"A Good Man is Hard to Find," a short story by Flannery O'Connor, is full with a religious theme, symbols, and characters. In most of her stories, she uses these religious elements because we can infer that she was a very devout in her type of faith and was so passionate about to write about it. This evident in this short story when the reader thinks deeper about the meanings of the themes and symbols and figures out the way they are connected to religion especially in the grandmother and misfit. Therefore, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" depicts redemption through an appalling, frequently violent experience endured by characters that are spiritually grotesque.
Flannery O'Connor includes more aspects into this short story that a person could imagine. She embraces many symbols along with several characters and themes. However, the religious symbols are evident and cannot be missed. The one that sticks out the most to me is the sky because the clouds represent the blocking of the sun. This means that the clouds are obstructing their view of the light and cannot see the truth. However, when the grandmother is about to be murdered by The Misfit she see that the sky is clear and she could see the light. Another symbol I noticed is the forest where the Misfit's friends took everyone except the grandmother to kill. It signifies the fear of the unknown because when they took Bailey in there first, he did not know what was going on. Therefore, it resembles that death is behind us at all times. We can never know when it will consume us but when it does happen, we can die either in the dark or in the light of God like the grandmother. The last symbol I found that connects with religion comes from The Misfit himself because some say that he represents Anti-Christ. Even though that is how he is seemed to be, O'Connor makes a point with him that, everyone can get salvation if they believe.
