What did the Misfit mean when he stated, "She would have been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life?".
Response.
The statement seems to be ironic coming from a person that has committed multiple murders and deemed a menace to society. The possibility that a person capable of such demonic acts as murder, to seek the goodness in his victim could be deemed a last redemption to save his own soul. "A Good Man is Hard to Find,"" is a story of a family planning a trip to Florida for vacation. There is not much soulful depth to the family. The behavior displayed to each other is disrespectful, manipulating, and thoughtless. The grandmother is a bit too garrulous, without much thought. She would rather use manipulation to get what she wants rather than be truthful. She is very opinionated and critical of other people's actions and lacks the ability to be insightful of her own. Bailey the grandmother's son, seems to be mentally detached from his family. He lacks parental control over his two children John Wesley and June Star. The children are disrespectful, loud, and obnoxious. Bailey's wife does not appear to have a voice of her own and is short on parental guidance and discipline. Her only task is to take care of the baby. The family encounters Red Sammy Butts, the owner of The Tower Restaurant when they stop to eat. Red Sammy and the grandmother chat about how people in the world today are not nice and trustworthy as they once were. Red Sammy goes on to brag how he gave gas to two men on credit and hadn't a mind why he did that. The grandmother states "Because you are a good man!" (430). The reader tends to believe that Red Sammy is not as good as he pretends to be as his wife delivers the food to the table and say that you cannot trust anyone on God's green earth, not anyone as she glares at Red Sammy (430).
It would be one's interpretation that The Misfit had encountered Red Sammy and received gas on credit as kind gesture.