A Good Man is Hard to Find: The Influence of the Grandmother
A Good Man is Hard to Find, a Gothic epic, tells the tale of a family who embarked on a voyage that ultimately claimed their lives. The influential Grandmother, Bailey, his wife, and the kids make up the six-person household. Although Bailey had planned to transport the family to Georgia, her mother, Grandmother, persuaded her to take the family to Florida. Later, the car flips over, and nobody can assist them save The Misfit, a man who escaped from the Federal Pen, who ends up killing everyone. Grandmother could be perceived as an egocentric and selfish woman who only intended to serve her interests, but she is the mover throughout the novel who had so much influence that the can controversially be seen as the agent of fate.
The Grandmother's Character: Irrational and Garrulous
The key consideration in the analysis of the Grandmother's character portrays her as an irrational and garrulous woman. On many occasion, the grandmother is behind some senseless acts that either gets the family annoyed or puts all of them in trouble. For example, she carries the family pet along with her in the journey despite having been told not to make the mistake. The Grandmother hides the cat in a newspaper because of her foolishness as she did not know why Bailey had instructed her not to do it. It turns out later that Bailey was the wise one while Grandmother was foolish because when the cat escapes from her hiding, it jumps and startles the driver of the car, and an accident is imminent. The thoughtless and selfish act by the grandmother thus shows why she can be described as the most foolish in the book.
Grandmother's Influence on the Plot
However, it is important to consider that while she could be thought to be self-centered and mindless, Grandmother's actions are crucial as they move the whole plot of the novel. The grandmother makes the initial decision and is also behind the ultimate decision that led to death at the hands of the Misfit. An appropriate instance that confirms this factor is the realization that she made the initial decision of going the Florida and thus acted as the spur for all the events that followed. The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee, and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind" (34). Later, the reader realizes the influence that the grandmother had that involved the accident, the visiting of the rugged house, and identifying the Misfit while the rest of the family played supporting roles in the book.
Grandmother as an Agent of Fate
Finally, Grandmother is also seen to be behind the foreshadowing of the death and can be described as an agent of fate in the book. A feeling of a gothic scene is manifested as the family travels on the road where it is stated that the road looked like no one had used it for months. The other significant part that qualifies Grandmother's foreshadowing as an agent of fate is when she suggests visiting an abandoned house whose owner was never found, meaning that he could have died. Connor writes "There was a secret panel in this house," she said craftily, not telling the truth but wishing that she were, "and the story went that all the family silver was hidden in it when Sherman came through but it was never found…" (Connor 45). Through the several references that she makes to death, Grandmother satisfies the tag of being an agent of fate.
Grandmother's Lack of Control
Contrastingly, it can also be perceived that Grandmother is not an agent of fate as such because she also had no control over some key issues in the book that end in death. It is undisputed that Grandmother foreshadows the family's fate, but some prospects do not involve her. For example, the escape of Misfit is beyond the control of the Grandmother, but it happens to be an important part of the story because he is the one who orders their killing. Regardless of the quality of the argument that can be raised to counter Grandmother's role as an agent of fate, she is undisputedly one.
The Role of Grandmother: Foolish but Instrumental
In summary, the plot of Connor Flanner's story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" portrays the grandmother as a foolish but also instrumental character whose actions define many scenes from start to finish. Furthermore, she also satisfies the book to be a Gothic novel from the way she foreshadows the death of the six family members. On several occasions, Grandmother gives hints about the death that was forthcoming and that turns out to be inevitable for each of the family members. However, from a different perspective, it is also seen that Grandmother is not an agent of fate as there are other parts of the plot that she has no influence in but play a crucial role in the outcome the family faces in the forest.
Work Cited
Connor, Flannery O’. A Good Man Is Hard to Find. United States: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1953. Print.
