Pickle Eating
Mrs. Burridge annually stocks up on an abundance of tomato pickles. As the story opens, she is jarring twenty-four quarts of pickles. Every year Mr. Burridge complains that with the kids grown up and out of the house, most of the pickles will never get eaten and go to waste. Mrs. Burridge says nothing to him about the irony that the pickles never go to waste because he is the only one who eats them.
Economics
One of the things which seems to fuel Mrs. Burridge’s paranoia is the economic situation of the couple. She is portrayed as a less than reliable source of information, so that should be taken into consideration. If she is to be believed, however, her husband is making more than ever. Ironically, they have less to spend.
Psychopathy
Mrs. Burridge is presented as a stereotypically conservative older rural woman who enjoys simple things like making pickles and pies. Beneath that veneer, within her dark fantasy life, she comes across much differently. Ironically, this nice little old lady eventually reveals a tendency toward psychopathic violence simmering beneath the surface. Her fantasies include acts of violence like burning down the house to ensure no looters can find food, shooting a man approaching her in the woods with a smile on his face, and leaving her dogs off the chain because men are walking past the house either singly on in pairs.
The Smiling Man
In the final fantasy sequence of the story, Mrs. Burridge is venturing into the woods alone. Upon noticing the flicker of a small campfire, she comes across two men. One of them advances toward her, smiling. The smile is ironic, however, as Mrs. Burridge realizes his intent is to steal her gun and probably kill her.
Grocery Shopping
All of the apocalyptic sequences which take place in the story are fantasies existing only in Mrs. Burridge’s head. The darkness of these fantasies reveals Mrs. Burridge’s delusional paranoia. Ironically, they all take place while she is making out a grocery list that includes things like oatmeal and ingredients for lemon meringue pie.
