O’Connor throughout the story depicts the grandmother as a selfish and demanding character. O’ Connor describes her as trying to “manipulate her son, her insistence on dressing well so that people know she is a lady, and her superficial interactions with her grandchildren are funny but reveal her pride and pettiness” (Larson). The author appears to be signifying that the grandmother is trying to take all the attention and care only about herself. The grandmother’s actions of dressing well enough to be able to be told she was a woman if found suggest that she more worried about herself rather than her grandchildren and so on. O’ Connor adds “Now look here, Bailey, see here, read this, and she stood with one hand on her thin hip and the other
