Topic > The short story summary "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

This grotesque tale of sudden violence in the rural South opens quietly, with a family planning a vacation. The husband, Bailey, his wife, and their children, John Wesley and June Star, all want to go to Florida. Bailey's mother, however, wants to go to eastern Tennessee, where she has relatives, and tries determinedly to convince them to go there. Unable to convince them that the Tennessee wandering will be new and expanded for the children, Grandma offers as her last argument a newspaper article that verbally states that a psychopathic killer calling himself The Misfit is heading to Florida. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay. Ignoring their grandmother's wishes and warnings, the family leaves the next morning for Florida. The grandmother sits in the car in front of the others so that her son does not notice that she has brought her feline, Pitty Sing, with her, clouded in a basket under the seat. As the wandering progresses, he chatters, pointing out fascinating details of the landscape, admonishing his son not to drive too hastily, telling stories to the children. During the journey the children argue, the child cries, the father becomes irritable. In short, the wandering is both terrible and banal, full of the banalities, vapidities, and petty grievances of everyday life, from which the family cannot escape, even on vacation. At lunchtime they stop at Red Sammy's, a barbecue restaurant, where Grandma complains that "people certainly aren't as nice as they used to be," and Red Sammy adds, "A good man is hard to find." . In this conversation, the narrow-minded and opinionated grandmother continually assures herself that she is a lady, a good Christian, and an astute judge of character: she claims that Red Sammy, an authoritarian loudmouth, is a "good man" and that Europe " was entirely to blame for the way things were now." After leaving the roadhouse, the grandmother manipulates her son into taking a detour to optically discern an old plantation she had once visited as a girl. Suddenly he remembers that the plantation is not in Georgia but in Tennessee. She is so shocked by this entelechy that she jumps up and knocks over her suitcase, whereupon the feline jumps onto her son's shoulder, her son loses control of the car, the car overturns, and they all end up in a ditch. an old car “like a hearse” comes down the hill and stops in front of them. Three men emerge, one of whom the grandmother immediately identifies as the Misfit. The grandmother, realizing that he intends to kill them, tries to dissuade him by appealing to her chivalry, urging him not to shoot a woman. She then attempts flattery, stating that she can tell he is a "good man". She tries to tempt him by suggesting that he stop being an outlaw and dedicate himself to a life of luxury. He urges him to pray to Jesus for help and forgiveness. Eventually he tries to bribe him with mazuma. All of these tactics fail. While she verbalizes with him, he asks his henchmen to take the other family members into the woods and shoot them. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay Although The Misfit rejects all of the grandmother's arguments, it carefully discerns them in an aural manner nearby; pay particular attention when Grandma refers to Jesus. In fact, The Misfit states: “Jesus was the only one who ever raised the dead. . . . It threw everything out of balance. If he did what he verbalized, then all you have to do is discard”..”