Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Grandmamma's a chain smoker. There's no two ways about it. Her cigars are everywhere she is – whether at home or on vacation, healthy or holed up in bed with pneumonia. What effect do the cigars have on the story, and on how we interpret Grandmamma as a character? Well, different readers might have different associations, but it seems to Shmoop that cigars are a masculine image. Giving Grandmamma a masculine feel through her cigars encourages the readers to associate her with other qualities also often attributed to men in literature: strength, resolve, and stubbornness, to name a few.