A Good Man is Hard to Find

There are many conflicts in this story. There is a conflict between the grandmother and her son Bailey. There is a conflict between the grandmother and her grandchildren. There is also a conflict between the grandmother and her daughter-in-law. Toward the end of the story there is a conflict between the grandmother and the "misfit".

The grandmother lives with her son's family. The story portrays her to be a typical older woman. She has lived enough years that she will give her opinion whether anyone asks for it or not. It seems as if the whole family resents her presence in their home. She seems to be in the way. In paragraph two, the grandmother complains about where they are all going on their trip. In paragraph four the grandchild asks "If you don't want to go to Florida, why dontcha stay at home?" This seemed odd to me. When I was growing up we wouldn't have dared to speak that way to our elders, especially our grandmother. The question shows the children have no respect for their grandmother. This attituded probably trickled down from their parents.

The grandmother seems to demand too much. Throughout the story, she talks of the "misfit" she read about. As the family is driving down the road the grandmother remembers a place she once visited. She really wanted to revisit this place. Bailey did not want to change his plans and stop, but after the grandmother got the children interested in the place they kept nagging him. On page 358, paragraph 5, Bailey was looking straight ahead. His jaw was rigid as a horseshoe. "No," he said. You could tell by the tone that Bailey did not want to give in to his mother once again. She was an intruder. She was intruding on his family once again. The children kept yelling and screaming in the car that they wanted to see the place, so Bailey finally gave in. He didn't give in to his mother, only his children.

The conflict between grandmother and the children's mother is in the beginning of the story, paragraph 3. "The children's mother didn't seem to hear her..." The child did hear her and responded. In think this is the way the mother dealt with her difficult mother-in-law. She ignored her. She probably resented her for intruding.

Question 10, Page 365 - Who are the religious "pretenders," and who has true faith? The grandmother has true faith. Even at the end of her life she has an epiphany. She realized that the "misfit" was just another human being that had been misguided throughout his life. When she called him on it, he shot her. The pretenders I believe are her family. They were going through life resenting everything it had to offer and not appreciating anything. It portrayed through their children being unruly and rude. The price of achieving a moment of religious grace came to the whole family at their moment of death. What role does violence play in this equation? On page 361, paragraph 11, Bailey states to the "misfit", "listent," Bailey began, "we're in a terrible predicament! Nobody realizes what this is," and his voice cracked. He knew it was the beginning of the end. Bailey knew that the situation would have a poor outcome. The irony of this story is that they wouldn't have come across the "misfit" and his accomplices if the grandmother hadn't insisted upon going to see this place she wanted to see. Even after she ralized they were on the wrong road she didn't tell Bailey so he could turn around.