Thank you for your thoughts on the story. I think the context explained and your emphasis on memory really helped me understand more of O'Connors story. But talking about memory: why do most analysts 'forget' about the grandmothers exclamation in the car, while babbling about children and their 'native states': "Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!". This fragment is more than foreshadowing only, in fact, the little boy is the only friendly character (he 'waves') in the story. And if you think about misfits, do you think that the character that is called 'The Misfit", is the only, or maybe 'real' misfit?
It's hard for me to imagine that O'Connor was referencing The Tower in the Tarot deck in naming the restaurant. Never heard of her having involvement in Tarot.
A perfectly reasonable response, and I'm willing to be challenged on that part of my interpretation, though I still stand by it. Even if O'Connor wasn't involved in Tarot, she may have had a basic knowledge of it. It's also a question of how important authorial intent is. Sometimes the language can take on meanings beyond what the author intended.
