“A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor uses a grandmother’s perspective to take the reader through a literal and moral journey. She resides in Georgia with her son’s family, which includes his wife and three children. Throughout the story, the grandmother conflicts with the family members about their choice of destination as she prefers her choice be final; she uses a murderer’s prison escape news headline to dissuade the family. On the road, moral conflicts arise that highlight cognitive dissonance, which climaxes when she unexpectedly meets the prison escapee, The Misfit. Through applying moral-philosophical criticism, this essay analyses the short story to highlight different forms of moral hypocrisy.
The grandmother’s narcissistic tendencies portray a form of moral hypocrisy involving false attribution. Despite expressing agitation about getting involved in a car accident, the grandmother eventually becomes solely responsible for the car accident later in the story. Hiding her cat inside the vehicle caused the accident as it jumped onto the driver, disrupting his stability (Mays 504). Thus highlighting the grandmother’s negligent character and inflated sense of self-importance. Cognitive dissonance shows itself in narcissists when they create problems while overlooking their contribution. A common example of cognitive dissonance is when voters elect corrupt and incompetent leaders who appeal to their egos and nuances and then blame external agents for a lack of progress and positive change. For instance, Donald Trump was reported guilty of sexist rhetoric before his presidential regime. Still, the victims of his discrimination, white women, contributed to a significant number of his votes due to personal evangelical devotion and fear of a democratic regime (Brisbane 223). Women have come out expressing their disgust at the former president’s sexism and rage against the patriarchy, but a large portion still voted for Donald Trump as president. Narcissists convey moral hypocrisy through false attribution, blaming external factors for self-inflicted problems.
Classism is another form of moral hypocrisy whereby people pretend to be accepting while holding degrading, negative sentiments about lower social classes. The grandmother scolds June Star for degrading Red Sam’s restaurant, “Aren’t you ashamed?” (Mays 502). However, throughout the short story, her speech carries classist rhetoric. At the beginning of the journey, the grandmother suggests that African Americans are generally poor after demanding respect (500). She also tells The Misfit that his appearance manifested as a good person because he looked like he came from a well-off background, “You’re not a bit common!” (508). Classism involves rhetoric that separates people into classes, with superiority attached to those on the higher levels of the social class system. In the modern world, spiritual leaders use classism to separate wealthy congregations from the less contributing poor believers. The hypocrisy manifests when preachers and spiritual leaders spread a message of equality while separating their believers in practicality. In the short story, the grandmother dissuades The Misfit from murdering her by appealing to his stable background. Hypocritical preachers use classism to reinforce the narcissism in wealthy believers. The modern phenomenon of prosperity preaching emphasizes success through consistent dedication to religion and the perverted definition of goodness that aims to benefit prosperity preachers (Kopiec 237). They isolate the wealthy and encourage the idea that their quality of life is a spiritual reward for their “goodness,” while the poor are considered negative regarding behavior and habits.
Finally, The Misfit’s sentiments and statements express the moral hypocrisy inherent in the criminal justice system: Systemic hypocrisy. The statement, “I found out that the crime don’t matter…” (Mays 510) reinforces The Misfit’s psychological disposition that the criminal justice system punishes all crimes harshly regardless of the magnitude of the crime on a standard moral scale. He adds that his name, The Misfit, was born out of what he considered unfair punishment for his crimes. The American criminal justice system has been known to be one of the most active bodies in the world, incriminating its citizens more often than what is considered healthy. According to (Kovera 1145), one out of every four black men has experienced incarceration firsthand. Furthermore, black people are victims of punitive charges that lead to harsh sentences instead of rehabilitation, as is expected when dealing with misdemeanors and juvenile offenders. The criminal justice system portrays moral hypocrisy by playing the role of “God” and mass executioner, even though it is a body made up of human beings with the same psychological and physical makeup as the average human being. Inductively, the corrupt history of the criminal justice system is proof that it is a legal body made up of flawed people. Consequently, people like The Misfit take matters into their own hands by exacting their subjective concept of justice, which is still regarded as criminal by the law. The government and its organs are meant to improve citizens’ lives by distributing wealth and upholding justice; however, the American criminal justice system does the contrary by treating some of its citizens as expendable, thus systemic hypocrisy.
In conclusion, the moral-philosophical approach is useful in analyzing moral hypocrisy in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor. Narcissism is the first form of moral hypocrisy discussed. It is a form of hypocrisy whereby people’s actions create problems, but they eventually attribute the problems to external factors. The grandmother hid her cat but warned his son to be a careful driver. Secondly, classism is a form of hypocrisy whereby people from different social classes are separated subtly. Prosperity preachers talk about equality but eventually treat their congregation based on social class. Finally, the criminal justice system conveys hypocrisy by punishing crime offenders unfairly or harshly while representing justice and equality.
Works Cited
Brisbane, Gayle Jansen. “Why Evangelical Christian Women Voted for Donald Trump: A Crisis of Conscience and Moral Integrity—The Cognitive Dissonance.” US Democracy in Danger: The American Political System Under Assault. Cham: Springer Nature Switzerland, 2023. 223-243.
Kopiec, Piotr. “The Prosperity Gospel: A Distortion of the Fundamental Evangelical Tenets.” Studia Oecumenica 20 (2020): 229-243.
Kovera, Margaret Bull. “Racial disparities in the criminal justice system: Prevalence, causes, and a search for solutions.” Journal of Social Issues 75.4 (2019): 1139-1164.
Mays, Kelly J. The Norton Introduction to Literature Shorter: with Registration Card. WW Norton & Company, 2021.
write