Imagery is used in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” to create a vivid picture in the reader’s mind of the events taking place in the story, and to add emotional impact to certain scenes.
In the first scene, when The Misfit is talking about his mother, we are told that “he looked like an idiot, he looked like an idiot, he looked like an idiot,” and then later that Samella was as old as Methuselah and wore a rat-colored wig. These descriptions give us a vivid picture of what these characters look like so that we can imagine them better as we read through the rest of the story.
The imagery also heightens the emotional impact of certain scenes. For example, when The Misfit tells Bailey that he is going to take him home with him, it is unclear how serious he is. However, at one point he says “I’m gonna get you back for this,” which creates a sense of foreboding for Bailey because we know that The Misfit isn’t joking around anymore. Similarly, when Bailey tells The Misfit “you’re nothing but a dirty old man,” it adds humor to a moment where things might otherwise be tense or serious because it makes us think.
