A Good Man Is Hard To Find ~Theme~ In the story “ A Good Man Is Hard To Find,” I particularly liked the opening quote, “ The dragon is by the side of the road, watching those who pass. Beware lest he devour you. We go to the Father of Souls, but it is necessary to pass by the dragon. ” This quote, when I first read it, didn’t have as much impact until after I had finished the story. I felt it made me go back and re-read both the quote and the story. In doing so, I got more from it. What I concluded from the story is that the more obvious things don’t become apparent until you are confronted with a life-changing scenario.
The author illustrates this with the character of the grandmother. The grandmother goes through life thinking she has everything figured out, but comes to realize that life isn’t as straight forward as she had been brought up to believe. In the story, the grandmother hears about an escaped convict called “ The Misfit. ” She emphasized how she would never let her family or anyone she knows anywhere near the Misfit. The grandmother comes off as a know-it-all, and always has to have the last word after putting in her two cents of knowledge. (Which is never wrong in her eyes).
In my head, I see the bitter old lady from the story “ Driving Miss Daisy. ” I feel they both have the same outlook and mentality for that time period. The grandmother, being from that era, was also a bit of a bigot. Toward the end of the story, a series of unfortunate events leads them into the presents of “ The Misfit. ” They have a car accident and the Misfit and his cohorts are the first on the scene of the accident. Not being in the typical state of urgency when one is confronted with such an event, the three men had an eerie calmness to their demeanor.
Ultimately the Misfit and his cohorts end up murdering the grandmother and her family. All the while, the grandmother is pleading with the Misfit to spare her and her family’s lives. Even after all other members of her family have been slain, she still proceeds to beg and plea with the Misfit for her life. She keeps saying, ” I know you are of good people, a good man, not of common blood. ” Ultimately she also ends up getting shot. The end quote from the Misfit was what made me want to start back at the beginning. He says, “ She would have been a good woman, if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life. ”
This brought me back to the quote at the beginning of the story about the dragon on the side of the road. What I conclude from this is that the “ Dragon” is someone or something that will test your views on life, and makes you analyze your beliefs. “ We go to the Father of Souls,” to me represents dying and going on to the afterlife or heaven, or whatever your beliefs may be. “ Necessary to pass by the dragon,” I feel represents the fact that there is no way to avoid these life lessons. This makes one think about how life has its trials and tribulations that make you look closer at the details of life and see the bigger picture.
