Rebecca R. Hinchey Hinchey 1
Kim Halpern
English Comp. II
Feb. 18, 2009
Some People Never Change
As one anonymous critic wrote, “Grandma is a woman who believes in God.” (id=4765)
However she has strayed and tends to lean on impulse of want to guide her. The short story “A Good
Man is Hard to Find” (Flannery O'Connor) was darker than I had expected. Grandma is a person that
never understands the meaning of being a good Christian. She does not figure out how to be a genuine
person. She just does not seem to learn.
It opens with grandma standing in between Bailey (her son) and his family. An essay writer
wrote, “The grandmother, the protagonist, is developed as bossy, manipulative and grouchy.”
(id=49691) She is cutting the others off, trying to get what she wants. “She wanted to visit some of her
old connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind.”
(O'Connor 357) Her first moment of opprotunity was the newspaper article about the Misfit. She
attempts to guilt Bailey by saying, “I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like
that aloose in it. I couldn't answer to my conscience if I did.” (O'Connor 357) When she was told not to
go then, by the children and the parents ignored her she shifted gears to something more tangible. She
brings up the kids having already been to Florida before and tells them, “You all ought to take them
somewhere else for a change so they would see different parts of the world and be broad. They have
never seen Tennessee!” (O'Connor 357) Grandma will use who or whatever is around her to acquire
what she wants.
Grandma must be the center of attention. “The next morning the grandmother was the first one...