u could go off and leave your screen door unlatched. Not no more. (p.683)OConnor often shows through the story the degeneration of the nuclear family. She does this not only through the incident at Red Sammys, but also through the child characters, John Wesley and June Star. The father, Bailey, tends to ignore the grandmother, and has failed to teach his children respect and manners.The children began to yell and scream that they wanted to see the house with the secret panel. Jon Wesley kicked the back of the front seat and June Star hung over her mothers shoulder and whined desperately into her ear that they never had any fun even on their vacation, that they could never do what they wanted to do. The baby began to scream and John Wesley kicked the back of the seat so hard that his father could feel the blows in his kidney.(p. 684)The children were so obnoxious and had so little regard for the their elders or themselves, that even in the event of the accident, the children were only excited, and rather disappointed with the outcome. Weve had an accident! the children screamed in a frenzy of delight. But nobodys killed, June Star said with disappointment, as the grandmother limped out of the car. (p. 686)In addition to the demise of the nuclear family, OConnor also shows the elimination of morals, religion, and kindness within people. The grandmother is religious only when she needs to be and its convenient. This becomes evident when they encounter The Misfit. The grandmother uses her religion as a reason to plead for her life with The Misfit, and The Misfit uses her religion as a reason to kill.She [the grandmother] finally found herself saying Jesus, Jesus, meaning, Jesus will help you, but the way she was saying it, it sounded as if she might be cursing. (p. 690) This statement struck The Misfit and he took the statement as a reason to join in on a discussion. Jesus threw everything off balance. It was the same case with Him as with ...
