Story And The Grandmother example essay topic

Eating breakfast and reading the paper, a southern family is preparing to depart for their vacation to Florida. Set in northern Georgia in the mid 1950's, on a summer day (the children are at home, so it is a good possibility they are out of school for their summer break) when conflict begins to set in over the planned final destination of a vacation. The setting eventually progresses to a dirt road outside a town ironically named Toomesboro. O Connor begins to foreshadow the story's irony by having the grandmother attempt to the use the news story of the Misfit to support her argument to not go to Florida. She explains that he is in Florida and says I wouldn t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that a loose in it. O Connor has set the stage for the essence of the conflict in this story.

This family is not typical. From the outside, they could be seen as an ordinarily happy family, but in contrast, they are rather dysfunctional. O Connor provides the reader with a vivid description of the main characters, especially to the two women, the grandmother and the daughter-in-law. Their physical descriptions are given as polar opposites; the protagonist (the grandmother) is described as an unusually well dressed older woman that says she believes in the old-time Christian value system. She resents the changes in morality and blames them on the troubles of the world. There is little difference between the grandmother's past and the story's present.

She can also be perceived to possess a condescending demeanor towards other races of people. She says, "Oh look at the cute little pickaninny niggers in the country don't have things like we do if I could paint, I'd paint that picture the grandmother proclaims (referring to an African American child in front of a shack). The daughter-in-law is described as a painted as a simple southern mother with a face that is broad and innocent as a cabbage. Using O Connor's initial descriptions, I see simplicity (the daughter-in-law) in contrast to the complexities of an older, southern woman, fixated on the superficiality of image. She has most likely been conditioned to ignore most of what the grandmother discusses.

Bailey, the father and the son of the grandmother, is an impatient man that has apparently grown weary of his mother's habits of manipulation and deceit. By his children's blatant disrespect for their grandmother and insult of the restaurant owner's wife, it is apparent that Bailey has failed to teach his children good manners and behavior. The inter-personal relationship of this family seems to have grown into a state of continual indifference spawned from a genuine lack of communication and respect for each other's feelings. Even when faced with death, this family has little to say to each other. The basic plot of this story is about a family arguing about their ultimate destination for their vacation.

On this trip a grandmother, her son, his wife and their two children are all traveling together. A brutal killer, the Misfit, is at large. As the result of a side trip urged by the grandmother (with the help the cat that she smuggled along), the car crashes and the family falls into the killer's hands. As each family member is executed, the killer chillingly discusses his (without flinching, like nothing is happening) history and shares his philosophical and religious beliefs. The grandmother tries to convince the killer to believe in Jesus until she, too, is shot.

The main character (the grandmother) lives a life of manipulation. O Connor gives subtle examples of this characteristic throughout this story. For example, the following morning, after the family's discussion about going to Florida, the grandmother prepares for the trip. She craftily hides her cat, Pitty Sing, in a basket contradicting what her son wishes were.

To me, this illustrates her devious nature. Bailey would otherwise not allow the cat to come along; he disapproves of taking cats into motels. The grandmother states that she does not want to leave Pitty Sing at home because she believes he would miss her and he might accidentally turn on a gas burner and asphyxiate himself. Regardless of Bailey's honest opinion, his mother finds a way to manipulate him by using what she perceives he would really want. She does this with total disregard of what he requested (kind of like holding him hostage with manners towards his own mother). I view this as the ultimate form of deceit and forcefulness.

This can also explain why the family has grown to ignore and disrespect the elderly woman. The opening words of this story both introduce and foreshadow the end of this family by focusing on the grandmother's less than accommodating personality: trying to get her own way, she inadvertently seals her family's fate. America is changing for the worse. In the restaurant, Red Sammy's wife says no one can be trusted and emphasizes this by looking sharply at him. The grandmother turns the conversation to the escaped criminal, the Misfit. Mrs. Butts tries to join in, saying she would not be surprised if The Misfit robbed their restaurant.

Nevertheless, Red Sammy rudely interrupts her to tell her to get the Coca Colas. "A good man is hard to find, laments the veteran. He and the grandmother agree on the sad state of current American life and blame post-war Europe for the world's troubles. This collective feeling between the two of them illustrates their lack of connection with the real world and solidifies the grandmother's elitist demeanor and lack of social conscience in the changing times. The grandmother insists on a detour to an old mansion. She uses her grandchildren to manipulate her only son to do this.

This leads to a car accident. After the accident (caused by the cat that the grandmother insisted join them on their trip), when the Misfit is introduced to the story and the grandmother ironically meets him face to face, O Connor's use of foreshadowing illustrates itself. Upon pleading with the Misfit and explaining that he is a good man (title? ), fault for the tragedy rests with the grandmother for her self-centered actions and thoughtless words. Her message to the man seemed to motivate him to kill this family (maybe put this cold family out of their misery). I interpret the family as already "dead's pi ritually and emotionally (they had nothing to say to each other in their last minutes) and that the social misfit simply finishes the physical job. Brewing to this climax, the Misfit confesses that he wishes he could have known whether Christ's miracles happened or not.

The grandmother touches the Misfit's shoulder, saying, "Why you " re one of my babies. You " re one of my own children! The Misfit recoils and shoots her three times in the chest. At that crucial moment, I believe the Misfit's motivation for killing her can be argued without resolution in a bipolar fashion. He either saw a selfish, shallow, petty and self-righteous woman pleading for her own life, or this old woman had an epiphany and was genuinely extending love to this man, altruistically, for the first time in her life. Either way, I perceive the killer as not psychologically capable of accepting love from God, the grandmother or anyone at this time in his life.

O Connor leaves a great deal of latitude to debate the misfits motive. I feel that the grandmother's intentions were selfish.