In Flannery O’Connor’s story a family is taking a vacation from Georgia to Florida, but the grandmother wants to go to East Tennessee where she has many connections with old friends. The Grandmother’s argument finally convinces them to go to Tennessee as they are on their way they run into the Misfit and everything spirals out of control from then on. In the story, it may seem obvious who the most moral characters in the story until reading in depth on what the ethics of the characters exactly are. When reading in depth the family “Good People” are very self-centered and snobby towards each other. Whereas the Misfit “Bad Person” does not believe anything he does, does not have a reason behind it or believes that what he does is wrong. Being moral does not necessarily mean to be humane it in reality means to stick with or follow a set of beliefs that they believe is true or right. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the most moral character is the Misfit because he stuck with his convictions and convinced others to follow his directions.
The Misfit states, many things throughout the story, but everything he states all fall in line with his specific set of morals. The Misfit states, “She would of been a good woman,” the Misfit said, “If it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (1020). In this situation someone other than the grandmother is talking about being “good,” only this time it's the person who's undoubtedly not a good person. After all the grandmother stated about “good people” and the Misfit himself being a good person, the Misfit now believes that she would have been good in the unlikely circumstance of him continuously threatening to shoot her. When the Misfit states this it looks like he had recognized that the grandmother’s final statement, for which he killed her, was actually good. This shows that it was the encounter she had with the Misfit, and with death, that made her a good person. This may seem very twisted to most people, but this is the way The Misfit’s mind and his extremely odd set of morals made sense to him. In this situation people would think the Misfit is not moral because he killed some innocent people, but in fact if he would have spared their lives then he would have had to go against his own morals which he had never done in the past and obviously did not plan on doing in this situation. The Misfit did what he had to do in the situation to keep his morals in check and his own state of mind at peace.
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The Misfit makes another statement that could be taken one of two ways either good for killing the grandmother or bad for killing her. The Misfit states, “Shut up, Bobby Lee,” the Misfit said, “It's no real pleasure in life” (1020). The Misfit states this shortly after killing the Grandmother and is feeling very emotional after doing so for one of the two reasons previously stated. This is the opposite of what the Misfit had said in the story previously about meanness being the only pleasure in life. What he's just done shooting the grandmother and killing her is being called “mean,” yet apparently, he doesn't feel good about it. Perhaps he's fallen into absolute despair, since now there is nothing left to pleasure him. This would mean that killing the grandmother drastically affected him, or maybe it is the beginning of him turning into a good man. If the Misfit in this situation believes he is turning into a good man this would make him moral to his own set of beliefs and morals. This would make the Misfit the most moral character when compared to the rest of the other characters actions throughout the story.
The Misfit makes a statement about his religious beliefs and what he states he tended to stick towards throughout the story and through his actions. The Misfit states, “Jesus was the only One that ever raised the dead,” the Misfit continued, “and He shouldn't have done it. He shown everything off balance. If He did what He said, then it's nothing for you to do but throw away everything and follow Him, and if He didn't, then it's nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him. No pleasure but meanness,” he said, and his voice had become almost a snarl (1019). The Misfit has done a lot of thinking about Jesus, and in his own way, seems to take religion a lot more seriously than the grandmother does. Everything for the Misfit comes down to whether Jesus was really God. If he was, then the Misfit thinks it's obvious what one ought to do with a person’s life. If Jesus was not God, there is no reason to live at all. According to the Misfit, there is nothing to do in that situation, except take pleasure in destruction. The Misfit has chosen the latter option, because he doesn't believe in God. Though it almost sounds as if he wants to believe and is acting out of anger because he cannot do so.
Morals are not always what some may think lie being humane or normal, some people may believe that the Misfit was not sane. The Misfit was in fact sticking with and following his beliefs and morals throughout every encounter the Misfit appears in the story. The Misfit sticks to his stories every time he acts or speaks to the other characters. He is never very hesitant on his actions or response which makes him confident on his choice of beliefs and morals. Every actions the Misfit made was for a reason and were not against his morals even if the actions were not humane or sane to an average human. The Misfit may have killed multiple people throughout the story, but his reasons for doing so in his mind were for the greater good and actually made him a better human. The Misfit is the most moral person whether he is a little insane and twisted through the statements he makes in the story are always for the same morals and beliefs whether they are inhumane or conflict with some religions or beliefs.
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