17 Professor Cook 11/1/08 Never Trust Anyone In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” O’Conner uses the Grandmother as the catalyst of all of the family’s problems, which in the end of the story lead to their death. The Grandmother is the one who sets the family to go on a detour to see a house that doesn’t exist, which puts them down the wrong path. The Grandmother also brings that cat which wasn’t supposeto come, which causes the family to crash. And at the end of the story the Grandmother is the one who sentences the whole family to death when she realizes that their help is the escaped “Misfit”. “Much of O’Connor’s fiction contains violence, which she claimed was necessary to get readers’ attention. Her violence has a purpose, therefore; she claimed that the world in general would not notice God’s presence unless something monumental occurred. In “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” the Grandmother must be shocked out of her selfish and judgmental views by the barrel of a gun.”(Answers.com) The reader sees this at the end of the story when the Grandmother realizes that she has caused her families death and that she is unable to talk the Misfit out of committing this crime. “She is vain and selfish, and she believes that good character is a result of coming from “good people,” an important concept in O’Connor’s fiction.”(Answers.com) Thisis one of O’Conner’s main themes that she uses in both stories. O’Conner uses several themes in both “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People”. We see the theme of punishment of good people, even if it isn’t their fault they’ve been put in their situations; The family being the victims of an unknown stranger due to the selfish and stupidity of the Grandmother. Hulga being the victim of the Bible sales man, the first person she really trusts due to her past misfortunes such as her leg. We see how Religion plays an impact in both stories, how it leads Hulga to trust the young boy, and how the Grandmother thinks that the Misfit...