In Flannery O'Connor's short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, a family gets into a car accident on a deserted dirt road. Unfortunately for them, they are found by a group of three escaped convicts, led by a man who calls himself The Misfit. These convicts systematically execute the family in pairs while the Misfit talks with the grandmother. Although the catalyst for this execution is the Misfit's grandmother's verbal recognition as a criminal on the run, it is clear that he commits his crimes for deeper reasons. The Misfit is fundamentally angry, and acting on that anger is the closest thing to pleasure in this life. The story is told from a limited third person perspective, meaning the reader sees the story. through the eyes and perspective of a “point of view character”. In such cases, that character acts as a filter, and while we can see the character's internal thoughts and motivations from the point of view, we can only see the behaviors of other characters through their eyes. In A Good Man is Hard to Find "the grandmother" is the point of view character. This perspective is clear from the first sentence: “The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida. She wanted to visit some of her connections in East Tennessee, and she took every opportunity to change Bailey's mind. Here we are privy to the character’s desire – what she wants. However, we are not able to see the thoughts or desires of the other characters throughout the story. This limited point of view is vital to the experience of the story. When his family is then killed in the woods, out of sight, we feel the same confused emotions as the grandmother, not wanting to believe that these horrible acts are... middle of paper ..... .a society with imperfect justice. In many ways, The Misfit is reminiscent of John Milton's Lucifier in Paradise Lost. A devout Catholic, Flannery O'Connor probably had this character in mind when she wrote her villain in this story. Milton's Lucifer is also intelligent and feels betrayed by his God. It is his imperfect sense of justice that pushes him to strive to do the opposite of God's law: to let evil become his good. This sounds a lot like The Misfit. The Misfit inflicts pain on the world because the world inflicts pain on him. That's all he can want from life, and he wants to teach everyone the same lesson. It doesn't bring him pleasure, it doesn't make him happy, and it doesn't make up for the pain he's already received. It just relieves some sort of pressure, briefly. This reassures him that no other world is possible.