Unfortunately, the grandmother is not able to see the damage that she causes by her character. Her own sense of superiority does not allow her to see past her actions. Finally the big day arrives, and the grandmother is the first one ready to go in the family vehicle. In a basket she sneaks in her cat. Although Bailey hates to take the cat on road trips, the grandmother does this because she believes the cat is not able to stay home alone.
There is an internal conflict, as "the old lady," the grandmother, who lives with her married son, his wife and their three children. The theme is that age doesn't determine wisdom and persistence does not always get you what you want. The irony of the story is the outcome, and irony courses through the events and characters, especially with the grandmother and her granddaughter, June Star. Grandmother had to go everywhere the family went and wouldn't stay home to be queen for a day or for a million dollars, which implies she wasn't wanted but she couldn't be gotten rid of. Grandmother is the first one in the car, as not to be left behind.
This thought of hers goes to show that she is not necessarily considerate of others, because while she may look like a lady while she dies, she doesn’t keep in mind that if the car were to get into an accident, the rest of the family would probably die as well. The grandmother also takes her cat on the trip, even though it is mentioned her son would not like to have a cat on the vacation. On the road, the grandmother attempts to steer her grandkids off the direction of her idea of materialism (reading comic books, and not paying attention to the beauty outside). She consistently talks about how times are so much worse than what they were during her youth, and finally convinces the kids to want to go to an old house she recalled. Unfortunately though, on the dirt road she remembers that the house is not where she originally thought it was, and causes the family to drive into a ditch.
The story fires the children's interest, consequently forcing Bailey, to take an unplanned detour down a rough dirt road in search of the house. Suddenly, the grandmother realizes that her memory has deceived her and her struggle for the embarrassment, she involuntarily releases the cat from its hiding place, causing Bailey to lose control of the car. As the family members struggle to free themselves from the ensuing wreck, three
In the beginning of the story, the grandmother was a selfish and manipulative person. By reading the first few sentences, you can notice that she does not want to go Florida because she wants to go to Tennessee to see some relatives. Whenever something runs up against the grandmother’s will, she tries to get it her way. She does not say I want to go to Tennessee, but she try to scarves him with the report of a criminal on the loose who is heading to Florida. She said, “Just you read it.
The grandmother wanted to go and see her friends in Tennessee instead of Florida, which is where the family wanted to go. The Grandmother lied and said that the Misfit would be in Florida instead of Tennessee. She did this so Baily, her son, would change his mind about where the family would go for the trip. Throughout the story, the Grandmother is very noisy. She is very concerned with small ideas.
“Something I hated. ‘Pneumonia,’ they called it. I hated that ‘Pneumonia’ and I held that hate in the back of my mind waiting for the day when something would come along to destroy that ‘Pneumonia’ as easily as my father had swung me up in his arms the Sunday of my fifth birthday.” Ms.Evers knew that it was wrong to continue on the study. Yet she couldn’t just leave these men. She wanted to stay with the men and believe that there is still hope because she couldn’t help her father years ago.
In the beginning of the story, the grandma is more irritating towards the family and always trying to get her way: “You all ought to take them somewhere else for a change so they would see different parts of the world and be broad. They never been to east Tennessee” (299). John Wesley says, “If you don’t want to go to Florida, why dontcha stay at home?” (300). June Star agrees and adds, “She wouldn’t stay home for a million bucks, afraid she’d miss something. She has to go everywhere we go” (300).
She is the one that is the most guilty of commiting sins and not following the word of God. First she sneaks her cat on the trip even though she knows deep within her heart that her son Bailey, “wouldn’t like to arrive at the motel with a cat”(332). The grandmother also lies to the children about a secret panel that is in a house along the way to Florida. She does this to merely fulfill her own desire to go and see this plantation house. After a while of riding on the bumpy road to this house she realizes that this is not the road and that the house is in Tennesse but she keeps it to herself so that she can avoid “Bailey’s wrath”(336).
The grandmother then brings up the topic after noting an article about an escaped convict called “The Misfit” who was heading in the same destination, which was Florida. After all of the disagreements about not wanting to go to Florida, the family still insisted that they were going and nothing will deter them from going. The very next morning the family sets on the long-awaited trip to Florida. The grandmother hides her cat (Pitty Sing) into a basket in the back of the car—she had this notion that she couldn’t “bear” to leave her cat at home while they are on vacation. Also, she wore a dress and a hat with flower designs so people can discern that she is “a lady” if there is any accident that might ensue.