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Lucynell Crater is a proud, independent, shrewd, and deeply lonely woman. As the sole caregiver for an adult woman with special needs in the rural South, she has dedicated herself to her daughter and their property. Her husband is dead, and so all her energy has been taken up by caring for her daughter. She obviously loves her daughter, but when Shiftlet shows up, she is immediately aware that he could share the duty of care for the younger Lucynell.

The old woman recognizes Shiftlet as a potential son-in-law, even while harboring suspicions about him and his character. She believes that she has the power in their new relationship, as she is the one with the house, land, and car. She also trusts that she can manipulate him into staying on by offering her daughter as a wife, something she believes he wants and needs. Unfortunately for her, Shiftlet is also attempting to manipulate her by seeming to give her what she wants and needs—adult company, which she is wholly lacking in her daughter, and another set of capable hands to help around the house.

Representing a stagnant, disappearing agrarian ideal of the southern United States, the old woman disappears from the last quarter of the story. The decaying homestead farm is replaced by the siren song of travel and movement, with an eye toward making one’s fortune on the road. She is ultimately incapable of knowing or providing what Shiftlet wants, so he will take what he wants from her and move on.

Previous section Tom T. Shiftlet

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