The Moral Dilemma in Freeman's "Old Woman Magoun"

Can innocence survive in the midst of evil that is so pervasive that it corrupts everything it touches? Is the death of a precious grandchild preferable to sexual defilement at the hands of malicious predators? Is allowing a loved one to die in order to prevent sexual abuse morally justifiable? These are questions that vex Old Woman Magoun in Mary Wilkins Freeman’s story. They are also questions that vex her readers.

Lily Berry is Magoun’s granddaughter. Lily’s mother was married to Nelson Berry, who is described as a “fairly dangerous degenerate of a good old family” (419). She died when Lily was a week old. The men of the hamlet of Berry’s Ford are heavy drinkers and indolent, a slovenly lot. They have lost their masculinity to alcohol and slothfulness. There is an old saying that “the devil finds work for idle hands,” and that is the case for the men of Berry’s Ford. 

Lily, who is fourteen years old, looks no older than ten. She is sheltered by her grandmother. Lilly carries a tattered rag doll with here wherever she goes. The story’s narrator describes Magoun’s moral character and her situation: “Old Woman Magoun had within her a mighty sense of reliance upon herself as being on the right track in the midst of a maze of evil, which gave her courage” (419). Magoun is an oasis of virtue existing in a wasteland of corruption and evil. She survives because of her experience and moral fortitude, qualities that Lily is yet to fully develop at such a young age. 

When her grandmother sends Lily to the store for some salt, she meets an apparently nice man who takes her by the hand and walks with her to the store. She has her rag doll with her. Freeman skillfully creates a sense of dark foreboding during this scene. The reader senses that there is something sinister about this outwardly nice and handsome man. The stranger, Jim Willis, inquires about her age. Lily’s father is at the store when she arrives. He gives her some candy. Willis evidently finds the little girl attractive when he learns that she is fourteen years old. 

It turns out that Nelson Berry lost money in a card game to Willis. He arranges to take Lily from Magoun in order to settle his debt to Willis. We presume that Willis is to have his way with the child sexually, which is more than Magoun can countenance. Berry gives her a week to turn Lily over to him or he will take her by force. Magoun unsuccessfully tries to have Lily adopted by a nice family in a neighboring hamlet. She is out of alternatives. 

We learn that Nelson “reflected that Old Woman Magoun had a strong character, that she understood much better than her sex in general the futility of withstanding the inevitable” (424). Magoun would rather her precious grandchild die than see her defiled by a lustful sexual predator, as had happened to Lily’s mother. On the way home from the neighboring hamlet, Lily sees some delicious blackberries that she picks and eats. Amongst them are some poisonous nightshade berries, which Magoun sees her eat, and she says nothing. Lily dies that night, as her mother had died a week after her birth from the same deadly nightshade berries. 

My interpretation of Old Woman Magoun’s apparently immoral actions is that knowingly allowing her granddaughter to eat those poisonous berries is analogous to euthanizing an animal companion that is in agony and without hope of recovery. Far from committing a sin, Magoun’s action was a final act of love that was morally justifiable. After all, she had done it before. This must lead to a discussion about moral relativism, the idea that there are no fixed essential truths. All is culturally constructed in the heat of the moment.