In the context of O'Connor's story, "A Good Man is Hard to
Find," grace is something often undeserved, a force outside a character that generates
an epiphany. The grandmother has such an epiphany and receives grace as suddenly looks
at the Misfit with a new perspective, seeing him as like unto herself. At this point,
the grandmother becomes a good Christian as she reaches out to the Misfit. After he
shoots her, the Misfit does recognize her transformation, for he
says,
'She
would have been a good woman...if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute
of her life.'
Significantly,
after being shot the religious number of three times, she falls over her legs which are
crossed under her, symbolically like the crucified Christ, who died to save others.
For, after turning down the road to error, the grandmother redeems herself from
the petty, materialistic life which she has been living.
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