sade white

White, Sade
5/28/15
Mrs. Shakir


The Darkness of Humanity

If people looked around they wouldn’t see it, it hides behind a mask just to lure most individuals in, it uses tricks and manipulation to trap a lot of people and once they have those people… well, there’s not telling what’s going to happen to them. As some people might know, the world isn’t black and white but it is filled with people who are good and evil, but you can’t tell just by looking at someone if they are good or not. A lot of people perceive the definition of “good” differently, some see it as exactly what and it and others see it as superficial. Sure, there are a
A lot of people in this world who are flawed and as human beings people are bound to make mistakes but sometimes those mistakes can lead them into danger, making the A wrong decision and because of that some people begin to lose their way and then they start to go down the wrong path. For some people, all they want to do is be a good person, be happy, successful and to know that the path that they are going
down is the right one, but no one can truly know that for sure. Good people are hard to find, it's not like they where a sign and some people even hide behind mask and pretend that they're good, some people think that they can see through to people but how do those individuals know that they aren’t just projecting parts of themselves that they want them to see. Do people really know what good is or is their definition
the story that shows not only that some people have a false perception of “good” but also, that people are flawed.

In the story, a good man is hard to find” O’Connor uses misfit and the grandmother and “ the misfit” to showcase not only good vs. evil but what people perceive as “ good”, She also does this in “ good country people”, she uses “ Hulga” aka joy and Manley pointer to project this same theme as well. The audience can also, see that the characters “ the grandmother” and Mrs. Hopewell share some similarities, they’re both seen as nosey people as well as other traits but the only differences are that the story is shown more towards “ the grandmother’s” eyes and “
good country people” is shown from Hulga’s point of view. Even though these are the main characters and usually with stories the audience is supposed to like the main characters but with these two stories, some people might dislike these character but then the reader is shown “ the misfit” who is a killer but besides The fact that he is a killer, he is the nicest, most polite and kind person in the entire story. So what is O’Connor trying to say by doing this, maybe she is implying that one; people aren’t always how they see and second; maybe some individuals
shouldn’t judge someone completely until they actually know that person and they have the whole story and maybe people shouldn’t judge others period because its human nature to make mistakes and to be flawed. If the reader pays close attention to these two stories, the audience can see that throughout the story O’Connor struggles to understand what being good actually means. In both stories, you hear “ the grandmother” and Mrs. Hopewell ideas on what they consider to be “good” but both of their definitions of the words are superficial, they believe that a good person is someone who dresses nice, rich and etc. in the story “ A Good Man is Hard to Find”, “ the grandmother,” says that “ red Sammy” is a good man, but he treats his wife as trash then she says that “ the misfit” is a good man but only because he is trying to kill her and she doesn’t want to die. In the story “good country people” Mrs. Freeman and “ the grandmother” considered themselves to be a lady, in fact, that was one of the reasons why she said that “misfit could not kill her. When Mrs. Hopewell talks about the Freeman’s, she states, “the reason why she kept them around so long was because they weren’t trash. They were “good country people”. Mrs. Hopewell says this comment but does she know herself what it truly means to be “ good”, some people might say no because she’s a hypocrite and superficial. An example of this would be when she was talking to Manley pointer aka the bible salesman and after he left, she told Mrs. Freeman that “ he bored her to death but that he’s just “ good country people”.

In these stories, O’Connor uses the characters like”the misfit and Manley to put characters who think that they are so smart and know everything and character who think they are better than everyone else, characters like Hulga and “ the grandmother” in their place. Of course see has a dark and devious way of doing this, she makes sure that he point is made by the end of the story. The point that O’Connor is trying to make is not only for the characters benefit but for the reader as well. The point that she is trying to make is the fact that the world isn’t black or

white, not everyone is completely good or bad. Only very few people are pure evil but some of those other people, they didn’t choose the path of good or bad it just happened and sometimes that choice or mistake can’t be undone. Another theme that seems to be present in a lot of O’Connor’s stories is the cynical treatment of religion, she projects her feelings towards these ideals through her characters. In good country people, you have Hulga; who is too “ smart” to believe in god and you have Manley, who is a bible salesman and he pretends to believe in god and he somehow fools Hulga. It's only when they are alone together and he has gotten what he wants from her does he reveal how he really feels, which was that not was he lying about who he was but that he doesn’t believe in god as well. He literally takes her down a peg and its all because of Hulga’s over confidence, ego, smarts and the fact that Hulga believes that she has the ability to read people is the reason why she was lured into Manley’s trap and O’Connor uses this to put Hulga in her place. In the other story “ the grandmother” says that she is religious, but she is really a mean, racist, selfish, manipulative, lying person who had too much pride to admit that she was wrong. The only time that she even showed any religious sense ability was to talk “ the misfit out of killing her. Even then she is not being a good person because instead of begging for the life of her family and son, she only begs for her life.

