I will use this opportunity to mainly discuss the character of the grandmother and the ending of the story. I am unsure of the general impressions of most readers when considering the grandmother, but personally, I found her to be quite superficial and manipulative. She doesn’t strike me as this harmless “lady” that she appears to be. Her cry out for Jesus at the end of the story made me quite sick, not because I have anything against religion, but because it did not feel genuine at all. From the beginning of the story, she seems to create a lot of negative energy. She mentions that there is a killer on the loose and instead of sharing the real reason why she doesn’t want to go to Florida (she wants to go to Tennessee instead), she simply scares the family about alleged reports of this killer. She even hides the cat in the car knowing that Bailey doesn’t want her to bring it. Even when the family takes the wrong turn to go to the plantation, Bailey was initially skeptical but she found a way to manipulate him into going, precisely through telling the children interesting stories about it and making them want to go.
It’s also hard to ignore the countless references of the grandmother as a lady-like figure. She seems to consider herself as a very classy person and constantly makes references to “back in the day” when people were more respectful and trustworthy. So it’s pretty easy to get sucked in to her discourse and be convinced that she is a moral and honorable individual. These moments to me were seen as red flags, especially near the end. And by the way, has the grandmother never watched an episode of Criminal Minds. Her religious discourse is not going to help prevent the Misfit from shooting her or her family members. It was evidently an epic failure of reading the behavior of a criminal. I know that was random, but it needed to be mentioned. Now, if we think of the end, the grandmother’s narcissist attitude becomes more evident. She seems to be solely concerned with herself and apathetic towards the well being of her family. She immediately says: “I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady!” (131-132), thus showing that she is uniquely concerned about herself. Of course, some people would say, well, she does scream “Bailey Boy, Bailey Boy”, but does she really try to help her son? There is an ambiguity about her (her behaviors contradict one another), which makes it hard to decipher who she really is.
The end posed a lot of problems for me. I am unsure what to make of it. The grandmother is not someone that we seem to admire very much, but she is not painted as being a terrible human being either. But one quickly notices that she is not at all as perfect as we would think. Her supposed connection with the killer at the end of the story can be seen as a moment of metamorphosis where she becomes completely selfless. But one cannot forget that this only happens because she is in a situation where she needs to save her own life, thus we question the credibility of this moment. Knowing O’Connor’s religious background, she would interpret the end as a key breakthrough in the grandmother’s character since she comes to empathize with the Misfit prior to her death. In a way, she dies with no real regrets.
But although the Misfit states: “She would’ve been a good woman … if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life” (133), his last words regarding the killing of the grandmother are: “It’s no real pleasure in life” (133). This is deeply contradictory and we wonder what it really means? Has the grandmother’s newfound grace possibly affected the Misfit? Personally, I don’t buy this religious interpretation and I feel O’Connor is simply using the story as a religious motive. For me, it is the first part of this quote that most strikes me and that merits the most attention. It’s quite symbolic in the sense that the grandmother only seemed like a good woman and if everyone hadn’t always bought into it (like the Misfit, not to say that he is not a sadistic psycho), then maybe her true colors would have actually came out. For me, I remain skeptical about the grandmother and not very convinced neither by her “magical transformation” nor her divine influence on the killer.
First of all, I don’t think it’s contradictory that the grandmother says: “I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady!” to the Misfit and she screamed “Bailey Boy, Bailey Boy”. She is selfish and narcissist, I agree with your argument. She couldn’t help or protect her family, but when she heard the gun shot, she knew her son was killed, her scream is an instinctive behavior. Besides, we can take it as a part of the transformation of her attitude, she was getting out of her narcissism, until her death, she realized her faults and died serenely.
I don’t believe grandmother has the divine influence on the Misfit, at last, she is the one being “rescued” from her egoism and narcissism. The Misfit said “It’s no real pleasure in life” because he is pessimistic and suspicious about the religion and the God, he had thought this question deeply and the grandmother was finally influenced by him. The grandmother thought herself a sincere believer of the religion, it’s ironic because she never faced or acknowledged her faults until the end of her life. That’s why the Misfit stated: “She would’ve been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life”.
I think the writer was very successful if she got us to really dislike the grandmother. Your suspicion of her motives and disgust with her selfish behaviour are based on her actions and words that make her appear vey superficial. If you were to meet her in a public place, you would think she was the quintessential sweet old lady. How many films of the time show older women in their Sunday best with a favourite pet? However, the author shows us how this public behaviour is false as she is really not worried about her community. Like the Misfit, she is an individual motivated by self interest. However, just before she dies she reaches out to someone else. She knows she is going to die and this act cannot save her, but her compassion for the ‘other’ compels her to communicate honestly with him. I’m not sure how many people with their family members lying shot in the woods behind them would touch the man responsible. She is resigned to her fate, and stripped of her false persona is able to see the suffering on the Misfit’s face.
I also think that the grandmother was purposefully portrayed as a selfish, narcissist and hypocritical person. However, I tend to relate the reason of this portrayal more towards a criticism of religious faith “nowadays”. The fact that person superficially conducts itself as a moral person, follows the guide of cristianism but in reality has more flaws and vices that people who openly accept their broken faith and the idea of enlightment or reconciliation with God only out of fear and resignation are the aspects that I believe come across in the story. My grandmother would say “no one knows the “Our Father” (a cristian/catholic prayer) until they hear noises in the attic.”