I remember the day you could go off and leave your screen door unlatched." He and grandmother discussed better times." Many things were changing in America during the 1940's. We were in the middle of World War II, women were starting to work outside the home, and segregation of blacks and whites continued. People were forced to change the way they lived due to the war. The baby boom was soon to be under way and the birth of rock and roll was around the corner. Children no longer respected their parents, and elders were no longer valued in the household. There was once a time in America when families could feel safe in their homes and communities. This time was soon to be "gone with the wind." Flannery O"Connor tells a tale of a family experiencing the changes in American culture during this time period. Her story, A Good Man Is Hard To Find illustrates how society was beginning to drastically change for the worse in the 1940's, and even a Christian character and a good heart couldn't always protect someone from the effects of those changes.
Grandmother is the representation of a traditional, Christian, Southern woman, and in turn an example of what society used to be. On the family's trip to Florida, grandmother dresses in fine Sunday clothes, including white gloves and a flowered hat. She wants to make sure that in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady. She tells stories of southern gentlemen courting her when she was young. She also speaks of better days in America.
June Star and John Wesley are examples of the breakdown of discipline and respect in future generations. They are very disrespectful to the adults they come in contact with throughout the story, including their own grandmother. At a restaurant on the trip, June Star makes crude remarks to the owners, who are trying to give her a compliment. She is also very unkind to Bobby Lee, one of the men with "The Misfit.
