Sweet Old Lady example essay topic

She reached out and touched him on the shoulder. The Misfit sprang back as if a snake had bitten him and shot her three times through the chest. (49) Oh, how horrible! What type of man could kill so ruthlessly?

The poor woman did not stand a chance. In a world filled violence it is a shame to see a sweet old innocent grandmother get murdered. The grandmother in Flannery O Connor's story A Good Man is Hard to Find is anything, but sweet and innocent. It is hard to understand that the grandmother is the protagonist in this story. The heroin of the story has many negative character traits, which leaves you with little sympathy for her when the Misfit shoots her. The clothes she wears and the false charm that she portrays gives way to the manipulative, self-centered person that she really is.

How can such a poor excuse of an old woman be the heroin of the story? The only things that make her a sweet old lady are the things that other people see from the outside. From the beginning of the family trip she tries to show the world how nice of a woman she is. She goes and puts on a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neck line she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet.

(39) During the trip she offered to hold the baby (40) so that the children's mother could have a break. You can tell that she is trying to portray the southern lady that she was raised to be. Just outside of Toombs boro she woke up and recalled a old plantation that she had visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady. She said the house had six white columns across the front and that there was an avenue of oaks leading up to it and two little wooden arbors on either side in front where you sat down with your suitor after a stroll in the garden. (42) In her time children were respectful of their native states and of their parents and everything else. People did right then.

(39) She even went as far as to include the children in her charade saying that It would be very educational for them (43) to visit such an old plantation. Just then a thought was so embarrassing that she jumped up, upsetting her valise in the corner. The instant the valise moved, the newspaper top she had over the basket under it rose with a snarl and Pitty Sing, the cat, sprang onto Bailey's shoulder (43) causing the accident. Just as the cat sprang from out of the basket, the grandmother's true character comes from the inside of her. From the very beginning of the story the grandmother is very manipulative. She wanted to visit some of her connections in east Tennessee and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey's mind.

(38) She tries to change his mind by telling him of the Misfit who recently escaped from prison. I wouldn t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that a loose in it. (38) Finally when she accepts going to Florida she still manages to sneak the cat along. She didn t intend for the cat to be left alone in the house for three days. (39) Her manipulation even envelops the children. She wants to go to an old plantation so badly that she grabs the children's interest by the secret panel in the house (42) where the family silver was hidden in it when Sherman came through, but it was never found.

(42) Knowing that she was not telling the truth but wishing that she were (42) just to spark the children's imagination. She used her manipulation on everyone she could to get her way. She even tried using it on the Misfit saying that he was a good man (45) and came from nice people. (45) While her family was slowly being executed in the background she continually tried to persuade the Misfit into sparing her life.

You wouldn t shoot a lady, would you? (45) She even goes as far as to bring religion into the picture saying that he should Pray, pray. (47) Throughout the story it is difficult to gain sympathy for this old woman, let alone see her as the protagonist in the story. Her manipulative ways and her self-centered attitude drive you away. How can this poor old woman be our heroin? Her only saving grace comes when her head clears for an instant.

She saw the man's face twisted close to her own as if he were going to cry She reached out and touched him on the shoulder. (49) O Connor, Flannery A Good Man is Hard to Find To Read Literature Ed. Donald Hall New York: Harcourt Brace College Publishers, 1992: 38-49.