2 Page APA FORMAT Flannery O’Connor is generally acknowledged as one of the greatest American fiction writers of the last century—a reputation that rests mostly on her emotionally powerful, incisively drawn, and exuberantly original short stories. The stories violate the usual standards of good taste—presenting violence, racism, madness, deceit, despair, and sexual perversity—and challenge the reader’s worldview. At the start of the story, the character of the grandmother is meant to be unlikable, and maybe by the end she stays that way. She causes the accident by letting the cat out of the basket, and she dooms the family when she recognizes The Misfit. That being said, once the events are set in motion, I don't think the grandmother could have saved the other family members. I think the story's pretty clear about what happens to them. I don't think we should delude ourselves. In the story, the grandmother also dies. I think that's clear, too. However, what I find interesting is the very end of the story. Her final gesture incites The Misfit to murder her, and now, if we use the grandmother's system of beliefs as a guide, she’ll be judged by Jesus, who The Misfit says has "thrown everything off balance" (388). What happens to the grandmother is the direct result of how Flannery O’Connor saw redemption--its power and its delivery through the sudden infusion of grace gained through a shocking, sometimes violent, interaction. Of course, the story doesn’t end there. The words may end, but in our minds, the story can keep going. In fact, we can even change what happens--maybe the family does survive. Maybe the grandmother does. Maybe not. Choose one of the characters in the story. Based on the actions and events in the story, including the very end, write a brief story about what happens the next day. Where is that person? What are they going to do? Will that day be any different? When you write this story, try to write it so that the sequence of events and the symbols and characters reveal a truth you hold about the world.