The Misfit Research Paper

I believe The Misfit took his religion serious but he was confused. The grandmother never took her religious faith seriously. Her final gesture is a genuine moment of grace. Once again she is trying to be manipulative, but The Misfit is one who she cannot manipulate, or is she?

The Misfit stated that he didn’t have a rough childhood, growing up with the “finest people in the world… God never made a finer woman than my mother and my daddy’s heart was pure gold” (O’Connor 413). It’s commonly thought that serial killers are motivated by their troublesome pasts, yet the Misfit didn’t seem to experience that. This creates ambiguity because O’Connor does not disclose what caused the Misfit to turn into a vicious killer. However, a possible explanation is that he has always suffered from psychological issues and the turbulent events he experienced contributed to his mental instability such as his time “in the arm services” and seeing “a man burnt alive” (O’Connor 415). Another example is when the grandmother touched the Misfit’s shoulder and said, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” causing him to shoot her three times in the chest (O’Connor 417). The grandmother’s motivation for saying that the Misfit is her child and the Misfit’s motivation for shooting her after that statement are ambiguous. A possible explanation may be that the grandmother was in shock due to her situation and wasn’t in a clear state of mind when she said that. The statement and physical gestures presented by the grandmother must have agitated the Misfit in some way that resulted in her instant death. However, the true

The final comment of the story seams to be showing a change in misfits' life. Misfit seams to be thinking about goodness and probably thinking that evil is not the answer to the problems in his life. The story shows us that a lot of people are evil, but when they are in trouble they will think of god, as grandma did in the story. At the end of the story Misfit regrets killing grandma, and says that "she would have been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life. (O' Connor 318)." The story is trying to tell us that do not flight all the time and be evil, because you never know what may happen to one. O' Connor is trying to tell us that every man has good and evil in him, but some time we only see one side of them and forget that they have another side as well. The final comment of the story implies that even though misfit seams evil, there still might be some goodness in him. Misfit has gone thorough so many challenges in his life that have made him this way, because he has no faith.

First, she starts off by saying “You wouldn’t shoot a lady” (291) the grandmother must have thought if she said that he would not kill her. His friends killed her daughter in law as well as the other girls, she was not safe because she considered herself a lady. Secondly, Flannery O’Connor stated “You are a good man”. (291) because the old lady knew deep down inside the Misfit did not mean to harm anyone and she knew who he was running from. However, even though it is not stated in the story but my interpretation gave it away that he was afraid and the grandmother knew he was scared. Third, Flannery O’Connor said “ If you would pray…..Jesus would help you”. (293) the old lady wanted to encourage the Misfit to pray because even though he has done so much wrong GOD wants to still make him a prophet. Even in real life repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus would still away for sinners to enter the gates of

“What does in fact happen in this part of the story is quite straightforward: the Grandmother, having exhausted all other appeals to the Misfit, resorts to her only remaining (though certainly imperfect) weapon: motherhood. Declaring to the Misfit that he is one of her babies, she sets out to conquer him. Perhaps she hopes that this ultimate flattery will melt his heart, and he will collapse in her comforting

Instead of grieving for the death of her family, she tries to talk him out of killing her. She even tries to buy her own life. She seemed to care more for herself than her family. If she cared more for them, she would have offered more for their lives. At the very end of the story it seems the misfit got to know the grandmother very well in those few moments he spent with her. He said, “She would have been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life.”

The depiction of human faith is shown through the grandmother. This can be shown through her actions. This is a story that represents good versus evil. God’s grace versus the devil. Both the grandmother and the Misfit are saved by the end of the story. “ His voice seemed about to crack and the grandmother's head cleared for an instant”. I believe at this moment God manifested himself into the grandmother. God used his grace to touch both the Misfit and the grandmother. “The old lady mumbled not knowing what she was saying and feeling so dizzy that she sank down in the ditch with her legs twisted under her”. At this point, I believe that as the grandmother denies Christ she is also denying herself. She denies her beliefs of having a glamorized life and being better than others. The realization brings her to her knees. She was looking for grace from God as well as forgiveness.She knew that at this point she would die. I believe that the grandmother wanted forgiveness because in some way she felt responsible for the death of her family. Through the final part of the story, we can hear the grandmother continually calling her son's name Billy, Billy. This was her way of apologizing to her son even though he was

