of the grandmother drastically differs from that of O'Connors. They view the grandmother as a self-absorbed prejudice woman "struggling with the shift from the antebellum values of lineage and gentility to those of a cash oriented culture" (Owens 1). This is hard for many readers to accept because she often invokes images of their own grandmother. Her prejudices are common among older southern individuals remember who times before the civil rights movement. The grandmother relishes in the humor of the watermelon she never received because a "nigger boy ate it when he saw the initials, E.A.T." (O'Connor 269). She also casually remarks that a Negro child without pants would make a splendid picture to paint. The grandmother believes herself to be a patron of "social decorum in a world of barbarians" (Bandy 6). She often complains about the decay of respect and trust in today's society. She honestly believes that everything in society including people "is getting terrible" (O'Connor 270). Her negative views of society make her "a woman with neither values nor morals, though she would be shocked to be told so" (Bandy 6). The grandmother's self-absorbed nature and affinity with the antebellum social system indicates she too is evil.The Misfit is the apotheosis of a lost soul engulfed by evil. He has a complete lack of religious faith. An example of this lack of faith is revealed when he responds to the grandmother's request to pray by saying "I don't want no hep, I'm doing alright by myself" (O'Connor 276). This philosophy has brought the Misfit to the conclusion that there is "nothing for you to do but enjoy the few minutes you got left the best way you can-by killing somebody or burning down his house or doing some other meanness to him" (O'Connor 277). The Misfit also "trusts nothing that he has not himself witnessed, touched, weighed and measured" (Bandy 7). Critic C. R. Kropf best summed up the Misfit's philosophy by sta...
