Who Is Granny In The Unvanquished

Granny is Faulkner’s most naïve and ignorant character in The Unvanquished. Granny is portrayed a product of “the Old South”. She doesn’t understand the concept of blacks desiring to do anything more than serve a white master. In Raid Granny repeatedly tells the blacks to “go back home”. She is really referring to their master’s plantations and position of obediently serving their white masters. Granny is perplexing because she views blacks as equals in every way except in the social hierarchy. She treats them as equals by having conversations, befriending, and taking care of them. However, she never sees them as being more than slaves and having roles as slaves in the world.
Her belief is that God has “seen to make fit … a lost cause”. Meaning, every opportunity presented in front of Granny is seen as a gift from God. Granny uses this belief as an excuse and justification to indulge in a morality replete in contradictions. As a result, Granny will steal and lie in any situation that allows her the opportunity saying she’s “borrowed” them, but in the story we never see them returned. She will not however allow Bayard or Ringo to lie or steal …show more content…
However, Faulkner exposes Granny’s actions and “good” deeds to the Halo Effect, making them seem as though they came from good intentions. Strip away the halo and the reader sees that Granny’s actions good or bad stem from twisted, prejudice beliefs about the world. Granny is not all milk and cookies. She instead is a victim to the twisted society she grew up in.
Granny is naïve and ignorant in the fact that she does thinks the world follows her beliefs. Granny uses God not for religious purposes, but to justify her wrong doings. She lives a life blinded by her own ignorance to adapt to the new society. These naïve and ignorant actions, ironically led to her being killed by a man of “the Old

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