Flannery O'Connor produces a superb story about a Southern family and it left me in a small state of shock when I find the Misfit kills the Grandmother. What strikes me the most is O'Connor's remarkable use of foreshadowing throughout the story. Throughout the story O'Connor builds up the Grandmother's character in a negative light as if to convince the reader not to like her too much... as if she talked a little more than she has to.
The plot does surprise me a little bit just by the way the story comes to a close. Like I mentioned, the foreshadowing is O'Connor's strongest technique in the story. Right from the start the exposition sets up the Grandmother's selfish nature. "The grandmother didn't want to go to Florida." (356) The Grandmother's character is that of a self-absorbed woman that needs to be recognized by others as a classy lady as if she herself doesn't believe to be. The decision to take the cat with the family, her mistake at thinking the old house was in Georgia instead of Tennessee, her recognizing the Misfit; they all were her actions that one by one led to the whole family being murdered.
As the sequence of events unfold, I found myself thinking that of course the family would eventually meet the Misfit and have a little trouble with him but I never thought that he would kill the whole family. At first the family seemed it would get robbed on the highway since they were going on a trip to Florida. When the family passes the six graves in thew cotton field is when I first entertained the notion of the whole family being murdered but I didn't believe that would happen; I was expecting a twist. However, O'Connor lets you know what is going to happen but the dramatic build-up to the end makes what you already know all that more surprising.
I have seen the Coen brothers' No Country for Old Men and I have to say I see the influence of O'Connor in the film. A game of cat and mouse is played throughout the film with a man hunting down another all over the South. The values of the movie and this short story are similar. What can we expect from person's values in these times? Both the film and O'Connor's story reflect on the changing times and how the traditional profile of a good man is slowly being lost.
Good thinking! I think they are both asking us to question what a "good man" is and how we recognize it--and how we tell if we are good. That's a hard thing to evaluate, but they push us toward asking it.
ReplyDelete