The Grandmother In Flannery O Connor's Essay

429 Words2 Pages
All this discourse is her tool against the Misfit’s threat. Her religious discourse is based on success, on how she, being a lady, could have married Mr.Teagarden, or “how in case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would have known at once that she was a lady” (O’Connor 130). The Grandmother tries to manipulate the Misfit by means of this discourse on success; “I know you are a good man. You don’t look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people!” (138), she says to him. The she goes on saying: “[y]ou could be honest too if you’d only try … Think how wonderful it would be to settle down and live a comfortable life and not have to think about somebody chasing you all the time” (140). There are more examples in the text, but all of them answer to the discourse of success.…show more content…
For example, one of the last times she pleads the Misfit, the Grandmother says: “Jesus, you ought not to shoot a lady. I’ll give you all the money I’ve got!” (O’Connor 142). Thus, her idea of salvation echoes predestination, as if she deserves salvation only because she is a lady with money. The Grandmother attempts convince the Misfit is also predestined to be saved because he comes from “nice people” (142). However, this all discourse is becomes hypocritical because when the Grandmother denies her beliefs, “[m]aybe He didn’t raise the dead” (142) after realizing that she is not being saved by Jesus. The latter denounces the individualism of the

    More about The Grandmother In Flannery O Connor's Essay

      Open Document