e. The other characters such as June Star or Bailey Boy merely reflect O'Connor's observations about society. The other characters have little affect on the central theme of the story. The Misfit and the grandmother seem to be the exact opposite. The grandmother seems to be "a harmless busybody, utterly self-absorbed but also amusing" (Bandy 2). The Misfit fits the stereotypical cast of an escaped convict. Ironically, their similarities will allegorize Flannery O'Connor's notion that a good man or woman is hard to find.A literal interpretation of the grandmother portrays an elderly southern woman attempting to maintain the proper and genteel values of the South. The grandmother places great importance on her appearance and the opinions of others. This importance is revealed at the beginning of their journey when the story compares the grandmother, a reflection of the past, to the daughter-in-law, a reflection of the present:The children's mother still had on slacks and still had her head tied up in a green kerchief, but the grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had a pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady (O'Connor 267).Clearly the grandmother believes that how you look reflects what kind of person you are. The grandmother makes an effort to instill her "refined" values in her grandchildren. When the children insult the grandmother's native state of Tennessee she scornfully replies "In my time children were more respectful of their native states of their parents and everything else" (O'Connor 268). A casual reading of the story illustrates an innocent elderly woman who is generally a good person.The critics' interpretation...
