A Good Man is Hard to Find - Flannery O'Connor

“That’s perfectly all right,” the grandmother said. “Maybe Bailey has an extra shirt in his suitcase.” (O’Connor 911).
Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” uses humour to sway the audience into cheering for the antagonist. Throughout the piece, the character of the grandmother always has something to say. Whether it be a derragatory comment or mere suggestions, the grandmother cannot seem to simply keep her mouth shut. During the middle of the piece, she offers The Misfit a change of clothes, a move that showcases her sheer stupidity The grandmother tries to bargain with and change the mind of The Misfit but only succeeds in angering him. O’Connor uses the grandmother’s relentless comments in such a way that the audience turns on the protagonist. Essentially, by the end of the piece, the audience is certain of and even hoping that the grandmother will meet her untimely end at the hands of The Misfit simply because of her idiotic behavior. I equate this type of audience reaction to the kind in a horror movie where the audience often finds themselves rooting for the villain because of the victim’s ridiculous mistakes that could have been avoided has common sense been applied. When the grandmother is murdered by The Misfit it is almost humorous to the audience because her ignorance seems to have gotten her what she deserved. Through this, O’Connor brings about an ironic end to a both humorous and morbid tale.