The grandmother is obsessed with the class system. Don't believe me? check out these quotes...
"The old lady settled herself comfortably, removing her white cotton gloves and putting them up with her purse on the shelf in front of the back window. The children's mother still had on slacks and still had her head tied up in a green kerchief, but the grandmother had on a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets on the brim and a navy blue dress with a small white dot in the print. Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady." They haven't even left yet and the grandmother is compared to the mother in attire. As the grandmother is wearing a nice dress and hat, while the mother is wearing slacks and has her hair tied up. This comparison between the two shows that how the grandmother dress was excessive for the function of sitting in a car for hours. She cares so much about class that even if she dies she wants them to know that she was of the upper class.
"In my time," said the grandmother, folding her thin veined fingers, "children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then. Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!" she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack. "Wouldn't that make a picture, now?" she asked and they all turned and looked at the little Negro out of the back window. He waved.
"He didn't have any britches on," June Star said.
"He probably didn't have any," the grandmother explained. "Little niggers in the country don't have things like we do. If I could paint, I'd paint that picture," she said." Here the grandmother being of the upper class gawks at an impoverished child and then proceeds to say that would be a nice picture to paint and have. The only reason to have a picture of that is to remind yourself that you are above people like that and that you have more material possessions and therefore in her mind a more satisfactory life.
"You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you?" the grandmother said and removed a clean handkerchief from her cuff and began to slap at her eyes with it.
The Misfit pointed the toe of his shoe into the ground and made a little hole and then covered it up again. "I would hate to have to," he said.
"Listen," the grandmother almost screamed, "I know you're a good man. You don't look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people!"The grandmother here is astounded that the Misfit would be violent or evil just because his family is of good blood, and therefore from an upper class in the grandmother's mind. She had a notion that people raised in a similar family to hers, would not commit crime, that they would leave that for those of a lower class.
The grandmother's obsession with class shows the tension that is within her about capitalism. This tension makes her feel that she needs to keep reinforcing that she is an upper-class lady at all times. She also feels disappointed by the system that an upper-class fellow turned to a life of crime instead of a belief system, of praying to Jesus. Then when she realized that the Misfit and her were not so different, it was too late. This realization shows how all people are practically the same in power, wealth, and labor under Marxism.
"He didn't have any britches on," June Star said.
"He probably didn't have any," the grandmother explained. "Little niggers in the country don't have things like we do. If I could paint, I'd paint that picture," she said." Here the grandmother being of the upper class gawks at an impoverished child and then proceeds to say that would be a nice picture to paint and have. The only reason to have a picture of that is to remind yourself that you are above people like that and that you have more material possessions and therefore in her mind a more satisfactory life.
"You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you?" the grandmother said and removed a clean handkerchief from her cuff and began to slap at her eyes with it.
The Misfit pointed the toe of his shoe into the ground and made a little hole and then covered it up again. "I would hate to have to," he said.
"Listen," the grandmother almost screamed, "I know you're a good man. You don't look a bit like you have common blood. I know you must come from nice people!"The grandmother here is astounded that the Misfit would be violent or evil just because his family is of good blood, and therefore from an upper class in the grandmother's mind. She had a notion that people raised in a similar family to hers, would not commit crime, that they would leave that for those of a lower class.
The grandmother's obsession with class shows the tension that is within her about capitalism. This tension makes her feel that she needs to keep reinforcing that she is an upper-class lady at all times. She also feels disappointed by the system that an upper-class fellow turned to a life of crime instead of a belief system, of praying to Jesus. Then when she realized that the Misfit and her were not so different, it was too late. This realization shows how all people are practically the same in power, wealth, and labor under Marxism.
No comments:
Post a Comment