A good man is hard to find
...invest even the minutest elements of her fiction with thematic significance. In "A Good Man is Hard to Find," O’Connor employs symbols that not only serve to define the archetypes of certain characters, but also to amplify the confusion surrounding the lack of the expected moral characteristics associated with the characters (Merton 146). In the story, O’Connor uses images and symbols to add to the reader’s perceptions of the archetypes she presents in the story. The grandmother is painstakingly associated with the archetype of the genteel, aging Southern belle. She goes to great lengths to be certain that her outer appearance conveys what she perceives as the information most vital to her self-definition. She impracticably bedecks herself in the regalia befitting of Southern Womanhood so that "anyone seeing her dead on the highway would at once know she was a lady" (138). Likewise, O’Connor associates the Misfit with symbols of foreboding and dread. The car in which the Misfit and his gang approach the scene of the accident is described as a "big black battered hearse-like automobile" (145). The Misfit appraises the family "with a steady expressionless gaze" that betrays his apparent lack of moral center (ibid.). These symbolic associations serve as a backdrop to the unexpected moral ideas O’Connor advances through the characters. The story is rife with religious elements. Most notably, the Grandmother attempts to engage the Misfit in a theological discussion not in hopes of assisting his redemption, but solely as a means of prolonging her life (Bandy 116). Alluding to the story of Lazarus and Jesus’ ability to raise the dead, the grandmother at once reveals her stubborn refusal to truly embrace the ambiguities inherent in Christian doctrines and the Misfit’s ability to do exactly this. By brining religion into the scenario, O’Connor demonstrates the hollowness of the institution in a world where a practiced manipulator like the grandmother can be considered a faithful devotee, and the Misfit, a former gospel singer who has thoroughly pondered the mysteries of Christ, eventually becomes a sociopa...