Conspirator
- Brian
- I went out there in search of experience To taste and to touch and to feel as much As a man can before he repents.
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Interaction: A Good Man is Hard to Find
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| Credit: Özgür Mülazimoglu http://www.flickr.com/people/mulazimoglu/ CC BY-SA 2.0 |
A few days ago, I read "A Good Man is Hard to Find" a couple of times and something occurred to me that I'd never before considered: this is a story of fate. (Any citations to the story are from The Complete Stories.)
From the opening paragraph, we know that there will be an encounter involving the Misfit, an escaped convict. Although the grandmother suggests that the family take a trip to Tennessee rather than Florida (where the Misfit is said to be located) in order to avoid any chance encounter with the Misfit, as readers we should know that no adjustments to the planned trip are difference-making. This family is fated to meet the Misfit whether they travel to Florida or Tennessee.
The family travels in a single car--three adults, three children. After the family's car accident, the Misfit, along with his two cronies, appear on the scene. Three criminals. The grandmother is shot three times.
There are three fates in Greek mythology.
The Misfit compares his life to the life of Jesus, saying that they are the exact same save for the fact that Jesus was innocent and he is guilty. Nonetheless, both were fated (131). The Gospel writers, especially Luke, seem to hold the same perspective, as they interpret the death of Jesus as God-willed, God-mandated. For Jesus, all roads lead to Jerusalem. All roads lead to death.
Furthermore, I wonder if O'Connor doesn't include a couple of allusions to Robert Frost. O'Connor writes, "The road looked as if no one had traveled on it in months" (124). This, I believe, may be an allusion to the Frost poem "The Road Less Traveled," which is a poem about the futility of choice. The line immediately following this one: "'It's not much farther...'" (124), which might be an allusion to "The Woodpile," a poem exploring the futility of human effort.
All of this leads me to believe that "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a story about fate. Everything that happens, each encounter and each outcome, should be interpreted through this lens.
