O'Connor made The misfit vulnerable in his character by identifying us to the old lady's hope for potential. However, in the process, she must have caused him some sort of emotional turmoil to cause him to end her life at such an unexpected moment. The thought of The Misfit's mother must have been a touchy subject; he didn't mention her once in the entire conversation, which consisted entirely of him degrading her talk about Jesus, his dad and his life story. Therefore, when she related to him as her son and reached out and touched his shoulder, he didn't know how to react and took it as hurt.

The old lady's gesture was obviously one of kindness. She wasn't reaching out to him in a cruel sort of way; she simply reached out and touched him on the shoulder. In her kindness, she might have been trying to...