Reflection #2: A Good Man Is Hard to Find

The author, Flannery O’Connor, uses a lot of description to write the story. This makes it very easy for the reader to know how the story goes. O’Connor described every single detail she could about the setting of the story. She described the cars, the personalities of the characters, the clothes they wear, the roads, the surroundings and every single situation of the story. The grandmother was Bailey’s mother, she was what a consider a normal type of grandmother, very conventional, makes stories about her past and when she wants something she tries to obtain it; like for example she wanted to go to the house she was talking about and she made up the argument about the secret panel in the house so the children would get excited and would made the father go. John Wesley and June Star where very smart, they were outgoing children, but they were also spoiled brats. We can see this when Bailey didn’t want to go to the house that the grandmother talked about and instead of trying to convince his dad in a rational way they started screaming and manipulating his dad telling him that they never did “anything fun”. Bailey, the father, was a very reserved person, he liked tranquility but he also was a loving father. The author doesn’t focus much on the mother nor the baby so basically few things are said about the mother and the baby and it makes it almost impossible to the reader to draw conclusions about these characters personalities.

I really liked the story because you always kept thinking what was going to happen next. What I didn’t like was the ending because first of all everybody is killed and second of all I didn’t understand why the grandmother told the Misfit “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” I also didn’t understand why the Misfit said that he didn’t enjoy killing but nevertheless he did it anyway. The whole story was pretty clear till’ the end that got me a little confused.