Reading "A Good Man is hard to Find" we brought up the point of there being grace shown at the end of the story. Ideas were being thrown around while discussing this and I feel like we came down to the idea that the grandmother gave grace at the end right before her death. I could not see that at first. She kept saying "Pray, pray, pray" as if she was begging the misfit to pray to save himself. We even brought up how the grandmother called the misfit one of her own son's. I can somewhat see it there, but still wonder. As Dr. Talmage said, he could see no grace in the end of the story. The misfit kills the grandmother, so no grace from saving her life. He does let her sit and talk to him before like her "last words." I can't help but wonder why he allowed her to say so much at the end compared to the others he killed. I feel like the misfit wanted to hear what the grandmother was saying, so that he could explain his reason for the lifestyle he is living out in killing. "to pay back" for the punishment he claims he unfairly served.
Ps I commented on Joy's "O'conner"
Reading this post made me re-think the conclusion I came to about the grace at the end of the story. At first it certainly doesn't seem like any synonym of grace appears. Kindliness, decency, favour, mercy, reprieve; none these occur with the old lady's death. But i started to think that these traits WERE exhibited by the grandmother to the Misfit. She could have condemned the Misfit. She could have pointed out every flaw, berated him, called him everything she called him back at the diner, but she didn't. In the end, she accepted him as himself, mistakes and all. She does offer him temporary reprieve-- and then he shoots her.
ReplyDeleteSeeing the way the grandmother treated the misfit and then his response to her kind of reminds me of Jesus when people denied him and then hung him on the cross. He showed kindness and love to them, never doing anything in hate, and then their response was to kill him.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on this point. I do not really see the grace in this story very much except when I intentionally look for it. The Misfit did seem to want to tell someone why he does what he does. It is all quite peculiar.
ReplyDelete