My Last Birthday Fun : My First Annual Family Reunion

Two more pertinent points are made by the author, in regards to the grandmother, follow in quick succession; both allude to further yet-to-be seen gloom within the story. O’Connor writes of the grandmother “[s]he didn’t intend for the cat to be left alone in the house for three days because he would miss her too much and she was afraid he might brush against one of the gas burners and accidentally asphyxiate himself” (1043) and of the way she is dressed “[i]n case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (1043). These two observations are innocent enough on the surface but provide true intent on the foreshadowing that O’Connor uses throughout the story. It is these two devices, irony and foreshadowing, that I feel are prominent and important aspects of the story and are evidenced in my quest to decipher this story.

When Wilson said, “As we drove off, Mother told me about her old friend Betty Ann whose husband Carl had died recently. It seems Betty Ann got in the passenger seat of their new Buick and waited a full three minutes for Carl to appear behind the wheel before finally hauling herself to the other side of the car and driving

     One of the most important scenes in the story takes place in the vehicle. The grandmother spots an old family graveyard that once belonged to a plantation. She tells the children that the graves

On 12/22/2015 at 17:04 hours, I was dispatched to HQ for a report of lost IPhone. Upon my arrival, I spoke with the owner, Annette M. Allen.

“Birthday Party” by Katherine Brush uses literary devices such as tone, point of view, diction, and sensory details to achieve her purpose.

At funerals, the corpse is dressed up in a splendid outfit like the one the grandmother is wearing. She “ha[s] on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print”, elegant clothing. She is dressed for her own funeral. As well as the funeral, the reasoning behind why she is wearing such apparel foreshadows her future. She is dressed up because “anyone seeing her dead on the highway [will] know at once she [is] a lady”. The grandmother is prepared for the upcoming outcome, her death, without knowing that it will indeed happen. Although she is not found dead on the highway in the story, the grandmother attempts to save herself from being killed by the Misfit through the same strategy. She asks the Misfit whether or need he would “shoot a lady”. This plan ultimately fails as the Misfit has no morality and so shoots her “three times through the chest”. Her selfishness is revealed through the fact that she tries only to save herself but not her family. The wife is willing to die because her husband has already done so yet the grandmother is not. Therefore, the attire of the grandmother depicts her near

They took a sharp turn over a some railroad tracks and the back door flew open. Jeannette rolled out of the car, she rolled many yards on the embankment. When she came to a stop, she was too shocked to cry and she all bloody and scraped up. She called herself a burden, and said they could do fine without her. When her family turned around and came screeching to a halt, her dad got out of the car, knelt down, and tried to give Jeannette

As the family is driving along, the grandmother awakens from a nap and recalls “an old plantation that she had visited in this neighborhood once when she was a young lady” (189). This recollection happens while the family is driving through the town of Toomsboro, GA. The grandmother is extremely manipulative and selfish and coaxes the family into visiting the old plantation by lying to them with the possibility of finding hidden treasure. The name of the town is only a slight indication of the terrible tragedy that is yet to come. It is no

I went to my grandmother’s house for lunch one afternoon. Her name is Bonnie. As we were eating I asked her about a family story. She had one that came straight to mind and really stuck out. It was about her long lost cousin, Jimmy. Jimmy’s mother, Willy, was born into a big family. Willy had eight siblings, but in this story I’ll only talk about two, Gladys and Maylene.

After that, a car came down the road and was flagged down by the grandmother. It was at this time that the family encountered the Misfit, who

The grandmother lives her life in denial of what differs a good person to a bad one where the misfit knows this difference. The hearse like automobile is his car that approaches the wrecked car and family. The Grandmother, not thinking of her consequences, points out that he is the dangerous criminal on the loose. He warns her that it was a bad decision to point that out, upsetting her. After talking briefly, he has his henchmen take portions of the family into the woods while he talks to the grandmother.

Eventually, they have set out on a journey to Florida and the grandmother even brought her cat with her. After having lunch in a barbeque restaurant, the grandmother remembered an old plantation in a nearby area. However, Bailey does not want to stop the car for a detour. Hence, the grandmother made up lies; she said that in that house, there are hidden treasures and gems. This made her grandchildren scream and it irritated Bailey, so he turns the car towards the plantation. On the way there, the grandmother does not see the old plantation, this made her anxious, suddenly, the cat she brought with her, jumps out of the car and caused the car to run over the ditch. This made an accident and with that, she saw a group of people approaching her. Out of shock, she recognized the face of a serial criminal that is on a loose. With great tremor, she saw Misfit, and this caused her to tell him that she knows and recognized

Vera has told Framton that her uncle and two other people died a little while ago. While they went on a hunting trip and where engulfed in a bog and apparently drowned, Veras aunt is delusional about her husband's “death”. She always has the window they walked through when they

After we were assigned a table, we searched through the menu for the perfect meal. The interior of the place was homey and warm. The atmosphere excited and joyful. As we waited for our meals we talked about everything that had been going on. I told them about the weird

When I was younger me and my mom would attend family reunions. I disliked going to see my them. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family to death, but they are insane. They are loud and crazy, I would have to repeat my same story about what I want to be when I grow up to every old person there, and I would have to tell them “no” every time they would ask “can I have your hair” or “can I make weave out of it”, and lastly, they drink. When my family is drunk they are different people. At that age, I didn’t get why they were acting that way. “Did they take something to make them this crazy?” “Are they on drugs?” “why is she crying did she hurt herself?” I was thinking to myself “they weren’t this nice or energetic when I saw them five minutes ago”. I wasn’t with the crazy adults all the time reason being I was forced to hang out with the kids my age. I didn’t like talking or playing with them because it was so much better watching drunk people.