Reading Log 7: A Good Man is Hard to Find

Hello there all! I hope that everybody had a good winter break and a happy new year! It's going to be a good semester of PATH, I can tell!

Well, this reading assignment was... interesting? I suppose that's a word to describe it. It didn't really get the entire meaning, I don't think. I read it a few times but still felt like I was missing something. It was a very different story--something that I feel like I would dream up, considering how random my dreams tend to be. I mean, a family just happens upon a serial killer after getting into a car accident? And the way that the people acted... it was a very strange story, and I can't imagine how Mrs. O'Conner managed to think this up!

Summery:
Well, I don't know how well I'll be able to complete this portion. From what I can tell, an old grandmother is going on vacation with her son, his wife, their three children, and a cat. She reminisces about how good life was in the olden days during their drive to a vacation destination. While driving, the family stops at a restaurant. The grandmother and the old man owner talk about how a good man is hard to find--everybody and everything seems to have something bad about them these days. The family takes back off onto the road. On the way to Florida, the grandmother remembers a house that was on the drive, and the children want to go see it because it has a secret passageway.

While they're going down a dirt road that leads to the house, the grandmother remembers that the house was not in Georgia (their current location) but in her home state of Tennessee. She upsets the cat, which in turn attacks her son and causes him to swerve off the road, getting into a wreck. The family emerge from the wreck, relatively unharmed but needing assistance.

In time, a car drives by and three men get out. The grandmother eventually recognizes the man as "The Misfit" an escaped convicted that is running from the law with his companions. The grandmother pleads for him to spare her life, and is forced to watch as her family is lead into the woods and killed by the Misfit's companions. The Misfit talks about how he never did anything but was sent to prison anyways. The grandmother convinces him that praying would lift the burdens and regrets from his heart, and then recognizes the man as... "her own child?" (Didn't get this part at all.) The Misfit kills her, and the story is left with an ambiguous ending.

Thoughts on the Reading:
Ahem... not the most easy story to read, and not the easiest to understand, either. I could appreciate the plot well enough--a family gets killed by your friendly neighborhood serial killer--but I constantly feel like I missed something important. I mean, I understand the questions given for reading homework all well and good, but I leave the story feeling unsatisfied. I don't know. Something to talk about on Wednesday, I suppose.

Questions and Discussion:
1. What is the role of chance or fate in the story?
Well, from what I understand, the most influential part of the story that fate had began when the grandmother happened to kick the cat out of the box. From there, it caused a car crash, and the vehicle just so happened to dump everybody out into a ditch and leave the mother injured. Then, three men just so happen to be wandering by. Then, the three men just so happen to be escaped convicts, and serial killers at that. And then it all goes downhill from there, what with all the murder and all. Fate seems to be the driving force of many of the actions--I can't imagine that any of the happenings in the reading was anything more than pure coincidence. Fate kinda sucks that way, huh?

2. Discuss the grandmother's definition of a "good man" using specific examples from the text.
This one took some pulling and shoving. From what I can understand, the grandmother would view the ideal "good man" as a religious, non-violent gentleman. I chose gentleman because the grandmother seems to appreciate a man who treats others (especially ladies) right, as she explained when talking about how much she enjoyed Mr. Edgar Atkins Teagarden and how he left her watermelons. Non-violent was a shoe-in--she didn't seem to appreciate how The Misfit dealt with his inner turmoil, resulting to screaming and shouting at him for his actions. (Granted, he was killing her family and was obviously a little/lot off his rocker....nevertheless, it's a good trait that I think she would appreciate based on her reactions). And finally, religious was also a pretty obvious trait. She constantly went on about how praying and finding Jesus would help the troubled killer find peace.

Well... All I can say is that if all the PATH readings of 2012 were of his caliber, I'd say we have a pretty interesting school year on our hands, wouldn't you?