The Grandmother

The Grandmother

Introduction

The unnamed Grandmother is the main character in the short story “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” who convinces her family to take a detour that finally brings them to death. In this essay, I will focus on this main character and analyze who she is and her significance in the story. She was murdered by Misfit together with the other family. She has been used by the author to show social problem due to her social status and her family organization. The Grandmother appears to be a usual grandmother initially who still believes that her son is a little boy and must do what she says besides him being a grownup man. In the essay, I will discuss the Grandmother as judgmental, selfish, self-centered, hypocritical, critical, and as a person who wants to maintain her class.

She is selfish and judgmental. The author portrays the Grandmother as selfish, who is longing for a time when she believes things were better. This can be seen when she is speaking with Red Sammy Butts. The Grandmother is living with Bailey, her son, and his family, and the Grandmother is always criticizing them. When she tries to engage with them, the family reveals little respect and little interest for the Grandmother. Her judgmental trait towards them leaves the family uninterested in her and her views. When Misfit approaches the family, she is worried about her safety and reveals little care for her son and his family. She performs a genuine act once in the story, which is also her last.

She considers herself morally superior to other people by being a “lady.”  O’Conner states that she chose to look different than Bailey’s wife, who is also a woman to appear more elegant and luxurious than her daughter-in-law. Here, she believed that with her appearance, people would consider her a higher degree than anyone else did (Hani, 2019). The Grandmother freely and often passes judgment on other people. She is claiming that her conscience is a force directing in life like when she is telling her son that conscience would not let her take the kids in the same way as Misfit. She is criticizing the kid’s mother for failing to travel to a place that would let the kids to be broad comparing the mother’s face to a cabbage. The Grandmother is also chastising Wesley for failure to have more respect for Georgia, which is Wesley’s home state, “children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then” (O’Connor, 1992). According to Hani, human beings willing to take something would do anything,  “It can be said, that someone who tends to want to improve his social status will pay more attention to the steps that must be taken in getting it” (Hani, 2019). The article by Hani shows that the Grandmother could do anything to maintain his status due to her selfishness. Her son and the family are preparing to leave for the vacation; she swiftly enters the car fist by dressing in a very striking way. Her social status,  as described by Hani in his analysis of the social class in the story,  also reveals how selfish the Grandmother was as she presented herself to the people.  ” It is already known that the grandmother who was dressed very neatly and beautifully to be seen by people as a noble and elegant woman even though she had an accident”(Hani,  2019). The Grandmother also takes a chance to judge people’s failure to have goodness in the current world. During all this, the Grandmother is wearing her carefully chosen dress and hat, sure that being a lady is the essential virtual of all, which is only harbored by her.

By considering her judgmental side, the Grandmother is also hypocritical. She is never turning her critical eye on herself to evaluate her hypocrisy.  For instance, the conscience she invokes at the start of the story is handily silent when she is sneaking Pitty Sing into the car “She had her big black valise that looked like the head of a hippopotamus in one corner, and underneath it she was hiding a basket with Pitty Sing, the cat, in it.” (O’Connor, 1992), lying to the kids concerning the secret panel, and prefers not to tell that she made a mistake concerning the location of the house. When the Misfit murders the family, mystically, she never pleads Misfit to spare the family including her son and his family. However, the Grandmother begs for her life since she does not imagine the Misfit willing to murder a lady, “You wouldn’t shoot a lady, would you?” (O’Connor, 1992). The Grandmother seems sure that the Misfit will recognize and respect the Grandmother’s moral code as if it would indicate something to the Misfit despite his criminality. The Grandmother is trying to draw the Misfit into her world by telling him that he is a good person. However, although Misfit agrees with the Grandmother’s assessment of him, the Misfit does not see this as a reason why he has to spare the Grandmother. Only when she is facing death, when she is alone with the Misfit in her final moment, is she aware where she has gone wrong in her life. Rather than being superior, the Grandmother understands how flawed she is like all people. When the Grandmother tells Misfit that he is “one of her children” (O’Connor, 1992), she is revealing that she has found the capability of seeing other people with compassion and understanding. This moment is of awareness, the moment that immediately follows the Grandmothers death.

