Week Four: Old Weird and New Weird


This week I read A Good Man Is Hard to Find. I was listening to the audio version while working, the story was progressing and then all of the sudden it was the end. It caught me off guard! I thought “Really? That was the end?” It felt so sudden, almost like when you read an obscure Grimm’s Fairytale, and the whole story just felt so random that the ending just seemed to come out of nowhere. Confused, I did some research. I knew this story was highly respected; I must be missing something. I read a synopsis and everything seemed to click. This story is about morals. It is called A Good Man I Hard To Find, after all.

            The misfits talk about Jesus for a little bit at the end, which sums up the point of the story quite well. The whole story was building to have this conversation about right and wrong. He says that if what Jesus did was true, then everyone should follow Him and live their lives in a holy manner, but if it’s all a lie, then the best you can make of your life is to indulge yourself in meanness and this is even pointless. This is the outlook of a very troubled and scared man. He is searching and searching for meaning and satisfaction and has never found it. This has brought him to the low point of thinking nothing matters and everything in inconsequential. Therefore, he does what he pleases, which is roaming the country taking what he wants, including the life of his fellow human beings.

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