Freedom of Speech in O'Connor's Short Stories
Freedom of Speech in O'Connor's Short Stories
This story was the first I read by O'Connor and probably my favorite to date. Every time I read it I catch myself laughing out loud at the grandmother who exemplifies southern women to a tee.
The story begins with the typical nuclear family being challenged by the grandmother who doesn't want to take the vacation to Florida. She has read about a crazed killer by the name of the misfit who is on the run heading for Florida. Unfortunately, she is ignored by ever member of the family except for the little girl June Star who can read the grandmother like a book. The morning of the trip the grandmother is ironically dressed in her Sunday best and the first one in the car ready to travel as June Star predicted she would be. Notice the grandmother's dress is very nice for a trip she was horrified to take only a day earlier. This is the first of O'Connor's attempts to knock the superficial ness of southern culture. The grandmother was decked in white gloves and a navy blue dress with matching hat for the sole purpose of being recognized as a lady in case someone saw her dead on the highway. This logic may seem absurd to anyone who is foreign to southern culture, but I can assure you there are plenty of women who still subscribe to this way of thinking. The reader is now clued into the grandmother's shallow thoughts of death. In the grandmother's mind, her clothing preparations prevent any misgivings about her status as a lady. But as the Misfit later points out,” there never was a body that gave the undertaker a tip." The grandmother's perceived readiness for death is a stark contrast to her behavior when she encounters the Misfit; for she shows herself to be the least prepared for death.
As the trip progresses, the children reveal themselves as brats, although funny ones, mainly out of O'Connor's desire to illustrate the lost respect for the family, and elders. The reader should notice when the family passes by a cotton field, five or six graves are revealed, perhaps foreshadowing what is later to come. Some interesting dialogue takes place when John Wesley asks, "Where's the plantation", and the grandmother replies, "Gone With the Wind." This is perhaps another statement by O'Connor at the breakdown of the...