A Good Man is Hard to Find The Misfit Quotes

That The Misfit literally can't remember what he did seems unlikely. How could he forget what sent him to prison in the first place? Maybe if he were innocent and falsely accused it would make sense. However, we know from what he does and says in the story that he's far from being either. It's more likely his "not remembering" either indicates that he doesn't feel as if his past actions are wrong or doesn't take them seriously.

Here again, The Misfit mentions "forgetting," and it doesn't seem like we can take him literally. What really makes The Misfit a bad person is that he doesn't have a sense of guilt. He's not troubled or haunted afterwards by what he does; none of his crimes feels wrong to him. That's why he can speak of forgetting what he's done. Even if he did literally forget his crimes, (perhaps after all he's committed so many he's really forgotten some), this could only happen because they don't affect him at all. They "mattered" so little that it was possible to forget them.

The Misfit commits crimes – killing people and destroying thing – because there's nothing else for him to do. He's not motivated by any desire for gain, and he doesn't believe in the concepts of right and wrong. Destruction seems to be the only thing that gives him pleasure. But you might wonder: given that he recognizes what he does to be "mean," doesn't he have some sense of right and wrong? Could it be that it's just because something is wrong that it gives him pleasure to do it?

Here someone besides the grandmother is talking about being "good," only this time it's the person who's obviously not good. After all the grandmother said about "good people" and The Misfit himself being good, The Misfit now judges that she would have been good in the unlikely circumstance of him continuously threatening to shoot her. What does The Misfit mean when he says this? It looks like he's recognizing that the grandmother's final act, for which he killed her, was genuinely good. This implies that it was her confrontation with him, and with death, which made her good. But if the grandmother only became good at that moment, what does it mean to be good?

This is the reversal of what the Misfit said earlier about meanness being the only pleasure in life. What he's just done – shooting the grandmother dead – merits being called "mean," yet apparently he doesn't feel good about it. Perhaps he's fallen into complete despair, since now there's nothing left to give him pleasure. This would mean that killing the grandmother seriously affected him. Or perhaps it's the beginning of his transformation into a good man. Perhaps both.

Here we have an important insight into The Misfit's personality: he's curious. He's the kind of guy who asks The Big Questions. It's the first suggestion we get that The Misfit may act the way he does because he's thought about things. Viewed in this light, he's not just a thoughtless killer. What he's thought about, rather seriously as we'll see, is religion.

That The Misfit was a gospel singer gives some background to his past relationship to religion. He'll also mention that his father was a member of a Baptist Church. Perhaps more important, though, is all the other things The Misfit has been. This seems to show a deep restlessness on his part. It's as if he's found nothing to be satisfied with, and is either still looking for something or has given up looking altogether.

The Misfit has done a lot of thinking about Jesus, and in his own way, seems to take Jesus much more seriously than the grandmother does. Everything for The Misfit boils down to whether or not Jesus was really God. If he was, then The Misfit thinks it's obvious what one should do with one's life (i.e., follow Jesus). If Jesus wasn't God, there's no point to life at all. According to The Misfit, there is nothing to do in that case, except take pleasure in destruction. The Misfit has chosen the latter option, because he doesn't actually believe in God. Though it almost sounds as if he wants to believe, and is acting out of anger because he can't do so.

Here it really does sound as if The Misfit does want help – he wishes he'd "been there" with Jesus. In other words, he wishes he had real faith, because he doesn't want to be the way he is. That said, the question is whether The Misfit, as he says this, actually has the beginnings of faith, or whether this is just a wish. The Misfit also looks uniquely vulnerable at this moment, and it's here that the grandmother's head clears, presumably because she sees that vulnerability.

The mother is obviously grief-stricken, and agrees to go die with her husband (bringing her baby along) without a fight. She loves him, and doesn't want to live without him (unlike the grandmother, who's still hard at work on The Misfit to save herself). The mother's character has been so undeveloped, and her exchange with The Misfit is so casual and subdued ("Yes, thank you"??), that the scene is plain bizarre. All the more so when June Star insults Bobby Lee immediately afterwards.

Here we have another ridiculous moment, which presents southern manners in an interesting light. The Misfit has just ordered the men of the family to be taken into the woods and shot, and he's slightly embarrassed that he's not properly dressed in front of ladies.