The grandmother’s definition of what constitutes a lady, is to say the least, a snobbish, and discriminative designation. In her snobbery, she believes a “lady” is defined by what she has on, or by what you can see of her at a glance. For example, the grandmother wears a dress with a flower pinned on it, and a hat, so in the event of an accident, she will be identified as a lady at first glance. In her arrogance, she falsely believes this is all it takes to be identified as being a lady. O’Connor states, “…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…show more content… O’Connor states, “…faced the children's mother, a young woman in slacks, whose face was as broad and innocent as a cabbage and was tied around with a green head-kerchief that had two points on the top like rabbit's ears…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.” This is a clear representation, of the grandmother’s assumption, that the “children’s mother” is not, like herself, a lady, but is, in the grandmother’s mind, a plain woman who takes no care in the way in which she presents herself to the world. The grandmother does not seem to have much respect for the…show more content… Red Sammy comes inside, and he and the grandmother proceed to converse over the lack of good in people, and the world. Red Sammy relates that he let some men have gas for credit, and that they had never returned to pay him. The grandmother says that this makes him a good man, when what it actually makes him is naive. O’Connor states, “You can't win," he said. "You can't win," and he wiped his sweating red face off with a gray handkerchief. "These days you don't know who to trust," he said. "Ain't that the truth?" "People are certainly not nice like they used to be," said the grandmother. "Two fellers come in here last week," Red Sammy said, "driving a Chrysler. It was an old beat-up car but it was a good one and these boys looked all right to me. Said they worked at the mill and you know I let them fellers charge the gas they bought? Now why did I do that?" "Because you're a good man!" the grandmother said at once.” Red Sammy readily agrees that he is, in fact, a good man. Red Sam’s wife appears and makes a statement which illustrates her belief, to the reader, that no one can be trusted, not even Red Sam. O’Connor states,
