A GOOD MAN IS HARD TO FIND - PLOT ANALYSIS

by.arini junaeny

A. SUMMARY OF THE STORY

There is one family, consist of grandmother, father, mother, and two grandchildren. Her son (father) named Bailey. The Grandmother would rather go to Tennessee for vacation than Florida. The family resolves to go to Florida regardless. She spites them by rising early and waiting in the car, dressed in her Sunday best, so that if she should die in an accident she will be recognized as "a lady."

The grandmother talks incessantly during the trip, recalling her youth in the Old South and commenting on various things she sees. When the family stops at a diner, called "The Tower," for lunch, she engages the owner, Red Sammy, in conversation about an escaped murderer known as "The Misfit." The grandmother agrees with Sammy's assertion that a good man is increasingly hard to find.
Back on the road, the grandmother, trying to detour the family away from Florida, begins telling stories about a nearby home that she had visited as a child. Upon hearing that it has secret passages, the children become fixated on visiting the house, and they pester their father until he agrees to follow the grandmother's directions. When her directions lead them down an abandoned dirt road, she realizes that the house is, in fact, in Tennessee and not Georgia. Flustered, she upsets her cat, which panics, causing Bailey to lose control and end up in a ditch. The children view the accident as an adventure; the grandmother feigns an internal injury in order to gain sympathy.

The family waits for help. A car pulls up and pair of men get out, led by a shirtless, bespectacled man with a gun. The man in glasses instructs his cohorts to inspect the family's car and engages Bailey in polite conversation until the grandmother identifies him as the Misfit. As the Misfit instructs his accomplices to murder the family one by one, the grandmother begins pleading for her own life. When the Misfit ignores her pleas, she becomes speechless. Panicked, she attempts to witness about Jesus. The Misfit becomes visibly angry: he is angry with Christ for having given no physical evidence for His existence, casting doubt about the legitimacy of Christianity. He does not want to waste his life serving a figure that may not exist, nor does he want to displease an almighty God who may exist; he has settled on the idea that "There's no pleasure but meanness." The grandmother then reaches out to the Misfit, prompting him to recoil and shoot her.
After the misfit kill the grandmother, he clean his glasses, and said “it’s no real pleasure in life” to Bobby Lee.

B. ANALISYS OF PLOT

1. Exposition

The exposition or introduction at the early of the story. It is open with the grandmother who is rather going to Tennessee for vacation than Florida. In the early story, it mentioned some Characters, such as Bailey Boy is grandmother’s son, Bailey’s Wife, and two grandchild, John Wesley and June Star.
One day before they go to Tennessee, The grandmother read the newspaper and she called her son to read criminal news that is about the misfit. At the next day, the grandmother was the first one in the car.

2. Conflict

The conflict of the story was when the cat jump onto the Bailey’s Shoulder. Bailey lost his control and then they were in an accident. No body is killed in that accident, but maybe their organ is injured. For a moment, a car come to them. The grandmother wave her hands. Three man with guns come to them. They are in robbing. They are the misfit, Bobby Lee, and the other who unnamed. At that situation Bailey, his children, and his wife was separated with the grandmother. There were a conversation between the grandmother and the misfit. The grandmother try to give advisory to the misfit.

3. Climax

The climax of the story was when the grandmother try hard to tell the misfit about having to done. The grandmother told that he had to pray, pray, and pray. The misfit has a different opinion of life, he hate what the grandmother had told. The grandmother said “why you’re not my babies. You’re one of my children!”. The misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten and shot the grandmother three times the chest. And the grandmother was die.

4. Resolution

The misfit clean his glasses after shoot the granmother. She said to Bobby Lee “Take her off and thow her where you thown the others”. He think the grandmother is the good women if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minutes of her life.

5. Conclusion

In my opinion, the conclusion of the story was when the misfit said “it’s no real pleasure in life” it mean that actually the misfit had a good thing in his self. Because, according to he conversation with granmother, he actually agree what grandmother said, but to the kill that lady was his decision.

The plot of the story is Forward Plot because the story tells us the sistimatical story step by step and that story always tells at further situation (situasi yang berkelanjutan)