Rosa Millard, the guardian and grandmother of young Bayard Sartoris, lives her life according to the Southern code of honor, which requires its adherents never to curse, sin, steal, or disrespect women or the elderly. However, as the Civil War drags on, she finds her code being tested more and more by the ever-changing South. Eventually, Granny is forced to blur the lines of her morals when she begins an elaborate scam to steal from the Yankee forces, even though she knows it is ethically wrong. Venturing to the cotton compress for one final scam proves to be Granny’s defining moment as she discovers she overly relies on the Southern code of honor and simultaneously exhibits her willingness to help others, even at the cost of sinning.
Granny’s decision to risk one last score on the premise that no man would harm her defines her own chivalry and naivety because she risks everything believing the Southern code will protect her. Living her entire life in the South allows a false air of security and comfort to fall over Granny because she knows there are certain unspoken rules that govern life and guarantee a level of safety for women. Believing that “she was taking no risk” because “even Yankees do not harm old women,” it must have shocked her immensely to witness a seemingly…show more content… Wanting to be able to “take fifteen hundred dollars in cash from her pocket” and give it to her son-in-law motivates Granny to engage with the potentially dangerous Grumby. Granny does everything she can to protect her family, from letting her grandchild hide under her skirt during a Yankee search to walking right into a Yankee encampment and “hustling” the quartermaster. Attempting to the last to support the ones she loves, Granny treks to the cotton compress, unparalleled in her bravery, because there is no limit to what she will do for her
