Death, Swimming, FlyFishing

Have you ever known a dysfunctional family; I think this one would top them all! This family has a grandmother who always has some thing to say and is prim and proper, two kids John and June who are the rudest ever there always insulting there parents.

“If you don’t want to go to Florida, why dontcha stay at home?”

There dad Bailey the grandmothers son who on the out side seams to be the head of the household but as you get through the story he gives in to the littlest pressure from his mother and kids.

“John Wesley kicked the back of the seat so hard that his father could feel the blows in his kidney.”

The family is discussing where there going to go on vacations, Bailey, John and June Star wanted to go to Florida but the grandmother is resistant to go. She told them a murder the Misfit escaped from jail in Florida but it was really to make the family nerves so they would go to Tennessee to visit friends.

“If you don’t want to go to Florida, why dontcha stay home?”  

In the end the grandmother ends up going and incidentally she is the first person in the car with her cat which she snuck in. She sat between the two kids. On there way they get into an argument between them about going to see this house that the grandmother said she lived at. The father said they couldn’t stop because they where behind schedule which set the kids into frenzy. He agreed to go to the house; it was at the end of a strange curvy dirt road.

“This place better show up in a minute.”  

They went over the edge of the road when the grandmother’s cat jumped out on to Bailey when they hit a big bump. Which I thought was inevitable for something to go wrong it seams to happen in Flannery O’Connor’s stories. They were all thrown out of the car in all different directions. They all got them selves together they started to think of how they were going to get out of this. As they sat here a car drove up and pulled over on the side of the road. Three men got out of the car they wee all holding guns ad where giving the family an interesting look. 

“We’ve had an ACCIDENT” 

They were carrying guns they mad there way down the embankment. When they got down to them, they had them sit down together but the kids were separated from the parent  and gave them the talk that you hear the mob give (the lead around) then started to take people one by one in to the woods each time you would hear a BANG.  Till the grandmother was the only one left but he whole time she was talking up a storm and it was as if she had no idea of what was happening. She knew he was the misfit then started to plead and tell him she was his mother and he wasn’t really a bad guy. Then he just got sick of her and shot her but the way Flannery O’Connor described it was just disturbing.  

“She was a talker, wasn’t she”

Flannery O’Connor gave a good depiction how everyone is always in the end, in it for them selves. I thought that it was interesting how throw out the story that Mr. Shifflet appeared to be a relatively intelligent person with all the insight he gives, but it all seamed pretty shallow and had a hidden motive. In the end you find out that he really has no intelligences at all he only gets the ideas from other people and twisted them in the way he needed. Then the mother and daughter were probably the most depressing two people ever, the daughter is severely mentally retarded and the mother is old with no teeth a widow and is unable to do much on hear property. Then she has the most twisted view of things, she asks this man to marry here daughter, and this man she doesn’t know is basically bribed to do so with a car. I find that she sick and tired of taking care of her daughter just wanted to get rid of her .Which is basically what she did, as soon Mr. Shifflet was married and had his car he got out of town. Along the way he thought she needed something to eat. They pulled up to a diner he bought her some food but she fell a sleep. So instead of waiting for her he just left her at the diner and tooled the boy behind the counter that she was just a hitchhiker. As he pulled a way he saw this boy thumben for a ride, so he decides to pick him up. The boy gets into the car they sit there for a will in silence till Mr. Shifflet starts to ramble on about how his mother was an angle of god and he said the boy’s could be nothing less. Then the boy snapped at him and said “My old woman is a flea bag and yours is a stinking pole cat!” He jumped out of the still moving car. Mr. Shifllet was so shocked he just drove on for a hundred feet or so with the door wide open. The sight of a dark luminous cloud brought him back. He stared at it revved his engine and took off as to  raced the storm to a town saying “Break forth and wash the slime from this earth!”       

I thought that it was Winter Dreams a pretty sad book.  Dexter the main character was obsessed with this girl Judy Jones. She’s one of thoughts girls how is rich, beautiful and can get anything and knows it. It all started one summer when he was a caddy for Mr. Mortimer Jones. One day he happened to be the unfortunate one to be the first person there that morning, Judy how is at least 3 years younger and her maid were the first two too show up that morning. Dexter was already getting sick of his job and she just throw him over the edge. He was assigned to her, the first thing she said to him was BOY, the caddy-master said aren’t you going to pickup her clubs. But he was so startled and offended by this young girls word that all he said was ”I don’t think I’ll go out today” then he thought and said ”I think I’ll quit” and walked home.

 All through out his life he will date a lot of woman but always comes back to Judy Jones. He had dated her a few times the last time he had become engaged to her but at the last minute she left him. Then over a year later meet, fell in love and was engaged to Irene Scheerer, but though out this whole time he kept thinking of Judy Jones. One fall night came along not to long before he was to be married when he finely realized that he wasn’t to get Judy and made him sad. Then one night he and Irene were at a dance but she went to home early. After she left and he said good bye, Judy Jones’s voice came up behind his and said “Hello, Darling” and that’s all she had to say to get him under her control again.  He walked her home on the way she started to cry and devoted her undying to him, they got to her house and stopped crying and asked him to come in. He called of the wedding and was off with his dream girl again.  But it didn’t last so he went on with his life but still dreamed of beautiful Jody Jones. His dream would be broken one day when he found out that his fun dream girl got married became a house wife.

Then he started to cry but it was for his own pathetic self, for his wasted youth and time focused on this one woman Judy Jones his Winter Dream.