The Misfit Grandmother

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

I believe The Misfit took his religion serious but he was confused. The grandmother never took her religious faith seriously. Her final gesture is a genuine moment of grace. Once again she is trying to be manipulative, but The Misfit is one who she cannot manipulate, or is she?

The grandmother also secretly brought the family cat, “She had her big black valise and underneath it she was hiding a basket with Pitty Sing, the cat, in it” (O’ Connor 1106), even though “Her son, Bailey, didn’t like to arrive at a motel with a cat” (O’ Connor 1107). When The Misfit arrives, “The grandmother had the peculiar feeling that the bespectacled man was someone she knew” (O’ Connor 1112), but when she later realizes who the man is, she claims, “‘I recognized you at once!’” (O’ Connor 1113). She tells The Misfit, “‘we turned over twice!’” (O’ Connor 1112), even though they both knew that it was only once. Lastly, the grandmother lies again to herself and to The Misfit when she says, “‘you shouldn’t call yourself The Misfit because I know you’re a good man at heart’” (O’ Connor 1113). The only reason she says this is in an attempt to save her life.

The Grandma is prim and proper and self-acclaimed to be very ‘lady like’ yet is extremely crass in her mannerisms. From the very beginning of the story the grandmother begins to show her selfish ways. “…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." (O’Connor 1). Though the grandmother is not specific in her selfishness, it seems her indirectness is what gets her nowhere in her statements. As a result of this, neither her children nor her grandchildren do not show reverence for her. Without the parents respect for the Grandmother, there is no possibility for her to gain the grandchildren’s respect. Here again we have another character whose role was not the main role, but one who has a lesson to teach if the reader is willing to dig deep enough to find

For instance, she wishes to dress smart only in case an accident should occur so that her body would be identified as a woman. She shows her being a “good woman”, contrary to a “good man” who “is hard to find”. But by doing so she reveals how artificial a Christian she is, that appearance for her is more significant than a “good Christian” spirit. It is her who divides the world into “good” and “evil” but she little realizes the actual parameters of these values. Her subjective point of view makes the borderline somewhat blurred, even the name of Jesus in her speech “sounded as if she might be cursing”. In fact, she is far from an epitome of virtue and it is only the fatal encounter with the Misfit that makes her realize the error of her ways. Hence, to some extent, the Grandmother may be treated as a common Everyman.

First we will take a look at grandmother. She is made to look like the saint in this story. Her, in contrast to the rest, is the good person, always looking out for the best of others. She is not going on vacation, she is going to visit her "connections" in Tennessee. While

The Grandmother identifies herself as having the best values. She completely overdresses for the trip in a "navy straw hat and collars and cuffs, so that if there was an accident, people would know she was a lady" (368). The narrator points out that she looks down upon other people as well. In the beginning of the story, she criticizes the mother for "not taking the children to different parts of the world and being broad" (367), and tells John Wesley that he "should be more respectful of his native state and his parents" (368). Despite being so judgmental, the Grandmother never criticizes her own dishonesty, hypocrisy, and selfishness. When she criticizes John Wesley about the state, she calls a little black boy "a cute pickaninny" (368) in the same sentence. She later says that little black kids do not have things like they do and that "if she could paint, she would paint that picture" (368). The Grandmother paints this picture later with a romantic story of the good old days on the Southern plantations. Her definition of a good man is even flawed. The narrator says she would have married Edgar Teagarden because "he was a gentleman who bought Coca-Cola stock, making him a rich man" (369). In the end, when the Misfit is killing her family members one by one, she tells him to pray for himself. But she never once prays for her own family or begs the Misfit to spare them. She is even dramatic when she pulls a handkerchief out to fan herself and tells the Misfit "you wouldn't kill a lady would you" (373), effectively trying to save herself instead of her family.

