Flannery O’Connor: A good Man is Hard to Find
Let’s call it like it is: the grandmother in this story is a manipulator. Whenever she gets in a bind she tries and tries to fix it her way. Throughout the grandmother, the main character shows southern ignorance and racism based upon beliefs in the 1940’s-1950. The Grandmother replicates the historical and cultural race issues present during this time frame. She referred to African Americans as “Negro” which was common slang by southern whites during the era. An example of this ignorance is when the grandmother tells the obnoxious June Sate, her granddaughter, granddaughter named June Star, a story and even mentioned a derogatory statement which was “Oh look at that cute little pickaninny!” she said and pointed to a Negro child out of the back window.”(2777).
The grandmother who remains unnamed throughout the story considers herself one who is morally superior to others; she freely passes judgment on others. Her claims conscience with a guiding force in her life, such as when she tells Bailey that her conscience wouldn’t allow her to take the children in the same direction as the Misfit. She criticizes the children’s mother for not traveling to a place that would allow the children to “be broad,” and she compares the mother’s face to a cabbage. She criticizes John Wesley, her grandson, for not having more respect for his native state, Georgia, his home state (2777). The nameless grandmother also takes every opportunity to judge the lack of goodness in people in the world today. “People are certainly not nice like they used to be” is a quote from the grandmother (2778). During all this, she proudly wears her carefully selected dress and hat, certain that being a lady is the most important role of them all (2776). Oddly enough the quirky grandmother never turns her critical eye upon herself to inspect her own hypocrite ways, dishonesty, or selfishness. An example of this is, the conscience she invokes in the...