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Mr. Shiftlet pointed out that the reason he had improved the plantation was because he had taken a personal interest in it. He said he was even going to make the automobile run.

Throughout the story, Shiftlet says everything that the old woman wants to hear about his assumed desire to have a home and settle down with a good woman. He is willing to do manual labor for a week to convince her that he is serious about staying with her and her daughter. The question is what kind of “personal interest” he has taken in the property. One way to think of it is that he is truly conflicted about taking their car because he genuinely has some affection for the Craters. Another is that in the face of the old woman’s sense of power over him that manifests in the insults she lobs at him, he has decided that he will make the betrayal he is planning especially cruel.

“Listen, Mr. Shiftlet,’ she said, “my well never goes dry and my house is always warm in the winter and there’s no mortgage on a thing about this place. . . . And yonder under that shed is a fine automobile.” She laid the bait carefully. “You can have it painted by Saturday. I’ll pay for the paint.”

Here the old woman lists for Shiftlet all the features of her life that recommend it to him, other than her daughter, whom she has already offered. He has intimated that she has the life he wants, with its sunset view and its traditional familial trappings. There may be something to this claim, but the old woman misreads his intentions. She sees his week-long investment in her property as an indication that he wants to stay and live with the Craters. She understands her plantation as the destination at the end of a transient life, a place for him to settle down and live the life she believes people want. But he sees it as another point on a line stretching before him, a place for him to refuel, take what he can use, and move on. She thinks she has set a baited trap that he won’t escape from. Instead, she has laid the foundation for her own downfall.

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