Life You Save May Be Your Own Theme Essay

The religious imagery in Flannery O'Connor's 'The Life You Save May Be Your Own' gives the story a cynical undertone along with a healthy dose of irony. O'Connor uses allusions to Jesus and Christianity to examine the hypocrisies of the religion and its adherents. Her character Tom T. Shiftlet is portrayed paradoxically as both the embodiment of Christ and an immoral, utterly selfish miscreant. By presenting these polarities side by side within one persona, O'Connor shows the dichotomies between so-called Christian morality and the reality of the Church.

The theme of this novella is to look at the good you do in life and how it carries over after your death. The moral of the book is; "People can make changes in their lives whenever they really want to, even right up to the end."

“The Life You Save May Be Your Own”, is a story which reflects on each and every one of us. The main themes expressed in this story are corruption, the lost innocence, and how we become aware of our errors yet seldom do much to correct ourselves. This final theme is best shown through Mr. Shifflets actions. Mrs. Crater is a great example of the first theme mentioned. Even though she had just met a stranger, after listening to him and his beliefs for a short while, she let him into her home, but for what reasons? Was it an act of kindness? No, it was clearly an act of selfishness. She used Mr. Shifflets skills as a carpenter to fix her home, and the car, and used her own daughter to pull him in. Those actions are the epitome of greed and corruption. Mrs. Carters daughter, Lucynell, is the savior, the “angle of Gawd”, as referred to in the story, and is a great symbol used by the author, Flannery O’Connor, to express the purity and innocence we have in ourselves, which tends to be lost through the corruption.

Should people put the value of life into monetary value or should life be kept solely as an emotional quantity? People and societies throughout the ages have been trying to answer the problem of putting the value of life into terms of dollar bills. The ancient Egyptians buried their dead with all of their worldly belongings. They believed a person’s monetary worth on Earth was over, and they should take all of that earthly worth with them to the afterlife. Modern day Americans are different from the Egyptians. Today people believe that the families of the dead should be compensated for “their” loss.

Our Life is a matter of choices. Live well and have faith and it will never go wrong. Our lives can be full of crazy ups and downs that shape our views on how life should be lived. With a similar ideology, author Flannery O’Connor’s depicts her own life struggles using different aspects and details throughout her novels and short stories. O’Connor lived by the basis that life must go on no matter the hardships. In her novels she represented various characters who made wrong choices and due to those choices suffered extreme negative consequences. Despite her struggles, O’Connor made the choice to continue on in her life yet many of her novels contradicted that same idea by having characters in her novels and short stories suffer consequences for making the wrong choices. Because the

Someone once said; “When we acknowledge the value in every human life and witness such, we thrive and succeed and protect one another”. The value in life is a prospect that should not be suppressed, even in times of hardship. Conveying this message through literary elements can be tough at times, consequently leaving the message unclear. Neal Shusterman’s “Unwind” demonstrates the opposite and conveys the theme thoroughly, leaving no room for uncertainty. His characters, one of the most important elements of an amazing story, all adapt realistically to a situation where the safety of their life comes first. Additionally, the conflict in “Unwind” is a central point of interest and engages the reader in the motives behind the battle faced by the characters. Finally, the narrative perspective further expresses a sense of meaningfulness when dealing with the topic of life significance. Evidently, Shusterman emphasizes the worth in human life through his character development, the conflicts and the theme.

Relay for Life is a fundraiser dedicated to the American Cancer Society. Through Kiwanis International Key Club, I have been given the opportunity to participate in Relay for Life twice, continuing onto my third year. Cancer is an illness which negatively affects people’s lives. Cancer is constantly affecting families and friends throughout the world.

Furthermore, this cross is crooked because he has “only half an arm”(53), which connotes that this imbalance is permanent and may not be something that can be salvaged. O’Connor gives readers insight into Mr. Shiftlet’s psyche when he says, “the body, lady, is like a house: it don’t go anywhere; but the spirit, lady, is like an automobile: always on the move”(63). She does this to express the contradiction within him that must be appeased. His body wants him to stay put and be comfortable but his spirit drives him to move on and travel. His ultimate move is foreshadowed when he says, “a man’s spirit means more to him that anything… I got follow where my spirit says to go”(63). Mr. Shiftlet believes that this is what he needs to do for himself but in reality it leaves him “more depressed than ever”(66). It becomes clear that he does not reach atonement because of his unwillingness to set his self-giving values aside. Mr. Shiftlet soon becomes aware of this when he exclaims to the heavens, “wash the slime from this earth!”(67) and then ironically “after a few minutes”(68) he had to “race the galloping shower into Mobile”(68). O’Connor’s symbolism and irony are tactful mechanisms in constructing her stories to show the diverse workings of God, while the imagery is used to emphasize this further.

Disabilities within the characters of “The Life You Save May be Your Own” by Flanner O’Connor

Life of Pi shows that humans and animals should do anything necessary to survive whatever challenges they face to live instead of just accepting death. Whatever ways that help one to survive are necessary, even if they compromise personal values, are vicious, or are wicked. Pi, a human; a hyena, and a blind man all fight to survive in a variety of ways that are examples of this thesis.

There are many events that stand out in my life that were significant and helped me grow stronger. One of these events stands out in particular to me and had the greatest impact in my life. When I attended high school my focus was never on the academics but only on sports and having fun with my friends. I never payed attention for more than five seconds and failed to complete any type of work given to me. My lack of care for high school affected me on going to a four year college, playing a sport in college, and taking remedial classes.

Survival is being able to endure and live through challenges that may wear you down (mentally or physically), and there are several ways of showing survival. “The Story of Keesh,” by Jack London, depicts survival through a harsh setting. “The Five People You Meet In Heaven,” by Mitch Albom, depicts survival through character development. In sum, the idea of survival is shown in literature through these two different ways.

Life changing events can sometimes be difficult. In the stories “I Never Had it Made,” By Jackie Robinson Warriors Don’t Cry By Melba Patillo Beals and “The Father of Chinese Aviation.” By Rebecca Maskel. Melba Beals, Jackie Robinson, and Feng Ru all experienced life changing events that impacted their lives. If you did not know these people went through danger to break segregation. Melba Beals and Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier by playing on a white ball team and going to a white school as blacks.

The abstract idea of life cannot be explained by such simple ideas as being animated, breathing, or speaking. Ordinary machines in this century can perform all of these basic functions. The quandary with defining death is not as abstract and elusive as that of life. The problem of defining life and death has plagued philosophers and the religious bodies for thousands of years for one reason; each philosophy or religion has tried to define the meaning of life and death from only their certain perspective. The seemingly appropriate approach to this problem would be to understand the ideas presented in various philosophies and religions and through this knowledge create a new definition for each idea of life

The life given by god has a very special meaning a value in which people sometimes forget to thank or either regret. Many students/adults believe that they are going to be popular if they have money and a good job buy forget that people are influenced by those who have learned something. Also a lot fail to remember, to earn value you must earn it.In today’s economy the government creates a value on the person by looking at the position they are held for. If you look at it from the society’s point of view they believe people should be given value according to what they do and what position they are. From an individual's perspective they judge themselves on what they accomplish and achieve.The value of the individual would