This TED Talk was about the nature of compassion and its affect on all living things. The speaker, Joan Halifax, states that compassion is a necessity for survival and is something humans already possess. This is an interesting statement to make when considering the characters in "A Good Man is Hard to Find". The grandmother especially seems to be the least empathetic throughout the story. Halifax defines compassion as the ability to recognize that an individual is not separate from suffering. Almost all of the characters in the story were oblivious to other people’s suffering. For example, June Star was unaware of her insulting remarks to Red Sam’s wife (O’Connor 104). Also, the grandmother somehow puts her life before any of her family members and ignores their suffering in the hands of The Misfit (O’Connor 152). The speaker further elaborates that in order to feel compassion in the moment, one must detach themselves to the outcome. The only character that did this was the mother. She didn’t panic for the sake of her children and consciously detached herself from their fate in order to be present with her family (O’Connor 151). The point is also made that compassion is activated under particular conditions. Perhaps this can explain the mother’s empathetic behavior in the intense situation. Finally, Halifax claims that fear is the biggest inhibitor for compassion. This is true for the grandmother as the experience creates a sense of righteousness, ultimately preventing her from developing compassion. The TED Talk makes the universality of compassion controversial and makes the American Dream of every person possessing this quality unrealistic.