?Aging Without Grace? Imagine a Grandmother who doesn?t give a care in the world for anyone but herself. She has two spoiled grandchildren, a malignant son, and an idiotic cat she seems to care more about than any of them. She portrays herself as to be the perfect grandmother that anyone could wish for, but deep down is as selfish as can be. The grandmother in ?A Good Man is Hard to Find? fits this role perfectly and is a prime example for a person who believes in ?Pride before the fall?.
The grandmother portrays herself as a faultless lady. She dresses very conservatively on any average road trip. She is over dressed, to say the least, by wearing white gloves, a lace trimmed collar and cuffs dress, and a navy blue straw hat. The Grandmother shows that she is more concerned by how she looks than anyone else on the trip, which portrays the quality of conceitedness and self-pride.
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Grandparents Virji visit Laila
GrandparentsThe motivation of her attire is ?In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady? (O?Connor 353).
Let?s not forget how selfish this old lady is as well. She didn?t care too much for a trip to Florida. She insisted on trying to change her son and daughter-in-law?s mind by nagging about taking a trip to east Tennessee instead of going to Florida. In the car, she kept comparing every little thing to herself and changing the subject to focus on her past or present. She even pointed out the fact that in her times ?children were more respectful? (353) and how ?people did right then?(353), as if she?s more perfect than any person these days. Basically, she talks down towards her own family members. When she talks to the Misfit she offers him her own dead sons shirt out of his suit case, as if she were trying to get on his good side so he would be sympathetic towards her. Obviously, she?s just demonstrating how she only cares for herself.
When most people think of grandmother?s in general, they think of a logical, truthful, considerate, caring woman. The Grandmother in this story proves she has the least of these traits. She insists once again on having her way when they pass a road that supposedly leads to a plantation that she remembers visiting at one point in her life. Once she realizes that they were traveling on the wrong road, she succumbs to tell the truth. The reason she does this is because she didn?t want to her son to be angry with her. The Grandmother also proves her intolerance to logic when she thinks that she can talk her way out of death. She talks to the Misfit as if he?s one of her own sons, when any logic person would know that this man has no compassion for another human being.
This so-called Grandmother has to be the most arrogant person who would rather die before she admits it to anyone, literally. The Grandmother had really believed that she was God?s Gift and was completely flawless. Unfortunately for her and her family, she was proven wrong by the most ultimate punishment.
Grandparents Virji visit Laila
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