The Misfit

I feel that the Grandmother in the story "A Good Man is Hard to Find" suffer from psychological conditions. She does not care at all about anyone but herself. I feel that she may even be narcissistic. It is ironic because she would be expected to look out for her family. The Cambridge Dictionary defines narcissism as "too much interest in and admiration for your own physical appearance and/or your own abilities" It is ironic because she would be expected to look out for her family, however in reality she only really looks out for herself. She shows how self centered she really is many times throughout the story. She displays a complete lack of regard for what anyone else wants to do. All she cares about at first is what she wants to do. Later on in the story all she cares about is surviving. She shows no regard for anyone else's life, she does anything and everything she can to not be shot.

According to the Miriam Webster dictionary self centered is being "concerned solely with one's own desires, needs, or interests" or being "independent of outside force or influence". The grandmother is certainly guilty of both. The grandmother was like a child she would do anything she possibly could to get what she wanted. She showed no regard for the people who love her. Although it was unintentional it is hard not to blame everything that went wrong in the story on the grandmother. She was the cause of all of the tension in the car; she was also the one who wanted to go up the side roads. Of not for the grandmother the cat would not have been in the car so they probably would not have crashed. Once they confronted the Misfit she still did nothing to help save her family. She showed them no regard and just looked out for herself.

The grandmother is a very immature woman. She acts as if she has not properly developed socially or morally. She shows no concern for anyone else's opinion or authority. She makes her decisions based solely on what she would like to do. She will do anything it takes to make sure that everything goes her way. For example she completely fabricated a story about her house in order to get them to drive up the side roads. Her attitude seams to have been the primary cause everything that went wrong throughout the whole story. The only person she showed any emotion to the entire story was the misfit. She said anything she possibly could to save herself, however she did nothing