A Good Man is Hard to Find

Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find" is the story of an overbearing, selfish old woman who joins her family on a vacation to Florida. She manipulates her son into taking a detour and causes an accident by letting her cat escape from the bag. As the family waits for help by the side of the road, they encounter a trio of escaped convicts led by the notorious Misfit. The whole family is led into the woods and executed as the grandmother pleads with the villain.
She is trying to appeal to the good in him in a desperate attempt to save her life. As she talks of Jesus and the importance of prayer in the Misfit's life, she is in fact talking to herself. A moment before her death grace is bestowed upon her and she dies in peace, with a smile on her face. The Misfit says that she would have been a good woman if someone were there to shoot her every day of her life.
This story explores the Christian concept of grace and forgiveness by simply asking for it on one's deathbed. It poses the question whether one final moment of insight negates a lifetime of sin and asks why our potential to do good is so rarely considered until we are faced with the prospect of dying.