Overview of A Good Man is Hard to Find

The story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is an interesting story about a family traveling to Florida for a family trip. The story’s main characters are the grandmother, the mother and a baby, the father Bailey, and the two children June Star and John Wesley. This family is to embark on a trip that leads to a run in with other characters The Misfit, Bobby Lee, and Hiram who are escaped convicts in Florida.
The story starts with the announcement that the family is going on a trip to Florida. The grandmother does not want to go. She wants to go to Tennessee instead. She has heard of The Misfit being loose and she did not want to run into him. She uses this haphazardly as an excuse not to go Florida. Little does she know how true her statement is.
After no success in her pleadings the grandmother and the rest of the family set out on their trip to Florida. During their trip we learn about the family and the personalities that they all have. The grandmother has a strong hold on old fashioned values. When John Wesley complains about his native state of Georgia the grandmother replies, “In my time children were more respectful of their native states and their parents, and everything else.”

We also find that the children are very obnoxious and outspoken. When the family stops at a diner the owner’s wife asks June Star if she like to be her little girl, June Star replies, “No, I certainly wouldn’t, I wouldn’t live in a broken-down place like this for a million bucks.” This is also evidence of the parents’ lack of discipline. The mother and father rarely say anything at all to the children and don’t seem to reprimand them for their poor behavior. It seems that only the grandmother cares about their behavior.
While at the diner the grandmother also comments on how the diner’s owner is a good man and that a good man is hard to find. This foreshadows the events that are to come later in the story.