The Seekers were formed in 1962 in Melbourne by Athol Guy on double bass (cello), Keith Potger on twelve-string guitar and Bruce Woodley on guitar. Guy, Potger and Woodley had all attended Melbourne Boys High School in Victoria. In the late 1950s, Potger led The Trinamics, a rock 'n' roll group, Guy led the Ramblers and, with Woodley, they decided to form a doo-wop music group, the Escorts. The Escorts had Ken Ray as the lead singer and in 1962 they became "The Seekers". Ray left the group to get married. His place was taken by Judith Durham, an established traditional jazz singer who added a distinctive female lead voice. She had earlier recorded an extended play disc on W&G Records with the Melbourne group, Frank Traynor's Jazz

Unlike the Grandmother, the Misfit truly questions the importance of his life and his part within it. When the Grandmother begins to plead for her life in a religious sense, the Misfit shares his thoughts on Jesus and religion. He states that “Jesus thrown everything off balance,” (O’Connor, 195) then goes on to actually compare himself to Jesus. “He hadn’t committed any crime and they could prove I had committed on because they had the papers on me.” (O’Connor, 195) Here, the Misfit victimizes himself. He believes he has been obligated to suffer for a crime he has committed, yet does not fully understand the reason why. Although he does not necessarily admit that he committed the crime, it comes off as though he knows he did something

The Misfit is a complex character created by Flannery O’Connor. He is talked about first when the Grandmother reads his criminal background at the breakfast table. Right when the Misfit meets the family the Grandmother starts questioning his faith and past, and through the Grandmother’s persistent behavior that you find out the truth behind the Misfits hard exterior. The reader understands that the Misfit was brought up by parents who were the “finest people in the world” (O’Connor 1312). With this type of background, how can one expect the Misfit to be such a cold blooded killer? Because of his kind nature in the beginning of the story, it’s almost impossible to understand how he could just kill. Through deeper analysis one can

The author uses the lax nature of the snake to make its death seem uncalled for, thus, instilling feelings of sympathy in the reader for the snake. When the snake is introduced, it notices the man but does not make a move to attack him.

With the shock of coming face-to-face with death, she starts to let go of her power-hungry and deceptive behavior and decides to act out of love and humility. Her head has become clear, and more than ever she becomes aware of the situation. All her shallow and hypocritical thoughts seemed to have dissipated, and she sees the Misfit as a child of God just. The grandma notices a voice crack in the Misfit’s voice and thought he was about to cry; she murmurs, “Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children” (O’Connor 458-459)! The grandmother calls the Misfit one of her kids despite the crimes he has already committed; God’s spirit may have entered the grandmother and is attempting to offer redemption to the Misfit since she has now accepted it. The still figure of the grandmother is described as “her legs crossed under her like a child’s and her face smiling up at the cloudless sky” (459). God has given the grandma salvation now, and her spirit has a journey to heaven via the cloudless sky. O’Connor shows the protagonist to be hypocritical, but the protagonist found salvation and appeared happy after accepting God and feeling love towards the Misfit; the Misfit appeared to reject God when he shot the grandmother in the chest after she was trying to lend him a hand. The grandmother was able to find salvation through the violence the Misfit brought.

The two other escapees then murder the family one by one until it came time for the Grandmother to face the Misfit eye to eye, all by herself. After she tries to convince the Misfit that he was a good man and the name Misfit did not fit him at all she begins to refer to Jesus. Jesus was something the Misfit does not want to her about and as she leans to touch his shoulder he shoots the Grandmother

The irony in the story is shown when the grandmother, who thinks she is a good Christian, in reality is just as evil as the Misfit.

Do scummers think that we are the scummers and they are the popular kids? In the hallways of Alpena High School are very many different “groups.” Here we have the preps, farmers, jocks, stoners. bandies, exchange students, and the biggest group of all… the scummers. In all honestly it is like a zoo in this school, the students even have their own “habitats.” The stoner's have their own wall by B house, the jocks all have their own table in the commons, the scummers all hang out in the small commons, and the world famous farmers wall. Just a word of advice if you want to make it through high school here, you have to become either a prep, farmer, or jock. The scummers make up mainly the whole population of the students here. From their bad attitudes, appearance, to where they hang out. There are a lot of things that are needed to know about the world miscreants.