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Stephen Bandy completely misunderstands the grandmother when he analyzes O'Connor's story and concentrates largely on the grandmother as being "a hypocritical old soul" (Bandy 1400) who exhibits "moral shoddiness.almost beyond description" (Bandy 1401). Bandy highlights the bad qualities of the grandmother throughout the story, but there is not enough evidence to support his case that "It is not easy to say who is more evil, the Misfit or the Grandmother" (Bandy 1401). In many ways O'Connor is describing to the readers that the grandmother is a common soul with good and bad qualities, who, though flawed with selfishness and a tendency to criticize in others traits she would forgive in herself, does in the end recognize her flaws and make a real gesture of grace at the moment of death. .
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Stephen Bandy writes that one should not ignore her racism and prejudicial remarks when he states that "We readily forgive her so much, including her mindless racism" (Bandy 1399), and that "She is filled up with the prejudices of her class and her time" (Bandy 1399). In this case Bandy is referring to the phrase "cute little pickaninny" (O'Connor 1382) to describe a little black boy without britches. Bandy forgets to mention that the reason the old lady wanted her grandchildren to observe the little boy was to see him for whom he was and to acknowledge him. The grandmother is trying to teach the children that it is wrong to prejudge people. Bandy again misinterprets when the grandmother tells the story of Mr. Teagarden and the watermelon. He only sees the words "a nigger boy ate it"(1382), and reflects on it as a racist remark, interpreting it to mean that she judges all poor black boys as thieves. The grandmother's story actually deals with the subject of misconception of character, a completely separate issue. He looks at her comments as intolerable behavior that no longer should be permissible in our society.