- "A typical Flannery O'Connery story consists at its most vital level of people talking, clucking their endless reiterations of cliches about life, death, and the universe."
- "These completions are usually violent, occurring when the character--in many cases a woman--must confront an experience that she cannot handle by her old trustworthy language and habit-hardened responses."
- "And although the stories are filled with religious parodies and allusions, they do not try to inculcate a doctrine."
Lets talk about the irony of the ending now. I don't know how many people really liked Hulga all that much. She was a little bit of a B-Word. However, I dunno how I would have coped if I was in her shoes either. But you can't help but feel sorry for her when she's left in the second story of that barn, alone and legless and far from home. I don't even want to imagine her trying to crawl back to Mrs. Hopewell. I don't think that's what Flannery would be wanting us to think about anyway.
What I found most striking about this tale was all the discussions between characters about what makes people unique. Pointer seduced Hulga with the words "It's what makes you different. You ain't like anybody else." After he get's her leg away, he adds insult to injury before he leaves by basically saying she isn't special. Hell, he's gotten a glass eye from a lady before. What makes this encounter ironic are Mrs. Hopewell's typical statements: "Besides, we all have different ways of doing, it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round. That's life!"
My favorite part of the story was how Hulga thought she'd be enlightening the boy when all along it was the other way around.
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