Custom «A Good Man is Hard to Find and Other Stories» Essay Paper Sample

“A Good Man is Hard to Find” is one of the Flannery’s best stories. She makes an outstanding use of fierce death to emphasize her theme in the story. It is a story about a vacationing family which was killed by three psychopaths. The story displays signs of doom right from the beginning. It majorly centres on the grandmother’s view on how events unfold. As a matter of fact, she is the protagonist in the story. On the other hand, the antagonist in the story is Misfit (O'Connor, 1992).

The family stopped severally along the way. During one of the halts, Bailey warns that they will not stop anymore, which turns out to be prophetic indeed. After they got into the car and proceeded with the journey, a horrible thought caught the grandmother who sprang her feet up upsetting her cat in the basket (O'Connor, 1992). Actually, this occurrence made the rest of the family including the driver to realize that the old lady had secretly carried her cat. The cat was very frightened, and, as a result, it jumped from the basket landing on Bailey’s shoulder (O'Connor, 1992).

An atmosphere of panic, apprehension, and confusion embraced everyone in the car as no one knew what was to follow after their driver was distracted by the cat (O'Connor, 1992). It did not take long before Bailey lost control and the car rolled over before landing into a ditch with its right-side up. The children were knocked down on the floor while their mother was thrown outside the car with her baby (O'Connor, 1992). The grandmother landed under the dashboard while the driver remained in his seat. The only person who was injured was the mother; she broke her hand. When the children realized that they had not been injured, they ran screaming excitedly that they had an accident (O'Connor, 1992). It is at the scene of the accident that the Misfit appears who brings more doom to the family.