"Yes'm," The Misfit said as if he agreed. "Jesus shown everything off balance. It was the same case with Him as with me except He hadn't committed any crime and they could prove I had committed one because they had the papers on me. Of course," he said, "they never shown me my papers. That's why I sign myself now. I said long ago, you get you a signature and sign everything you do and keep a copy of it. Then you'll know what you done and you can hold up the crime to the punishment and see do they match and in the end you'll have something to prove you ain't been treated right. I call myself The Misfit," he said, "because I can't make what all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment."

There was a piercing scream from the woods, followed closely by a pistol report. "Does it seem right to you, lady, that one is punished a heap and another ain't punished at all?"

"Jesus!" the old lady cried. "You've got good blood! I know you wouldn't shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people! Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady. I'll give you all the money I've got!"

"Lady," The Misfit said, looking beyond her far into the woods, "there never was a body that give the undertaker a tip." ("A Good Man is Hard to Find")

Basic Set Up:

A criminal who holds a family hostage at the end of O'Connor's story explains to the grandmother why he goes by the name "The Misfit."

On the one hand, The Misfit is the bad guy in this story. He does, after all, order the killing of a whole family, including two children and an old grandmother.

On the other hand, The Misfit's eloquent speech to the grandmother here about the injustice that's been done to him (he was punished and spent ages in jail for a crime he doesn't understand, or know), raises the question of how unequal society is. Some people are punished for no reason, like The Misfit, and others who should be punished aren't punished at all.

So the Misfit's words raise a whole bunch of questions about the way society works: Why is it that the powerless and the weak are the ones who are always punished? Why is it that there is no real justice in the world? Is the Misfit trying to restore justice in the story by killing the family? Why?

Most of this passage is made up of dialogue, but it's seriously eloquent dialogue. The Misfit may be a Misfit, and he's clearly not a super educated guy, but he does have the gift of gab. He's deadly serious, but he's also funny and witty: "I call myself The Misfit... because I can't make what all I done wrong fit what all I gone through in punishment.'"

By allowing The Misfit to speak directly, O'Connor gives us the chance to understand his whole worldview, as well as the chance to understand why he's doing what he's doing, and why he's become a bad guy. We may still condemn his actions, but we are forced to see his point of view, too.