Sunday, September 28, 2008

"A Good Man is Hard to Find."

Just about all the stories we have read thus far have been either extremely sad, or contained individuals who were mad. The story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," has been one of the saddest I've read. The characters in the story were killed, mainly, for being at the wrong place at the wrong time, due to the actions of the grandmother. She was an individual so use to the old way of life, and loved reminiscing about the things of the past. She wanted to visit an old plantation, but her vague memory forced them to make a detour in a direction that caused them to wreck. They then meet 'The Misfit,' who the grandmother recognizes and he kills each of them.
Right after he shot the grandmother, 'The Misfit' made a statement: "She would have been a good lady only if she had someone to shoot her every minute of her life." In my opinion, the interpretation of this line is stating that human beings are inherently bad, but only in extreme situations, such as a near death experience or a disaster, will the good in an individual be evident. The grandmother, up until the minute she died, tried to convince 'The Misfit' not to kill her and that he was a good man. He completely disagrees with what she says, thinking that there is no good in a person.
By the way 'The Misfit' talks of himself, it is safe to that he has had a rough life. Also there is some evidence that he is completely insane. In one passage he states that he has been to jail but do not remember the crime he has committed. He says that society proclaims he has killed his father, but he does not believe that is true for his father died of other causes. It is difficult to say whether he actually killed his father or not, or that he went mad before or after he went to jail; however, it is evident that the things that had partaken in his life altered his perception of society and how he thinks humans are constructed.

No comments: