Fate or chance played a pretty big role in this story. First of all, the Grandmother wants to go to Tennessee – not Florida, which is where her son, Bailey, is taking his family. As an excuse to not go to Florida, she tells Bailey that there is an escaped criminal doing bad things who is called the Misfit, and he’s heading for Florida. Surely they wouldn’t want to go there, would they? But the father brushes it off as a lame excuse from his mother to not go to Florida but to where she wanted to go, as I would have too. But, by chance or by fate, this family just happened to meet the Misfit and the Misfit shot them all. Talk about a slim chance. Or maybe, fate willed it? This is one of those stories that’s kind of scary, but we assume it’s not going to happen in real life – what’s the ‘chance’ of that? Chance and fate also showed up in other parts of the story – by chance, they stopped at a restaurant and talked to the owner about how good men are hard to find. Just later that day, the Grandmother was arguing for her life by trying to convince the murderer that he was indeed a good man, that good can be found in everybody. What are the ‘chances’ of that? Also, did fate want them to get in a car accident? Then why did the stowaway cat emerge right when it did and jump to exactly the right spot for the car to be flung off the road and its passengers injured? Was that these people’s ‘fate’, or destiny? Fate and chance show up many times in this story.

     The story is all about good men. What is a good man, and where do you find them? Those seem to be two questions the texts battles throughout the story. The Grandmother tries to define a good man three times in the story – once when she told the story of an old boyfriend of hers, again when she met with Red Sammy, and a third time when she bartered for her life against the Misfit. At first a good man is  one who invests well in business, and is successful ,as the story goes with her old boyfriend Mr. E.A.T. As in Red Sammy’s case,  the Grandmother calls Red Sammy a good man because he was generous to a few boys that came into his shop. Even though those boys cheated him, he was still a good man for doing so. And the most important event was when she tried to convince the Misfit he was a good man. She yelled at him, “you must come from good people.” Later she yells, “I know you have good blood!” This is a big part of her definition, that he comes from good people… sadly, however, the people you come from can only point you in the right direction. They can’t make you a truly good man. The Grandmother continues by saying, “You’re not a bit common!” So she implies common men are not good men. Then the Grandmother says, “You can be honest if you only try.” This is a true statement, good is a choice. But the Misfit has chosen, and he has not chosen good.