With the shock of coming face-to-face with death, she starts to let go of her power-hungry and deceptive behavior and decides to act out of love and humility. Her head has become clear, and more than ever she becomes aware of the situation. All her shallow and hypocritical thoughts seemed to have dissipated, and she sees the Misfit as a child of God just. The grandma notices a voice crack in the Misfit’s voice and thought he was about to cry; she murmurs, “Why you're one of my babies. You're one of my own children” (O’Connor 458-459)! The grandmother calls the Misfit one of her kids despite the crimes he has already committed; God’s spirit may have entered the grandmother and is attempting to offer redemption to the Misfit since she has now accepted it. The still figure of the grandmother is described as “her legs crossed under her like a child’s and her face smiling up at the cloudless sky” (459). God has given the grandma salvation now, and her spirit has a journey to heaven via the cloudless sky. O’Connor shows the protagonist to be hypocritical, but the protagonist found salvation and appeared happy after accepting God and feeling love towards the Misfit; the Misfit appeared to reject God when he shot the grandmother in the chest after she was trying to lend him a hand. The grandmother was able to find salvation through the violence the Misfit brought.

She sees these ghastly characteristics such as selfishness and manipulation within herself as she is listening to The Misfit talk about his past and feelings and “‘realizes that her superficial commitment to good has been meaningless because she lives without faith that is to say without Christ.’” After having these thoughts she tries to bring about a faith in him by asking him if he prays. When he tells her that he does not, she begs him to pray and tries to convince him that Jesus will help him. She believes that “The Misfit’s meanness is the result of his inability to believe” and if she can convince him to, then maybe he will not kill her. The grandmother finally says to The Misfit, “‘why you’re one of my babies. You’re one of my own children!’”

When the grandmother and the Misfit are alone the grandmother’s selfishness becomes apparent to readers. Even though her family had just been murdered, largely because of the consequences of her selfish acts, she is focused on saving her own life. Furthermore, she tries to convince the Misfit that he is a good man. "I just know you 're a good man." (O’Connor “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” 148) The Misfit replies with, "Nome, I ain 't a good man…but I ain 't the worst in the world neither.” (O’Connor “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” 148) He accepts the fact that he has done wrong but knows there are others who are worst. The grandmother speaks of prayer to the Misfit but is unable to recite one single prayer. She just repeatedly uses Jesus name, almost as if she is cursing. This symbolizes her weak understanding of being a Christian.

The grandmother is a religious individual who is trying to find a good man but as always a good man is hard to find. The Grandma is the main character and also is he protagonist. She

The grandmother’s ladylike, judgmental, and selfish personality are shown while planning and attending the family vacation. The grandmother thought of herself as ladylike, and she wanted everyone to know. She agrees to go on the trip to Florida rather than stay home by herself, like the children suggested. The day they left she wore white cotton gloves, a straw sailor hat, a navy dress, and collars and cuffs that were trimmed with lace.

Only when the grandmother is facing death, in her final moments alone with the Misfit, does she understand where she has gone wrong in life. Instead of being superior, she realizes, she is flawed like everyone else. When she tells the Misfit that he is “one of [her] own children,” she is showing that she has found the ability to see others with compassion and understanding.

The Grandmother wants the Misfit to receive salvation from God, so that he can be forgiven for his sins. Even though the Grandmother got the family into this mess, she can still be viewed as the hero.

The behavior of the grandmother has created a double vision to me. In one side, I see her as selfishness grandmother, who forced her son to change the route. Then she took her cat and which became the cause of the accident, and when her family was killed, tried to bribe the Misfit, that he kept her a life, and this was the cause of the tragedy. It was the grandmother did not keep her mouth shut and said the Misfit that she recognized him. Her words that he is her son, one of her children in this context appears to be as false as the previous manipulation she used to her grandchildren by telling the stories like about imaginary treasures. In other side, when she presents a front of the death, descends over the true grace, and her attempt to fondle The Misfit, as she redeems her previous sins. The Misfit is aware of her spiritual transformation and sarcastically noting that she might be a good person, only if on her every day have imposed a gun.