O'Connor, ''A Good Man is Hard to Find'' -- Jerz: EL150 (Intro to Literary Study)
"It's no real pleasure in life."
I found this story a bit confusing. As I read though, I found myself empathizing with the character of the Misfit. I don't think he was really all that bad. I mean, yeah, he killed people and had people killed, but I don't think he meant to. He was just confused. At one point in the story he was talking about the first time he was put in a penitentiary and about being buried alive and how he didn't remember the crime he had committed that put him in there in the first place. Then he talked as though he was trying to justify his most recent and heinous crimes by committing the crimes to make up for the ones he couldn't remember committing. I don't think he got any real pleasure from killing; he just thought he might as well commit what he had been accused of. This can be proved when at the end, after he shot the grandmother, "without his glasses, his eyes were red-rimmed and pale and defenseless-looking," almost implying that he was crying. I mean he was obviously a cuckoo bird, but that doesn't make him a bad person, just criminally insane. I think in the end, he did feel bad and got no real pleasure from the crimes he committed.
This story was a bit confusing. As I was reading it, though, I found myself empathizing with the character of the Misfit.
hmmm although I do agree that the Misfit did not enjoy killing people I don't think it redeems him from all the bad that he's done. I wasn't able to feel anything towards him except perhaps a bit of confusion.