An Example of Telling?
"When the children finished all the comic books they had brought, they opened the lunch and ate it. The grandmother ate a peanut butter sandwich and an olive and would not let the chlildren throw the box and the paper napkins out the window. When there was nothing else to do they played a game by choosing a cloud and making the other two guess what shape of a cow and June Star guessed a cow and John Wesley said no, an automobile, and June Star said he didn't play fair, and they began to slap each other over the grandmother." (O'Conner 5)
This paragraph appears to be all telling. It just goes on and on describing every single action and emotion. I thought the last sentence was especially long. I became really bored and almost annoyed with this paragraph and the one that followed it (it too was almost all telling). This paragraph could have easily been shortened and made into dialogue instead of just reciting details. Why did O'Conner decide to write it this way?
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Katie, that's a very good question. You are right, that passage has a lot of showing.
O'Connor would have chosen every word and incident in order to enhance the point she was trying to make in the story, in order to accomplish the emotional effect for which she was aiming. So a good way to answer your question is to find out what important things we learn about the children and the grandmother during the travel scene? Yes, the passage you quote TELLS what they do, but it also SHOWS that the ride was long and boring.
What else does this scene SHOW about how the characters react to manners, to each other, and (in some of the other parts that happen near the selection you chose) to their environment and the culture in which they live?