A Reaction to "A Good Man is Hard to Find"

In A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor, the author has a lot to say. She points out to us the inevitability of our sins and the punishment they will one day earn. She makes obvious the grey mist surrounding good and evil, and making it so hard to tell between the two. She shows how hard it can be to believe in something you weren't there to see, even if you'd really like to believe it. She describes for us all the flaws of humanity that we use to flaw our own religious beliefs.

Misfit tells us, "You can do one thing or you can do another, kill a man or take a tire off his car, because sooner or later you're going to forget what it was you done and just be punished for it." Misfit could have just stolen the family's car without killing them, but there was no point to the mercy. Either way is a crime and either way a punishment must eventually be faced. Since Misfit has already been punished severely for a crime he didn't commit he sees no similarity between severity of crime and severity of punishment. In Christianity, no sin is any better or worse than another. Lying, stealing, and murdering are all equal sins. In the Christian God's judgment Misfit would have eventually earned the same punishment for stealing the car as for murdering the lot.

Still, it is hard to tell good from evil throughout the story, just as it is in real life. Through most of the story it seems Bailey is a bad guy. He never lets anyone do what they want and is generally sour. When compared right next to Misfit, Bailey is certainly the less pleasant of the two. He cusses at his mother and makes her cry, while Misfit comforts her. As it turns out, Bailey is only normal. Not a good guy maybe, but certainly not a bad one either. Misfit, on the other hand, you are inclined to like even as he slaughters a lost family. He's soft spoken and polite, with kind words and consideration. He must certainly be a good guy. That isn't the case either. If you look solely at their actions it becomes obvious that the murderer is the bad guy and the man that takes his elderly mother along on a family vacation must really be the good.