…”children were more respectful of their native states and their parents and everything else. People did right then. Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!” (O’Connor 4).
There are two things that struck me while reading this quote that the grandma said. First is the fact of her first sentence. Although you can’t really prove it but if you just listen and observe the children of this generation it applies to it word for word. I can recall several occasions when I would just be chilling in a public location such as the mall, and if I would get a quarter for every child/teenager that was disrespectful to an elder, this includes physically and verbally, then I would have a nice amount of money. I feel like each generation is getting worse and worse. Now I’m not saying everyone is flat out disrespectful but speaking in general more and more people are becoming that, just from my point of view.
The other thing that struck me was the irony of the second part of her statement where the grandma is basically saying how disrespectful the children are now a days and immediately after saying that she says an offensive derogatory term toward the African American child. I just found it really ironic. And I feel like that’s the case now in days. People preach a lot but don’t follow what they preach.
Luis, that's a great observation about the grandmother with the idea of respect, followed by a disrespectful (and offensive) term. Why do you think this juxtaposition is there?
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