A Good Man Is Hard to Find by Flannery O'Connor | Symbols

Course Hero Literature Instructor Russell Jaffe explains the symbols in Flannery O'Connor's short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find.


In Flannery O'Connor's bleakly comic short story, a family embarks upon a road trip to Florida. Everyone is there: parents and children, with grandmother in tow and a cat secretly stashed in a basket.

As they drive, the grandmother prattles on and attempts to occupy her grandchildren. She makes pointed remarks about the changing nature of the South and diverts the family to a plantation she thinks she previously visited.

However, the cat escapes its basket, causing a car crash. Their accident is discovered by a known criminal, The Misfit, and his gang.

Though the grandmother attempts to charm and manipulate the family's aggressors, the conclusion of the story demonstrates the futility of her efforts.

American author Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find was first published in 1953. Well known for her short stories and novels, O’Connor grew up as somewhat of an outsider as a strict Catholic in the Bible Belt of Georgia. Themes of alienation and the often disruptive relationship between God and humankind appear in much of her writing, including “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.”

The short story A Good Man Is Hard to Find contains many important themes, including spiritual blindness, as the grandmother tries to convince The Misfit that he is good; grace, as the grandmother realizes God’s grace falls on everyone; and chance, as Bailey and the grandmother’s choices set off a chain of events that bring about their demise.


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