"A Stroke of Good Fortune" by Flannery O'Connor
...the doctor visits and the screaming, but most of all, she was afraid of aging. Aging is one thing that Ruby seems to be afraid of the most, and recalling her mother’s life, and how she seemed deader with every child that was lost, effected Ruby’s view on maternity, especially Rufus’s birth. Rufus “had caused her mother to scream all night long, turning her into an old woman.” (57) This quote by Margaret Whitt says it best, the experience of child birth is an aging one, and that’s the last thing that Ruby wants to do, is get old. After Ruby’s recollection of her mother’s life, she has to take a break on the stairs, and as she sits down she sits on “nine inches of treacherous tin,” which was Hartley Gilfeet’s toy pistol. At ...