Flannery O"Conner says, "A Good Man Is Hard to Find", but I think it's the other .
A good woman is what's really hard to find. What happened to the image of .
the genteel southern lady who was the embodiment of everything that is considered .
womanly, beautiful, and serene by the Southern society? The Grandmother is from the .
South, yet she is probably one of the most materialistic, hypocritical characters in the .
story. The Grandmother's actions, thoughts, and beliefs are all in direct conflict with the .
image that she is supposedly portraying to the world around her.
The Grandmother's actions reflect a great deal about her true character. She is so concerned with what people will think of her and the family. Image is everything, which is an incredibly uptight and snooty way of thinking. "In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady" (385). This statement is a perfect example of how judgmental and stuck up the grandmother is. She is more concerned with whether or not someone will know that she was a true lady than she is with the idea of someone finding her body on the side of the highway. It is normal for a person to be concerned with the manner in which they will die, but to be worried about what one is wearing at the time of death, well, that's not. She also looks down upon the children's mother because she is still wearing pants and her hair up in a kerchief when the family departs for their trip, as though the mother is less feminine and proper due to the fact that she is wearing pants out in public as opposed to a skirt or dress. As they are driving, the Grandmother realizes that the plantation is not in Georgia, but Tennessee, and instead of telling Bailey that they are going the wrong way, she keeps the realization to herself. She is so embarrassed, and instead of appearing, once again appearance is of the utmost importance here, to look like an idiot, she allows the family to continue down the dirt road that leads to, for all they know, nowhere.