The Grandmother wants to be right all the time, and to her, she knows everything. Looking at her characters, the Grandmother is becoming very selfish, pushy, and manipulative. From the beginning of the story, it is clear that the Grandmother can do anything to make things go her way to ensure she proves she is right. She is determined to make Bailey and his family go on vacation to Tennessee instead of going to Florida. “She wanted to visit her connections in east Tennessee, and she was seizing at every chance to change Bailey’s mind” (O’Connor, 1992). Until when they had an accident, it is clear that she was feeling guilty about the accident. Hence, she covered it up by behaving as if she was severely injured, hoping that her son would not realize and feel angry “The grandmother was curled up under the dashboard, hoping she was injured so that Bailey’s wrath would not come down on her all at once.” (O’Connor, 1992). This is well demonstrated in the article “Therefore, the grandmother must maintain her status and reputation here so as not to be blamed for the accident, this sounds pretty selfish enough” (Hani, 2019).

The Grandmother is the one who is insisting on turning back to see the old plantation revealing how self-centered and selfish the Grandmother is. She even recognizes the Misfit when they first met “You’re The Misfit!… I recognized you at once!” (O’Connor, 1992). If the Grandmother were smart enough to remain silent, maybe the Misfit would probably let her go together with the family. She is trying to apply her manipulative technique on the Misfit although it does not help. The Misfit seems to be enjoying seeing the Grandmother beg for her life. She attempts to save herself from being killed by Misfit be pleading to him “You’ve got good blood! I know you wouldn’t shoot a lady! I know you come from nice people! Pray! Jesus, you ought not to shot a lady. I’ll give you all the money I’ve got!” (O’Connor, 1992). However, every talking she is making is not having any influence on the Misfit. As mentioned earlier about her final moment of realization, the Grandmother, as she is contemplating her fate, reaches out for God and forgiveness. Here, the Misfit is bringing out the best of her. She finally reveals care for someone else besides herself.  Finally, the Grandmother reaches out to him, says, “You’re one of my children” (O’Connor, 1992). The Misfit was shrinking from this statement from the Grandmother and killed her, stating that she would have been a good woman had she had a gun pointed at her head all the time. She is also willing that she had married a rich man from Georgia. According to Hani, (2019), she told her grandchildren that she would have been happy had she married a rich man from Georgia. “…Mr. Teagarden …had died only a few years ago, a very wealthy man” (O’Connor, 1992). She still showed her class, she said she doesn’t want to be a partner of a poor individual who is feeling more remorseful since she can’t marry a poor person who she believes is more appropriate for her grounded on his class (Hani, 2019). Throughout the whole story, she is very judgmental, selfish and manipulative as well as being better than anybody else

Conclusion

In conclusion, the Grandmother sees herself different from other people until the last minute when she is dying. Therefore, it is clear that the Grandmother is selfish, hypocritical, self-centered, critical, and judgmental, as revealed in the story. The author has used the Grandmother to show how self-centered people live to criticize others and find themselves clean and knowing everything. The Grandmother thinks she knows everything; she is good and therefore lives seeing mistakes in others and not herself. She tries her best to show other people are at fault but she is clean. She can do anything to maintain her social status which makes her become selfish. She shows social class since she is selfish and does everything she can to keep social status and other’s opinions on her (Hani, 219).  Her family is disorganized including her grandchildren.  In the current world, there are people like the Grandmother and O’Conner uses this story to reveal how people live with each other. The Grandmother only cares about other people when she is dying. This is the moment people realize they should have been good to others.  The Grandmother is an excellent example of a selfish, hypocrite, and judgmental people in the society who want to maintain their social status.