Week 3 Question 1

The primary conflict within A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O’Connor, centers on the grandmother’s conflict with the Misfit. They are both attempting to maintain their freedom and represent different aspects of society. The grandmother represents the general population, afraid of the Misfit because of information obtained from the media. The grandmother has already passed judgment about what sort of person he is prior to their meeting. The Misfit represents the disadvantaged aspects of our society that choose to follow the path of least resistance, which frequently leads to incarceration without a complete understanding of the criminal justice process or a fair opportunity to defend themselves in it. Yet there are several other conflicts that better illustrate the point that O’Connor is attempting to make.
O’Connor uses several of the conflicts to illustrate problems that can arise from people of differing backgrounds and age groups. The first conflict that the reader encounters lies between Bailey and the grandmother. She attempts to change the families vacation planning not by open communication, but rather, by attempting to manipulate Bailey and his wife through scare tactics and the kids past experiences. We see yet another generation gap arise between the grandmother’s love of the “good ole days” and the children’s complete dislike of the country areas that she seams so fond of. O’Connor weaves together a story that on the surface seams relatively mundane, but conceals a story about the social issues plaguing society.