A Good Man is Hard to Find

A Good Man is Hard to Find is a story about a family who takes a trip, meets an escaped murderer and dies.

1) Where was the family's destination?
2) Why did the Misfit shoot the grandmother?
3) Are good men hard to find?

I really don't know what to make of this story. I thought all the characters were written well and the story was interesting to read, yet it didn't seem to have a point or a theme or a reason for why it was written the way it was. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, except for the fact that we have to write about such things for this class.

One point about the story that I thought was done particularly well was the part about the shirt. (Bailey wears this yellow shirt with blue parrots, then after he was taken into the woods, the shirt of his that the Misfit puts on is that shirt.) The grandmother's line of how she doesn't remember what the shirt reminds her of shows very clearly the distressed and confused state her mind is in. It adds to the weird quality of the piece.

Oh yeah, and all the religious stuff confused me. I have no idea what exact deeper meaning the author was trying to convey, especially with all the references to Jesus. I mean, I got the obvious- that the Misfit takes pleasure in killing because he thinks the world is messed up and the grandmother thinks he should be saved, etc., but I think I'm missing something important because religion in general confuses me.