In "A Good Man Is Hard To Find," what is the character change in the grandma throughout the story?

In Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the grandmother is the central character in the story. Though her personality does not change throughout the story, her presence does. She remains throughout the story, an opinionated old woman who is disrespected by her son and his family. However, at the beginning of the story, she takes a backseat (figuratively and literally) in the family. She doesn't say much and tries not to annoy...

In Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man is Hard to Find," the grandmother is the central character in the story. Though her personality does not change throughout the story, her presence does. She remains throughout the story, an opinionated old woman who is disrespected by her son and his family. However, at the beginning of the story, she takes a backseat (figuratively and literally) in the family. She doesn't say much and tries not to annoy her grown son. Though she makes small comments here and there, she knows her place.

Later, once the Misfit has the family on the side of the road in the woods, the grandmother takes a dominant role in the family since Bailey has become helpless and wordless. It is the grandmother who tries to talk her way out of the situation. She becomes voluble as she desperately tries to reason with the Misfit or convince him that he is a 'good man' and should let them go. So the real change in the grandmother occurs in her shifting role from a background character to a primary voice of the family. Because Bailey has gone from the controlling son and head of the household to a diminished person, sitting helplessly while the Misfit is about to kill them, the grandmother must step forward and take a more active role, which is a complete reversal from how readers saw her at the start of the story.