I read a few posts before writing this because I don't want to sound redundant and write about the same thing as everyone else. I feel bad for the grandmother in this story, someone wrote about her not appreciating her son but honestly I got the impression she wasn't appreciated. Your elders should be held to a high esteem for a multitude of reasons but two important ones being that they have life experience and that they are closer to the ends of their lives and that should be understood. I don't think this family cares much for their grandmother. Bailey is kind of a dick, it's not the grandmother's fault she recognized the Misfit and pointed it out. She wasn't intentionally trying to have her family slaughter but Bailey reacted in such a hate filled way that even the Misfit felt poorly of the way she was treated. "'Lady,' he said, 'don't get upset. Sometimes a man says things he don't mean. I don't think he meant to talk to you thataway."' (O'Conner 2782). For the killer to have to console the grandmother for the way her son spoke to her is upsetting, and I feel terribly for her. Not just how her son treated her and her fear of his reaction to her having been the one that lead them down the wrong road and brought the cat but the way the children treated her and their elders of the community. When June Star tells Red Sam that she wouldn't want to live in a run down home like his that's awful, my mother would slap me across the face if I spoke so terribly to someone that was just trying to pay me a compliment. The lack of respect for elders is insane. It's understandable why the grandmother longed for the good old days, in that time she probably felt more appreciated and less like someone that her family just had to deal with.
I know from living with my grandparents that they can be a pain, I understand that my own mom and dad can get on my nerves under extenuating circumstances but does that excuse Bailey's behavior? Is it okay for your children to behave as John Wesley and June Star do in public and to their grandmother? I know everyones raised differently but I can never imagine talking to my grandmother with a disrespectful tone whether or not she was staying with us.
