A Stroke of good fortune, Flannery O'Connor
...about having all the children she had, and that “her mother had gotten deader with every one of them” (72). She blames her mother’s ignorance on having all those children, saying “she just hadn’t known any better” (72). Ruby would not make that same mistake. Ruby is downright ashamed of her brother, Rufus. He’s back from the armed forces, but Ruby criticizes the fact that he still seems to be too connected to his hometown of Pitman. Ruby has an obvious dislike of Pitman. She is out of Pitman, and she married a man from outside of that dreaded place. This reflects her desire to control her destiny by changing where she comes from. When she talks to her husband, Bill, about Rufus, she’s “mortified to let that kind of husband see you had that kind of a brother” (70): in other words, “good for absolutely nothing” (70). Twice she refers to his “get” as being that of a “floor mop” (70) and a “dish rag” (72). When it comes to her sisters, Ruby thinks that she is better than them because she didn’t marry someone from Pitman. She looks down on her sisters for each being married four years with four children each. In her eyes, they are following the same ignorant path as her mother, a path that is certainly not for Ruby. Another example of Ruby attempting to control her life concerns her health. For a large part of the story, Ruby doesn’t feel well. She dwells on her breathlessness, her increased weight, dizziness, nausea, and chest pain. When she thinks about going to a doctor, she concludes “no, I’m not going to no doctor. No. No. They would have to carry her there knocked out before she would go” (73). In addition, she reflects back to her childhood and even then, wouldn’t go. She doctors herself, and she feels that is best. Ruby is very determined not to become pregnant. Although she says that SHE has been careful not to become pregnant, (74), throughout the rest of the story, she relies on Bill to “take care of that” (81). She gives control of this crucial aspect of her life to someone else. She is not in control, but she thinks she is. It is an illusion. In addition, she fails to see that Bill has cont...