A Good Man is Hard to Find Reflection

Before even reading a word of the story I think its pretty easy to assume that there are themes in this short story along the lines of "the world is changing" or "things aren't what they used to be." Sure enough, this was the case. I thought it was very funny that the main character of this story was the grandmother who frequently tells stories from her childhood and alludes to the fact that her grandchildren are spoiled and take everything for granted unlike how children grew up in her time. This is exactly how my grandmother acted when my brother and I were acting like brats or being lazy. Now, I really don't believe that my brother and I were as self centered as John Wesley and June Star but there were definitely times that we acted like spoiled children and received an earful from my grandmother. She often told stories of her youth in which she said she was always working and doing chores simply because that's what was done back then and that we should be grateful that we don't have that much work to do as children. I couldn't help but think exactly of my grandmother when I read this story. Granted, I love my grandmother and realized that every time she yelled at us it was going towards the goal of raising my brother and I right. However, in this story the the children think very little of their grandmother and just look at her like a waste of space.

I remember after reading this story I had no idea what had happened at the end or why it had happened but class made it a little easier to see why this story had been written in the first place. After understanding what had occurred and looking at the story deeper I do believe that the grandmother was a little bit of a fraud. Misfortune is what brings everybody back to reality. In this particular story she realizes that she is about to be killed and begins to witness and act like a great Christian in order to get out of the situation. I think it is interesting that when held at gunpoint most people, as illustrated in the story, become better people. The "Misfit" even admits that if she were about to die every minute of her life then she would have been a good person. It is hard to say what kind of a person the grandmother is just from reading a couple pages but I think she acted just like most people would have in that situation.