A Good Man Is Hard To Find

The story was first published in 1953 in the anthology The Avon Book of Modern Writing.In 1960, it was collected in the anthology The House of Fiction, published by Charles Scribner's Sons. "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," because of its publication in many anthologies, became the most well known of O'Connor's works.

CHARACTERS:

Bailey:
Atlanta resident with a wife and three children and his mother. He crashes their car on a family trip to Florida when he gives in to his mother's and children's wishes to visit an old plantation.

Bailey's wife:
Quiet woman described as having a face that was "as broad and innocent as a cabbage." She is not identified by name, only as "the children's mother."

Grandmother:
Bailey's mother, who lives with the family. She is not identified by name.

John Wesley,June Star:
Bailey's children, aged 8 and 7, respectively. The baby male child of Bailey and his wife. Not identified by name.

Red Sammy Butts:
Restaurant operator who agrees with the Grandmother that the world is in a state of decline.

Red Sammy's Wife
Waitress in Red Sammy's restaurant. She observes that not a single person in the world is trustworAtkinThe Misfit
Escaped prisoner who comes across Bailey's family after they have crashed.

Hiram, Bobby Lee
Prisoners who escaped with The Misfit.

Edgar Atkins
Tea garden man referred to in a story told by Bailey's mother. He would have been a good man to marry, she says, because he owned Coca-Cola stock and died rich.

Pitty Sing:
Pet cat of the Grandmother. Bailey flings it against a tree after the accident. It is last seen rubbing against The Misfit's leg. ("Pitty Sing" is a character in the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta, The Mikado.)

Gray Monkey:
Pet of Red Sammy Butts. The monkey is chained to a chinaberry tree.