This is a disturbing short story because nobody's really a hero. There's no one to root, everybody's bad. I could understand how you could feel a little bit for the grandmother because we see the story mostly through her eyes, but yet its too hard to like her either, whether it be due to her being a loud mouth, being too judgemental or just pretty superficial. She feels that just her being a lady should deem her ineligible to be killed by the misfit and somehow this should cause her life to be spared. On her high horse of self-entitlement, when she should be pleading for the lives of the son and other family members. So with no one to truly root for, I see this story as more so a bit of a moral puzzle. A puzzle of who is right?. Is anyone right? if no one is right, then where is "rightness"?. Is it right that they all die? Is the misfit right about the grandmother when he says "somebody should have shot her every day of her life"? He was obviously tired of hearing her mouthing' off and talking too much.
There is almost no redemption in this story in this story. Almost nobody changes or grows, except maybe the grandmother discovers something at the very end when she's about to be killed and she says "you could be my child". that implied a little bit of deeper awareness about this murderer, but that much growth is still quite trivial if any. Some would say that the mother, father, and children come together as a family and form a much closer bond in acceptance of death than they ever had before. Prior to this we and see that there was a bit of a disconnect at home and they were very argumentative, insulted each other and had an all-around grumpy experience on the road.One child even kicking the back seat of his father while he is driving. Even when they stop to eat you can see how rude the little girl is, even when someone tried to give her compliment.
Ultimately , this reading could be looked at as the death of the old south with the killing of the grandmother. A lot of he dialogue and references are of an old south that no longer exists, or may have never existed except for in her delusional mind.
No redemption by our values, yet the Misfit is fulfilling and executing an action that falls within his beliefs. If is culture is so foreign to use how do we judge it? If we take the general values and teaching from the Abraham religions we see that what is right changes and it more about following the will of a deity, these values change later on. What truly is a good woman in the Misfits eyes?
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