In the short story, "A Late Encounter With the Enemy," Flannery O'Connor shows General Sash to be a selfish, cantankerous, 104-year-old man. He was probably a foot soldier in the Civil War, but was cast as a General in a movie and given a General's uniform. The rest of his life he considered himself a General and expected others to treat him as such.

Living in his own self-centered world, he is able to distance himself from his memories, his past and his daughter. He is an unsympathetic character even at the time of his undignified death.

I think I was able through this portrait to portray a man whose selfish pride has left him with only a vacant stare.