Dramatic Irony in "A Good Man is Hard to Find"
... selfish, spiteful, hypocritical lady whose selfish desires cloud up her ability to make good judgments. The Grandmother never wants to miss a thing and she will do anything to avoid being left out. June Star, her granddaughter states that "She wouldn't stay home for a million bucks, afraid she'd miss something. She has to go everywhere we go!" (303). In addition, she does not take her family's feelings into consideration when she does things. Furthermore, in an attempt to persuade her son Bailey to go to Tennessee, where she could see her "connections," instead of Florida, where the Misfit was supposedly at, she shows off how hypocritical she can be by saying, "I wouldn't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it" (303). The Grandmother does not mean to hurt anyone with her selfish and hypocritical ways she is just too caught up in her own world to think about how anyone else feels. For example, at the beginning of the story, after she lost the fight with her son Bailey about where they would go for their vacation, she is determined to get her way about something, so she smuggles her cat, Pitty Sing, into the car even though she knows how much Bailey hates the cat, because "she didn't intend for the cat to be left alone in the house for three days because he would miss her too much and she was afraid he might brush against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself" (303). Moreover, as a result of bringing the cat, the family gets into an accident when Pitty Sing jumps onto the back of Baileys neck. The Grandmother's selfishness regarding the cat is almost childlike in its disregard for any consequences. The incident where the Grandmother shows the most selfishness, yet gains redemption, comes as she bargains with the Misfit for her life. "You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you? I know you're a good man. You don't look a bit like you have common blood" (309). She tries to talk good into the Misfit by saying, "You shouldn't call yourself t...