in me. Not only does O’Connor put forward a violent and harsh depiction of life, but through the grandmother's character she also challenges what it means to find redemption and salvation. While this short story is full of conflicts, ironies and paradoxes, the ultimate irony is that the grandmother, a person who perceives herself as a superior and righteous person, seen as she says “in my time… children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then,” finds clarity and salvation through the “Misfit,” a person viewed by society as an unmoral “criminal.” 

While the grandmother thinks of herself as better than those around her, both on a material and spiritual level, both her behaviour and dialogue capture a profound sense of hypocrisy. She is critical and judgmental of those around her, yet lives oblivious to her own misgivings including not only lying about the “secret-panel” in the house but also being dishonest as she fails to admit that she mistook the location of the house that “was not in Georgia but in Tennessee.” But what really struck me about her hypocrisy was her selfishness towards the end of the story where while she says “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?” multiple times, she never tries to save her family and actually seems completely unaware that they are being killed.