Homework for 10/22

1. O’Connor foreshadows the ending events very early in the story. Within the first two to three paragraphs the character of the Misfit is already introduced and then the audience finds out that the family will be traveling to the same area where the Misfit is. The scene from Red Sammy’s all but confirms because Sammy talks about how if there was a Misfit, he certainly would come here which foreshadows that he will be in the area and the traveling family is very likely to see him.
2. The grandmother is a very annoying character. She seems like she has a set view of the way things should be because that’s how they were when she was growing up. She is constantly nagging or talking to any member of the family that will listen to her. She is a static character because she does not change at all through the story. At the beginning, she is trying to get her way by going to TN instead of Florida and nagging and talking to the children and their father. In the middle, she is still annoying by talking Red Sammy’s ear off about the way things used to be in and at the end of the story she annoys the Misfit the whole time until he shoots her.
3. The grandmother had a moment of clarity right before she was shot. She realized that she was going to be killed no matter what. The Misfit had already killed everyone else so logically she was next. She maybe thought for an instant that she could save him by showing the love that Jesus showed, but it proved to be futile as she was immediately shot.
4. From the conversation between the Misfit and grandma, we learn a couple of things. We learn that the Misfit is taking the other family members to the woods to be killed. We also learn that the Misfit has a very pessimistic outlook on life. The only thing he really believes in is enjoying the pleasures of life which to him include killing people and harassing them. He does not believe in Jesus and His stories because he was not there to see them so he has no idea if they are true. He has no faith.


6 . The answer came back to her as clear as day because even though she was not talking to anybody. Her answer came to her because she finally was starting to realize that the way she thought about people and their classes and distinctions were not correct.
7. Mrs. Turpin has a vision of all different kinds of people, black, white trash, all going to heaven and her class of people is in the back of this line. She realizes that in God’s eyes everyone is foregiven and equal. She is not better than anyone else just because she is white and blacks are not worse or less respectable just because they are black.


5. Parker not liking long views because they made him think about religion and government shows the audience that Parker is very insecure. He is not very smart and worried about things of which he has very little or no control over.
6. Parker is motivated to get the tattoo on his back because he thinks that his wife will finally like a tattoo he gets. He thinks of the idea for the tattoo when he crashes the tractor into the tree and someone yells OH GOD.
7. Parker shows a lot of self awareness. He shows this when he know that he would not be happy with his wife and he also shows this when he realizes that the Christ tattoo is just something for his wife that he does not really want. He realizes that all these things he does are bad for him or knot in his favor but for some reason does them anyway.
8. The quote shows that Parker believes that people get what they deserve in life and getting the things you get in life has nothing to do with religion. By these standards, Parker gets exactly what he deserves because he did not want to better himself with school and could not stay in the navy and knew he should not get in a relationship with his current wife, yet he did it any way. He suffers, but only because he has put himself in the position to be one who suffers.
9. Sara Ruth does not recognize OE by his initials because she prefers what his initials stand for instead, which are two classic biblical names. This shows that she has control and making Parker do this makes him feel like she is in charge of him and she has all the control in the relationship.