A Good Man Is Hard to Find Ending Explained: Final Scene Breakdown & Literary Impact
Grace and darkness intertwine in A Good Man is Hard to Find.
In Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man is Hard to Find, the final scene is a perfect example of how to construct a powerful, emotionally charged narrative that leaves readers grappling with both the story’s outcome and the deeper philosophical questions it raises. Using the framework of scene construction—focusing on the Point-of-View (POV) character, their goal, obstacles, and the resulting escalation—we can break down why this last scene is so devastatingly effective.
Point-of-View Character: The Grandmother
The grandmother is the central POV character in the last scene, and she is the one with the most emotional stakes. As her family is murdered one by one, she’s left to confront the Misfit, not just as a literal threat to her life but as a moral and spiritual test. This choice of POV is key because the grandmother’s arc—from smug, self-righteousness to a fleeting moment of grace—is what gives the scene its power.
At this moment, everything hinges on the grandmother’s actions, thoughts, and emotions. She’s the one who, in her desperation, tries to talk her way out of death by appealing to the Misfit’s supposed goodness. By focusing the scene through her eyes, O’Connor draws the reader into the grandmother’s final, tragic realization that her entire life’s moral framework has crumbled in the face of real, unflinching evil. The tension builds through her escalating terror, making her both the protagonist and, in many ways, the antagonist of her own moral failings.
POV Character Goal: Survival and Redemption
The grandmother’s goal in this scene seems simple at first: survival. She tries to reason with the Misfit, offering him money, praying, and ultimately begging for her life. But on a deeper level, her goal shifts. As the scene progresses, it becomes about more than just physical survival—it’s about a desperate, last-ditch attempt at redemption.
In this moment, the grandmother tries to connect with the Misfit, telling him, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” This line, often interpreted as a moment of grace, reveals a deep, perhaps subconscious, shift in her goals. She’s no longer trying to simply manipulate the Misfit into sparing her; she’s trying to find some shared humanity between them. But here’s the tragedy—her realization comes too late. The shift in her goal is not only too late to save her life but also too late to truly redeem her soul.
Obstacle: The Misfit
The Misfit is the immovable obstacle in the grandmother’s path. As a character, he represents more than just a physical threat—he’s a philosophical challenge to everything the grandmother has believed about morality, grace, and what it means to be “good.” Throughout the scene, the grandmother's worldview is pitted against the Misfit’s nihilistic outlook. He openly admits that he can’t make sense of a world where people like him are punished for crimes they don’t understand, while others live and die without consequence.
The Misfit’s presence in this scene is crucial because he serves as the direct counter to the grandmother’s goal. No matter what she says, no matter how she pleads, the Misfit remains an unyielding force, driven by his own twisted code. He doesn’t just obstruct her path to survival; he dismantles her entire understanding of faith and goodness.
Escalation: No! And Furthermore!
The final scene of A Good Man is Hard to Find follows the escalation pattern of “No! And Furthermore!” In this case, the grandmother fails not only to achieve her goal of surviving but also, furthermore, to find true redemption before she dies. This is the most dramatic and effective type of escalation because it leaves the character—and the reader—reeling from the magnitude of the failure.
Let’s break it down:
No!: The grandmother is unable to talk her way out of her own execution. Her attempts at appealing to the Misfit’s better nature fail, and he shoots her three times in the chest.
And Furthermore!: The grandmother’s final moment of grace, her attempt to reach out to the Misfit, comes too late. Not only does she fail to save herself, but she also fails to truly understand the gravity of her situation until the last second. Her entire moral compass, based on shallow notions of goodness and superiority, collapses in the face of real, existential evil.
The brilliance of this scene lies in how it pushes the grandmother farther and farther away from her initial goal, escalating the stakes from mere physical survival to spiritual reckoning. By the time she’s shot, the conflict has escalated so dramatically that the reader is left with the sense that the grandmother’s death is as much a consequence of her moral failures as it is of the Misfit’s violence.
Why This Scene Works: Conflict and Escalation
The last scene of A Good Man is Hard to Find works so well because it builds on personal, relational conflict that digs deep into the characters’ moral and spiritual cores. The grandmother and the Misfit are not just two people on opposite sides of a gun; they represent opposing worldviews, and the collision of those worldviews is what makes the scene so gripping.
By the time the scene reaches its climax, the grandmother has gone from being a self-satisfied moralist to a woman who, in her final moments, confronts her own lack of grace. The Misfit, in turn, delivers the chilling final line: "She would have been a good woman… if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life." It’s a brutal acknowledgment that the grandmother’s so-called goodness was only ever superficial and that it took the threat of death to bring out any real humanity in her.
Conclusion: A Masterclass in Scene Construction
The final scene of A Good Man is Hard to Find is a masterclass in scene construction, illustrating how conflict, obstacles, and escalation work together to drive a story toward a powerful, inevitable conclusion. By focusing on the grandmother’s shifting goals, the unstoppable force of the Misfit, and the relentless escalation of the conflict, O’Connor creates a scene that doesn’t just engage the reader—it leaves them questioning the very nature of goodness, morality, and grace.
In the end, the scene achieves what every great scene should: it propels the story to its climax, deepens the emotional stakes, and leaves a lasting impact that resonates long after the final shot is fired.
