Riley SangsterEnglish II PAP Charifson B1Short Story Template2/23/14IntroductionA Good Man Is Hard To Find is a southern gothic short story by Flannery O'Connor.PlotA family takes a trip to Florida, but the great -mother tries to convince them to go to Tennessee after reading an article about "The Misfit". The Misfit is a criminal on the run who is believed to be heading to Florida. On the way to Florida, Bailey, the grandmother's son, decides to take a little detour to a house that the grandmother had told him about. The family had a car accident and was stranded on the side of the road. Eventually, a car stops to help the family. The grandmother recognizes one of the men who stopped as the Misfit. The Misfit then kills the family as a group; first the boys, then the girls and the baby, excluding the grandmother. The grandmother tries to dissuade the Misfit from killing her, but she ends up being killed too.CharactersProtagonistThe protagonist is the grandmother. She is a stubborn, annoying and persuasive old lady. She convinces Bailey to detour to a house, but when she realizes the house is in Tennessee and not Georgia, she panics and causes the car to crash. AntagonistThe antagonist is "The Misfit". He is never identified by his real name. He is an escaped convict who is curious, uncertain and thinks he is not a bad person. By his actions, the reader can assume that he does not enjoy killing the family, but feels more compelled to do so.Other Important CharactersBailey is the grandmother's son. He is a seemingly stressed and calm person. Although he is supposed to be the figurehead of the family, he mostly does what his family members want, but his motives seem to be to avoid any arguments. The mother...... middle of paper ...... ribbed as similar to a hearse, so it ultimately represents a hearse and, furthermore, death. The Dark Forest The forest symbolizes death and misfortune. makes use of foreshadowing death on page 4 by naming a town "Toombsboro". Personification This is demonstrated on page 5 by the quote “…the dust-covered trees looking down on them.” racism and the civil rights movement, which may have influenced some racist slurs in the page 2 article, such as "'...look at the cute little [black child]!'...'He wasn't wearing any panties '… “He probably didn't have one. " This story may also have been slightly influenced by the Dust Bowl, alluded to on page 5, when O'Connor mentions "trees covered in dust ».”.