1. How realistic is this story? What would make it more realistic?

2. Discuss O'Connor's use of detail in telling her story. How does this add to the story?

3. O'Connor sets her stories decisively in the American South. What is it about "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" that makes it a southern story?

4. How would you describe the relationship between the Misfit and the Grandmother? How does it change over the course of the story?

5. The Misfit explains that he cannot recall why he was put in jail the first time he went to prison, and that the crime written on his prison papers—that he killed his father—was not correct. Do you believe him? How often do you think that men are wrongly accused of a crime?

6. Is prison a salutary experience? Can it reform a...