Outline Of Shotgun Cheatham's Last Night Above Ground

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.

Margaret Rose, Maureen, Bridget, Joseph, their mom and their dad are immigrants, traveling to New York on a ship. Margaret Rose gets up out of bed to see if there is any signs of land. A man say’s “do you see that” Margaret Rose say’s “See what” the man says “that” Margaret Rose looked again she saw the Statue Of Liberty. Margaret Rose quickly called her family to see Lady Liberty. They had to get all of their stuff together, then they went to the deck of the ship. Soon word was spread, the people were all going upstairs to see lady liberty they were so fascinated they were all going to the edge of the boat to see her the captain said they were sinking but of course nobody listened. They soon boarded off the boat. First they had to go through

When this story started off the grandmother jumped right into selfish mode. Her son Bailey had planned a vacation for his family to Florida, but the grandmother did not want to go so she tried to get Bailey to go to Tennessee instead. After that, the grandmother did not want to leave her cat so she decided to hide it in the car, not even caring about if the cat can go or not. Since the grandmother decided to take her cat it caused them to have an accident when the grandmother had kicked the basket. That made Bailey run off the side of the road because the cat jumped on him.

The welfare machine went by her house in the middle of the night to check on her. It was then that she explained the situation with her cat, and how very lonely she was. The welfare machine recommended to her that she could remove one of her feet and transform it to be like a piglet. The old

A family has decided to go to Florida for vacation but, the grandmother tries to convince her son to go Tennessee instead. Afterwards, she shows him that an article saying that a convicted felon called The Misfit has escaped and moving towards Florida. The grandmother never-the-less comes along and hides her cat with her. During their trip, the grandmother wakes up from a nap and says a plantation she has visited once is close. She convinces her son to go there and shows him the way. After driving into the woods, she then realizes that the house she visited was in Tennessee, not in Georgia. Startled by her mistake, her cat jumps and scares Bailey who then crashes the car. A car that happened to be passing by, stops and three men, with guns

It happens on the next page about halfway down as the family rides by a cotton field with “five or six graves fenced in the middle of it,” (O’Connor 339), one for each member of the family. The grandmother even points out that it used to be a family burying ground. This isn’t a sentence that normally would stick out during an initial reading of this story, it would normally be overlooked as a random description of the setting by O’Connor, but after reading the story for a second time it becomes apparent that there is coincidently a grave place for each member of the family. The last instance of foreshadowing in the story comes on page 344 at the top of the page. It comes after the family has had their accident, which is caused by the grandmother’s cat jumping onto Bailey’s shoulder causing him to flip the car. The family is sitting on the side of the road after their accident waiting for another car to come by so they can flag down some help when eventually a car comes slowly over the top of a hill. O’Connor describes the car as “a big black battered hearse-like automobile”, which is an odd description since a hearse is a car that the dead are carried in on the way to their gravesite. There were three men in the car, which turn out to be The Misfit and his crew. It’s ironic that they show up in a “hearse-like” car because there is a good chance that if the grandmother

It all started when Daddy put a bucket of kerosene by the stove and Ma thought is was water. So she poured it trying to make coffee, but instead made flames. Ma ran to the porch. Billie Jo seen Ma in flames , but she wanted to save the bucket so she threw it outside not noticing her mom running back in. They collided.

When an intruder came in a women's house, she grabbed a shotgun to protect her kids. Then when the guy came near she said "back up" and pointed the gun at him. Then when he moved closer to her and then she said, without thinking she shot the man. Then the man turned around and stumbled out of the house.

A family is going to Florida for a family vacation but the grandmother refuses to go instead she want to go to Tennessee to visit her friends. The grandmother trying to convince Bailey not to go to Florida by mentioning The Misfit, the prisoner who escaped the federal penitentiary and headed towards Florida but the family did not listen to her. The next morning the family including the grandmother with the cat under her seat started driving to Florida. They stopped by at the restaurant called “The Tower” for barbecue where the owner is Red Sammy Butt. While the family is eating, Red Sammy and the grandmother talk about how “A good man is hard to find” and no one can be trusted these days. They get back to the car and take

Her words caused her mind to fly back in time to Grandma’s last Birthday, when her cat had clawed the table clothes to shreds and when it caught on her paw she ran, causing the cake to fall and splatter all over grandma’s 400 dollar dress. Then she had a memory she didn’t remember.

When the family went into the Agricultural Inspection, the officer wanted to examine their stuff. Ma was crying how “Granma’s [awfully] sick” and giving reasons how the family had to go. The officer let the family leave because when he beamed a light at Grandma, she looked very sick and dead. Then the family reached California, Ma finally told them that Grandma was dead. She told them that she did not want the officer to delay their trip to California.

Before the family was going to Florida for vacation, the grandma tells everyone about the escaped prisoner. “Here this fellow that calls himself The Misfit is aloose from the Federal

Grandma heard that Barnie Buchanan was giving free plane rides to blue ribbon winners from the contests. However, she won second place instead. “‘ I’m a blue ribbon winner,’ Grandma announced, ‘ here for my ride.’” She had tricked Barnie Buchanan into believing that Grandma had won a blue ribbon and made him give her a free plane ride. She knew she couldn’t ride so she told Barnie Buchanan to “‘take my Grandson instead.’”

In this story, the grandmother tries to persuade her son, Bailey, and his family to go to Tennessee for a vacation, but they still go to Florida. On their way to Florida, the grandmother tells old stories about her life in Georgia, they stop at a restaurant to eat. After lunch, the grandmother convinces them to go see the old mansion in the woods. She realized it was the wrong route and the cat jump out and caused a wreck. A car drives up with the misfit in it and she witness her family die in front of her with her being the last to die.

The grandma in this story just wants to take her family on a trip to Georgia, but realized that where she wanted to take them was actually in Tennessee. The children of the family did not seem to be the grandma’s biggest fans, because she was constantly commenting on their rights and wrongs. The grandma is portrayed as rude and harsh; however, she is trying to correct her family of what should and should not be done. After they all get in their accident they simply try to flag someone down to help them. As soon as the men got out of their car to help them is when the family was destined for sorrow. Looking at the ring leader of the group the grandmother could not help but think that she recognized him; she knew that he was a dangerous man and was willing to do whatever he said so her family would not be hurt. While the two of them are alone they begin talking and one by one they can hear the shots being fired into the members of the family. Right before it turns into the grandma’s turn to have a shot fired into her she realizes that the man in front of her is her very own