In Flannery O'Connor's short story "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the protagonist is the grandmother, a self-centered, manipulative, and ultimately tragic figure. Despite her superficial piety and attempts to appear virtuous, the grandmother's actions and words reveal her true nature as a selfish and dishonest person.
At the beginning of the story, the grandmother manipulates her son, Bailey, into taking a vacation to Florida by planting the idea in his head and then pretending to be sick. She is also insistent that they avoid the main highways and take the "old-fashioned" route, which ultimately leads to their encounter with the Misfit and their deaths. The grandmother's motives for wanting to take the old-fashioned route are not entirely clear, but it is suggested that she is more interested in reliving the past and showing off her knowledge of the countryside to Bailey's children than in their safety.
Throughout the story, the grandmother exhibits a lack of empathy and concern for others. When the family's car crashes and they are confronted by the Misfit, the grandmother initially tries to save herself by appealing to the Misfit's compassion and telling him that he is a "good man." However, when she realizes that this tactic is not working, she turns on the Misfit and insults him, showing her true lack of concern for his feelings and her willingness to say whatever she thinks will benefit her.
The grandmother's fatal flaw is her inability to see the Misfit as a human being with his own thoughts and feelings. Instead, she sees him as a means to an end and tries to use him to save herself. This lack of empathy and understanding ultimately leads to her own demise, as the Misfit sees through her manipulative tactics and decides to kill her and the rest of the family.
In conclusion, the grandmother in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is a complex and tragic character. While she may appear virtuous and pious on the surface, her actions and words reveal her true nature as a selfish and manipulative person. Her lack of empathy and understanding ultimately leads to her own downfall and the deaths of her family.
