Bailey is the grandmother's son. He does not listen to Bailey about the Misfit and Makes hasty decisions because of whining and griping. He was a driver for the family vacation or trip. In his mind, he's in charge, and he cannot let you forget it. I understand that he was highly addicted by drugs and cannot control himself, much less his family. He tries to keep the appearance of being in control but really isn't. Although it is his idea to go to Florida, it is unclear why he wants to go on a vacation at all. When the family has its unfortunate experience with the Bailey loses it. Even before he knows who Misfit is, the accident itself has already shows the effect of strain in his nerves. Bailey is the grandmother's
Grace, an important theme to O'Connor, is specified to both The Grandmother and The Misfit, suggesting that even people like the grandmother and The Misfit have the likelihood to be saved by God. The grandmother, motivated by the Misfit’s wish to know for sure what Jesus did and did not do, experiences a instant of grace when her head momentarily clears and she calls out, “Why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!” (1,053). The Misfit is not factually the grandmother’s child; but this quote expresses her bewilderment she is experiencing. She sees her son Bailey as The Misfit because he is wearing Bailey’s shirt. Her comment about The Misfit seems unsuitable, but this is truly the grandmother’s most well-spoken moment in the story. She has clearness and, more importantly, sympathy. God has granted her grace just before she dies. The Misfit, too, is open to grace at this moment. He demanded earlier, “It’s no real
The narrator starts the story giving background information about the grandmother and her son, Bailey. The narrator explains that the "grandmother didn't want to go to Florida" (320). Although a major conflict could result from her dislike of the family's choice of vacation spots, it does not. When
As they continue down and endless road the cat springs free from the hiding place in which the grandmother placed it, which causes Bailey to loose control and wreck. While sitting on the side of the road a car with 3 men pulled over one the grandmother stupidly introduces him to everyone as The Misfit. One by one each person is taken to the woods and shot while the grandmother tries to spare her life with The Misfit. Suddenly with the threat of death near her door she suddenly tries to be something she is not. She sympathizes with him and tries to relate to him. All of this comes to no avail if anything it antagonizes him which throws a switch in his mind and he reacts the only way he knows how, by shooting her in the chest and putting his problem to an end.
At the end of the story, the grandmother only pleads for her life and never for her son Bailey or his family. “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?” (O’Connor 192).The mother never showed no remorse of her son’s death even after the other two men came back with Bailey’s shirt and then took his wife and daughter. She never pleaded for the men to stop and spare their lives. The daughter June Starr selfish characters are observed when she believes her way of living is right by stating to Red Sammy’s wife “I wouldn’t live in a broken-down place like this for a million bucks! (O’Connor 189). For a very young girl she carried an arrogant attitude that was never fixed by her parents.
For example, Bailey does not want her to carry the cat to their journey. However, grandmother does not listen to him and she hides the cat inside the car in a basket and thus secretly brings the cat along with her. On their way, she also wants to go and visit the old plantation even though Bailey does not agree to this. In order to see that she gets what she wants, she talks to the children and convinces them to tell Bailey to do as she wishes. The author writes “There was a secret panel in this house…. and the story went that all the family silver was hidden in it when Sherman came through but it was never found . . .” (O’Connor 45). Grandmother says these words craftily in her attempts to convince Bailey to drive to the old plantations even though she knows that she is not telling the truth. Evidently, she leads the family into a dangerous tour drive. In this tour, the family ends up having an accident due to the Pitty Sing cat sneaking out of the car, leaping on Bailey who loses control of the car. She avoids responsibility by pretending to be hurt. Her actions put the family in dangerous situations.
I’ll give you all the money I’ve got!” (O’Connor 355). She is pleading the Misfit for her life only by saying the word lady repeatedly and offering him the money. She is also praising the Misfit by calling him a good man and trying to save her life. She was also careless about her family. When her family is taken down into the woods, she continues to talk to Misfit. She ignores the sound of when her son and rest of the family were being shot. She is apparently oblivious to many things. She was ignoring everything but the Misfit. “The shirt came flying at him and landed on his shoulders and he put it on. The grandmother couldn’t name what the shirt reminded her of” (O’Connor 354). The grandmother doesn’t even realize that shirt was her son Baileys. She had no interest in knowing where that shirt came from and what happened to my family. For the concern of her life only, she tries to persuade the Misfit the same way she tried with her family. “I know you’re a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people!” (O’Connor 352). She is trying to manipulate the Misfit and hopes that he will bear her. She is thinking about no one else but the sake for herself. However she fails once again to influence the Misfit.