The audience is also given the perspective of “ the grandmother”, he says that “ she would have been a good women, if someone had been there to shoot her every minute of her life” by saying this he is stating that “ the grandmother” would have been a good person if someone threaten her with a gun to be good but “ the misfit” himself is quite complex. The reader can see how complex “the misfit” is when he finally starts to open up; he calls himself “ the misfit because he believes that he’s punishment doesn’t fit the crime, he also doesn’t believe that what he did or what he is doing isn’t wrong. So some people might come to the conclusion that he doesn’t have a moral compass because he looks forward and doesn’t have any remorse for what he has done and what he is about to do. At the beginning of the story, the family is in Atlanta, Georgia in around 1940 but they are going to Florida. Along the way they make a few stops mostly because of “the grandmother,”, when

the audience is first introduced to the story the first person they talk about is the grandmother and how she doesn’t want to go to Florida because there is a killer on the loose. This is when the reader are introduced to two other characters; one of them is her son bailey and the other is only mentioned at the time and that’s “ the misfit”. After this, you are later introduced to the other members of the family such as Bobby Lee, John Wesley, June Star, “Red Sammy” and Bailey’s wife. But the secondary characters are more likely “ Red Sammy”, his wife, “ The Misfit’s” crew and also “ the grandmother’s family”. Sure, the family is important but the story isn’t told from their view, the story mostly talks about the grandmother and misfit. It doesn’t seem
like there were any character developments in “good country people” or “ A Good Man is Hard to Find”, both characters ended the way they started and maybe it’s because O’Connor feels like this is how people are in reality. In fact, none of these characters in these stories tired to change, maybe they felt like they didn’t need to, but it was because of that belief that lead them to the trouble that they get themselves in the first place. The story is told from a third person perspective because even though the story is seen from her eyes, she is not the one telling the story.

The reason why O’Connor wrote this was to show that some people seem to get the wrong idea of what good is but she also wants to point out that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover because not everything is as black and white as some individuals would have it seem. There is more than one theme that is present in the story and that is the cynical treatment of religion, family, manipulation, the perception that people have of “good” and good vs. evil. In the story, they talk about the grandmother’s clothes and her hat, which symbolizes that she is a “ lady” and the fact that her hat was destroyed symbolizes that her demeanor of a lady dissolved as well. But even though the grandmother considers herself to be a lady, she is a complete hypocrite because she didn’t admit to her family that she had made a mistake, she bought the cat that caused the car crash and it was because she recognized misfit that got her family killed in the first place. Another story that can be connected to this is “ good country people” and “ A Good Man is Hard to Find” another character similarity that can be seen is the similarities between Manley and “ the misfit” one of the things that the audience can see in both stories is that both of these men were able to fool the women in both of these stories, the two differences is the fact that Manley waited until he was alone with Hulga to reveal himself to her and the misfit did it right from the beginning. The second thing is that Manley seems not to believe in god while misfit does and he even mentions him and also grant the grandmother a chance to save
her soul. Even though the misfit is a criminal, he takes joy in treating people harshly to people and it seems like he seems to get off on it. He still shows mercy to her by letting her pray, so she can go to heaven before he kills her and at that moment does he actually seem worth redemption and like he can change.

The thing that some people might take away from this story is the fact that people shouldn’t judge others because of their title. People are much more than they seem to be on the inside and not to see the world as black and white because not everyone is good or bad. Sometimes, a lot of people lose their way and it is because of this that they become who they are. Some of the main points that a lot of people might consider is the fact humanity is flawed which means that no one can be
perfect of completely good. Sure, some individuals might do nice things but that doesn’t mean that they are a good person and just because someone has a negative title or because they look or act different, does not initially mean that they are a bad person. To some all of this up, you shouldn’t judge people period because you wouldn’t want people to perceive you in a negative way. What you perceive as good may not be what they perceive as good, so the next time someone thinks about
judging an individual, they should take the time to think, ask or not say anything at all because they don’t know the full story or what that person is thinking.