A Good Man is Hard to Find

“I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscience if I did.” 

The grandmother warns her son Bailey of the danger of The Misfit and goes so far as to tell him that it would be a crime of conscience—a sin—to knowingly take his children into this danger. This is an example of foreshadowing and also irony, as this is essentially just what the grandmother does. She leads Bailey and the whole family into the path of The Misfit. 

“The grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady.” 

This is a strong example of foreshadowing; the grandmother has worn her best clothes and hat so that if an accident happens, people will know she is a good woman of quality. Later, she is lying dead in a ditch by the side of the road, still in her fine clothes, although they are torn, and her hat is ruined. This quote also emphasizes the grandmother’s preoccupation with appearances, which is a strong theme in the story.

“‘In my time,’ said the grandmother, folding her thin veined fingers, ‘children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then. Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!’ she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack. ‘Wouldn’t that make a picture now?’”

This quote illustrates the difference between the grandmother’s beliefs and her actions, as well as demonstrating her connection to the past. She waxes nostalgic about the past, when people had better manners and were respectful. However, in the next breath, she uses a racist slur to describe a Black boy outside the window and dehumanizes his struggle by saying she would like to paint him in a picture.