For example, Bailey, the father of the family, shows that he does not care too much about anything and he treats his mother with much disrespect,
In the beginning, the grandmother is reading the newspaper where she then learns about the Misfit who escaped prison. The grandmother says, “I wouldn’t take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn’t answer to my conscious if it did” (O’Connor 485). This quote foreshadows as the accident happened with her guidance on the road it is what led them to steer off the main road. They were on and into the arms of who they call the Misfit and his
O'Connor does the same thing here; the grandmother's first action was to convince her son, Bailey, into going were she wanted to go, a selfish act, not a trait that we see a grandmother having. Also she thought out a plan to get what she wanted by acting as if she cared about her family's safety. "Now looks here, Bailey........ see here, read this...Here this fellow that calls himself the Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed towards Florida and you read here what is says he did to these people(328)." The grandmother's relationship right away to the reader is one that can not be trusted. Throughout the story you now question the grandmother's intentions, are they honest or selfish.
The family is made up of the Grandmother and her son Bailey, and his children John Wesley, June Star and the baby, and there is also the mother of his children. O 'Connor uses clues in devious ways, that doesn 't ruin the readers thoughts. She uses foreshadowing FOUR major times throughout the story: the grandmas clothes, her words, the death of her family and the conversation with the misfit. The grandma, who is the protagonist in this short story tries to persuade her son and his wife to vacation somewhere other than Florida because an escaped convict is headed to the same place they are. "Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal Pen and headed toward Florida and you read here what it says he did to these people. Just you read it. I wouldn 't take my children in any direction with a criminal like that aloose in it. I couldn 't answer to my conscience if I did."
”As the family assesses its injuries, a man who is obviously the Misfit drives up with his armed henchmen. The grandmother immediately feels that she recognizes him as someone she has known all of her life, and she tells him that she knows who he is” (Garbett). After their car having struck the railroad's the family waits for help. A car pulls up and a pair of men emerges, led by a shirtless, a bespectacled man with a gun. The man gives orders to his cohorts to inspect the family car and retains Bailey in polite conversation until the grandmother recognizes it as the Misfit. The grandmother made worse by the fact that if she would keep her mouth shut, none of them have been killed.
Bailey, the son of the character known as the Grandmother, decides to go to Florida anyway. Along their way to Florida with Bailey’s wife, the baby, and the two disobedient children; June Starr and John Wesley, the Grandmother is characterized as a senile, racist woman of bad judgment. This can be seen when along the ride she sees an African-American young boy and states, “Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!...Little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do. “ (O’Connor 12). The climax of the story occurs as the family leaves Red Sammy’s Famous Barbecue and gets in a car accident with the Misfit himself. It is then safe to say that the assumption of the senile Grandmother is accurate due to the thought that runs through her mind, “A horrible thought came to her…the house that she had remembered so vividly was not in Georgia, but Tennessee,” (19). The Grandmother’s forgetfulness is in turn the direct cause of the accident and run-in with the Misfit.
For instance, within the primary dysfunctional family, many relationships are developed, which include two unbearable children, a power hungry dad, a hectic wife tending to her baby, and an unendurable grandmother. These relationships bring out other dynamics within the characters and the family (Lambert 2009). For instance, although both the father and grandmother are strict in ensuring that the children be respectful, on their part, they do not set an example that can be emulated within the family. First, the grandmother advises her grandchildren to be respectful, and then she goes ahead, making a profane racially prejudiced remark almost immediately (McCann, Jr 2011). At the same time, the head of the family—the father of the children, Bailey, requests the children to conduct themselves accordingly. However, confronted by a tense situation, Bailey loses his temper and threatens the family telling them that if they did not shut up, they would not go anywhere (Katharina 4).
The irony of the story is that it is under the directions of the Grandmother that leads the family into a run in with The Misfit, which is what she told her son she would never do. Throughout the trip we are given examples of the racism that was present during this period. The Grandmother makes multiple racist innuendos such as her observation of the “cute little pickaninny,” and her statement that “little niggers in the country don’t have things like we do” (O’Conner 2). During the ride, The Grandmother convinces Bailey to take a detour down an old, dirt road which supposedly leads to an old southern plantation home she once visited. The road leads them deep into the woods where an accident is caused by The Grandmothers cat, which leaves the car upturned and the family stranded. It is then the family encounters The Misfit, whom discovers them stranded as he was passing by. He approaches the family with two young men and shortly after The Grandmother lets out a scream as she realizes him. During their encounter, the readers are given a small glimpse into the deranged mind of The Misfit. It is apparent that he has an upturned moral compass. He gains pleasure from committing crimes and the meanness that goes along with it. During his conversation with the Grandmother, he slowly has his men take members of the family out
The family stops at a restaurant to get a bite to eat, and we find out that the two parents, Bailey and his wife, do not really care for the Grandmother. The Grandmother asks Bailey to dance, but he just declines and ignores her. Bailey’s wife does not seem to care either. They then continue on the road, and the Grandmother begins to tell the story of a house that she really enjoyed passing. She really wanted to go there, so she persuaded the children to want to go as well. After a long time of complaining, they finally convince their father to head back toward this house. They go down this road when all