A Good Man Is Hard To Find

          This short story took me by surprise. It starts out as a simple story about a family embarking on their vacation to Florida. The Grandmother is a typical elderly woman. She suggests that the family take a detour to see an old house she remembered from her childhood. At this point the story turns very dark. On the way to see the house the family is in a car accident. Three men, who are actually escaped convicts, stop to help them. In the end the men, lead by The Misfit, murder all six family members in cold blood.

As I first started reading this story I thought it was very humorous. At many points the Grandmother’s behaviors reminded me of my own grandmother. I had to laugh when she talked about dressing nicely to ride in the car so that if there were an accident the people who saw her dead body on the highway would know she was a “lady”. He behavior towards her son, and her often sneaky ways of getting what she wanted also reminded me of my grandparents. I can distinctly remember times that my grandmother smuggled her pets along on trips just because she didn’t want to leave them alone.

The children’s attitudes toward the grandmother, and the rest of the characters, were very obnoxious. I think the relationship between the Grandmother and the children really portrayed the never-ending cycle of how an older generation feels about the youth of the next. It makes me wonder if younger generations of people really are as rude and self absorbed as older generations make them out to be, which would me that we are becoming successively ruder as a society. Or if we all go through a phase where no one can stand our behavior, especially our grandparents. (Side note: I actually found a blog called I Hate Young People completely dedicated to proving how stupid the millennial generation is…)

My feelings about this story were turned completely around, no pun intended, as the car crashed and the family was left to the mercy of The Misfit. I was not expecting anything like that to happen, but after it did I felt like I should have seen it coming. I felt horrible for this innocent family as they were murdered in cold blood. I’m not quite sure what to make of this story, though I think it might be a commentary on how people feel they can hold superiority over one another. I’m looking forward to our discussion tomorrow.