Any literary critic will tell you that a good story needs character development, so that a person enters the narrative one way (more precisely, we perceived them in this way), and in the end our perception changes. And ideally, the author should show it through the character’s interaction with other heroes in various situations.
Of course, this is easy enough to do within the framework of a large novel (although not all authors succeed in this), but to fit the development of a character into one short story is a sign of true skill. And so, the author of this post from the Malicious Compliance community on Reddit, it seems to me, quite succeeded.
This story happened many years ago when the author of the post was a little girl
Image credits: Pixabay (not the actual photo)
Since she was a sickly kid, she had to stay with her grandpa, a WWII veteran, and a pretty mean guy, according to the author herself
Image credits: MandiNitty
One day the old man picked up the girl from school and they started cooking together
Image credits: Enric Cruz López (not the actual photo)
Image credits: MandiNitty
The grandpa demanded the girl dump out potatoes into his colander and she maliciously complied, thus dousing him with cold water and peels
Image credits: Arran Riddle (not the actual photo)
Image credits: MandiNitty
The author first saw wrath in his eyes but then the grandpa managed to rein in his anger and burst out laughing
So, the Original Poster (OP) goes back to her childhood years, when her parents often left her in the care of her grandfather. Apparently, it was in Germany, around the end of the last century. Firstly, the author of the post calls the grandfather “Opa” (the German equivalent of “grandpa”), and secondly, she says that he was a WWII veteran, quite gloomy and pretty mischievous. Relatives did not particularly like the old gentleman, and he, it must be admitted, reciprocated.
According to the OP’s own words, she was a bit afraid of her grandpa, however, since she was a sickly kid, she sometimes stayed with him when she had to go home from school. And so, one fine day, the old man again picked up his granddaughter from school, and they started cooking dinner together. The girl was instructed to peel and wash the potatoes, and at one point, when she was still halfway, her grandfather abruptly ordered her to pour the potatoes into his colander to start washing them.
The granddaughter tried to say that this was not a good idea, but the old soldier did not tolerate objections. Then the author simply complied maliciously and, turning around, dumped out a bowl of dirty cold water and half-peeled potatoes right into his colander. The old man sat, all wet and covered in potato peels, anger slowly flared up in his eyes, and the girl, in her own words, then for the first time in her entire life realized what real fear was.
However, the grandpa was able to surprise his granddaughter once again. Suddenly he burst out laughing hysterically – and it looked even more frightening than the cold fury in his eyes before. The old man simply told his granddaughter to “clean up the mess and get out of his sight,” and since then, apparently, he drew some conclusions for himself. No, he remained the same mean geezer, but he then understood that his granddaughter was pretty ballsy, and when she ever started objecting for some reason, at least he now listened to her opinion.
Image credits: cottonbro studio (not the actual photo)
“A true great story that underlines once again how important it is to always stand up for your point of view, even when the advantage is clearly not on your side,” says Irina Matveeva, a psychologist and certified NLP specialist, with whom Bored Panda got in touch for a comment on this tale. “After all, malicious compliance is a nice option to demonstrate that the stronger side is wrong. Even at a time when society as a whole and its individual representatives were not particularly sensitive and tolerant.”
“On the other hand, you have to give credit to the heroine’s grandfather for being able to cope with his outburst of anger. Perhaps he was reminded of some story from his own past when he maliciously complied with a boss or an army officer. Yes, rather of all, it was so – we often change anger for mercy towards even naughty children when we see ourselves in them. Be that as it may, with this act the girl forced her grandpa to respect herself, to reckon with her opinion – and this is perhaps the main conclusion from this story for me,” Irina supposes.
Most commenters were also glad that everything in the described case ended well for the original poster – especially since the author later wrote that her grandfather was abusive towards his own wife and children (which is why all relatives disliked him). Moreover, according to the OP’s own words, this was almost the only time in her life when she heard her grandfather’s laugh. Even through the rage in his eyes…
Some people in the comments still wrote that the old man probably still loved his granddaughter – even if he didn’t know how to properly and appropriately express his emotions. In any case, any war is an incredibly traumatic experience, and the old soldier clearly endured a lot of pain from there, and then, in the middle of the 20th century, one could only dream of therapy. “As an old soldier, I understand exactly why he busted out laughing. Good for you,” one of the commenters wrote, and we can’t help but agree. And what do you think, our dear readers?
Some people in the comments are pretty sure the old man loved his granddaughter but just didn’t know how to express his feelings properly
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