A good man is hard to find

A good man is hard to find is definitely a grotesque story. As the reader you initially wouldn’t see it that way. It starts off as a normal family wanting to take a road trip but unsure where they want to go. As the story proceeds you come to find that the parents in this story are very passive and submissive when it comes to taking care of their children. The children are bratty, sassy, rude, and disrespectful with no regards of their actions and the parents do nothing about it. The grandmother on the other hand is the only character in the story who tries to make the children aware of their negative behavior.

I would definitely say that the grandmother in this story is a very grotesque character and adds to the grotesqueness of the story.  This woman throughout the story pinpoints the very definition of the word. She is racist, comments on social status, very opinionated and stereotypical. She shows her racism in the story where she points out a “pickaninny”, (children of black decent) and proceeds to explain to her grandchildren how, “Little nigger in the country don’t have things like we do” (Pg 499). The statement she makes also comments on social status inferring that they have much better things than the “negro people”. She also is very stereotypical in the sense that she tells a story of how a little black boy stole and ate a watermelon off her front porch.

Another aspect of this story being grotesque would definitely have to be how the story ends. The story up until the very end keeps you thinking about the outcome. You think, will they be killed by The Misfit? Is there foreshadowing in the title? Do you think maybe he will have a revelation and turn out good and they won’t be killed? Many thoughts enter the readers mind. But in the end, it turns out to be true that the title indeed does have some foreshadowing. The setting of how the family is executed in the woods by being shot is very unsettling, making this story a very grotesque one in my opinion.