Symbolism In 'The Life You Save May Be Your Own'

In Flannery O’Connor’s short stories, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People,” the main characters’ trust is put to the ultimate test. Trapped in vulnerable situations, the protagonists become powerless and have to put their trust in the hands of the “bad guy.” As a result, the main characters fall victim to manipulation. Those who were once in total control of their situations are now stripped of their superior titles and are taken advantage of by the person they once trusted. Egos are bruised in the game of trust and manipulation in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People.” The grandmother and Joy-Hulga are taught lessons of a lifetime that changes the way they see themselves and life forever.

Lucynell Crater, an old woman, and her thirty-year-old, deaf daughter, also named Lucynell Crater live in a run-down house that needs to be repaired. One day a man who calls himself Tom T. Shiftlet stops and offers to fix the house and Lucynell’s car. Lucynell explains that she has no money to pay him, but he can eat and sleep in the house for free. Mr. Shiftlet fixes parts of the house and begins to work on the car. Mrs. Crater and Tom come to agreement that Tome will marry Lucynell. Tom, Lucynell and Mrs. Crater go to the court house and finalize the marriage. Tom and Lucynell take off in the car for their honeymoon. They stop to eat for the night and Lucynell falls asleep at the table. Tom Shiftlet tells the waiter that she was a hitch hiker and he needs to take off. Mr. Shiftlet leaves Lucynell at the restaurant and takes off with her mother’s car. As he drives away, he passes a sign that says, “The life you save may be your own.”

The choices and decisions made control our lives and build our future. Regardless of whether individuals see it or not, the choices did influence today, impact our tomorrow. Once a choice made, the actions play out, and the results convey; at that point, must choose the option to live with those outcomes. In the short story "The Father," the author, Hugh Garner utilizes character development of John Purcell to demonstrate that one's irresponsible choices made have the ability to jeopardize an essential relationship in one's life.

Deceitful,dishonest, disloyal: these words describe the shady characters presented in “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” by Flannery O’ Connor. In this short story, Shiftlet tries to con an old lady in order to obtain her automobile. By this , the man drives away from his salvation due to his selfishness and hypocritical personality. O'Connor master uses of dark humor reveals to the reader the truth that lays underneath the words of Shiftlet. The beautiful use of color blends with the dark sense of humor by foreshadowing the tragic events that in consequence happens when having a sinful personality. With the punchline at the end, the reader soon sees O’Connor message behind the rain clouds by deciphering the man actions in relation with the stormy weather. O'Connor warns what happens when we try to escape redemption by the use of color that represents every aspect of the story, the representation of symbols to reveal the personality of Shiftlet, and the dark humor that drives the story.

    “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” one of O’Connor’s best works, describes a family on a trip to Florida and their encounter with an escaped prisoner, The Misfit. Although “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is an early work in O’Connor’s career, it contains many of the elements which are used in the majority of her short stories. The grandmother, a selfish and deceitful woman, is a recipient of a moment of grace, despite her many flaws and sins. A moment of grace is a revelation of truth. When the grandmother calls The Misfit her child and reaches out to touch him, the grandmother has a moment of grace that enabled her to see The Misfit as a suffering human being who she is obligated to love. The grandmother realizes that nothing will stop The Misfit from killing her but she reaches out to him despite this. The Misfit rejects her love and kills her anyway. This moment of grace is very important

Women are taught from a young age that marriage is the end all be all in happiness, in the short story “The Story of An Hour” by Kate Chopin and the drama “Poof!” by Lynn Nottage, we learn that it is not always the case. Mrs. Mallard from “The Story of an Hour” and Loureen from “Poof!” are different characteristically, story-wise, and time-wise, but share a similar plight. Two women tied down to men whom they no longer love and a life they no longer feel is theirs. Unlike widows in happy marriages Loureen and Mrs., Mallard discover newfound freedom in their respective husband’s deaths. Both stories explore stereotypical housewives who serve their husbands with un-stereotypical reactions to their husband’s deaths.

As Albert Einstein once remarked, “The only source of knowledge is experience”. Many characters in works of literature change significantly through suffering and overcoming. In The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain and Judith Ortiz Cofer’s “Abuela Invents the Zero”, the protagonists learn valuable lessons as their life unfolds. They go through events that aid their journey to a positive transformation, and begin thinking in different ways. After confronting and enduring problems, Tom and Constancia improve as people, and realize the importance of certain personalities and actions.

Life is filled with tragedies, whether they be subtle or monumental. In society we are constantly surrounded by hardships and situations that test our own individual character, forcing us to react in order to move forward. The main characters in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates each react differently to the various tragedies they encounter, revealing their true identities that lie behind the (facade?)/version of themselves they present to the world. These tragedies that factor into all three works are both presented and interpreted differently in each story: In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard rejoices

From this, hardships become prevalent, and when overcome, positive growth can occur. Additionally, transitions may lead to significant personal reward and change for an individual due to circumstantial acceptance. The Story of Tom Brennan displays these concepts explicitly, as Tom constantly has his value of relationships negatively hindered. However, once he overcomes his challenges brought forth by Daniels drink-driving incident, he is able to gain a ‘new start’ regarding relationships, as he is able to gain acceptance. Furthermore, Toms statement of “The Davin was my obstacle”, utilises the metaphorical obstacle of ‘Davin’, who becomes a hardship for Tom to overcome in order to ‘win’ Chrissy, and thus overcome his loneliness and reforms his values of relationships and love. Once Tom overcomes this obstacle, as evident it the truncated sentence of “Today became the day I kissed Chrissy Tulake”, positive growth occurs, as he becomes releases that he has purpose in life and that his negative past isn’t omnipresent in is everyday life. It is due to this positive transition, that Tom’s values of Relationships and love become reformed, as he becomes enlightened towards the positive effects of love, therefore leading to the paramount personal reward of gaining a relationship with Chrissy, alongside finally accepting his circumstances. Ultimately, it is

Shiftlet’s materialistic views of the world cause him to use people in order to obtain the things he wants. He meets a nice family that allows him to stay with them in exchange for fixing up little things about the house, and takes advantage of that because they have something that he wants. Pure greed is all one can use to describe Mr. Shiftlet. He marries a young, deaf girl so he can please her mother and she can give him the car. He leaves the deaf girl, now his wife, at a diner who cannot even take care of herself and drives away without looking back. Many Americans’ infatuation with materialistic items such as money, power, and in this case, a car, blinds them from knowing right from wrong and provokes them to do immoral things to get what they want. Mr. Shiftlet’s thoughtlessness causes him to make impulse decisions in this story and in time karma returns the favor, proving that one’s greed and selfishness leads to questionable

In this short story, acts of love, manipulation, dishonesty and compassion are highlighted. All characters in this story are manipulated by love, or have used love and trust to manipulate each other. It starts with Dick Owen, attempting to gain the love and affection of Ms. Charity Lomax, who declares that she will "never love," Dick. It is that declaration, that is the motivating factor in Dick Owen wanting to steal a slave into freedom, the slave being Grandison. However, the declaration made by Ms. Lomax, is manipulative because she wants him to prove his love by doing something dangerous, thus because of Mr. Owen feelings, he is easily manipulated into doing something noble for the sake of love.

The story's protagonist, Charlie Wales, is less a victim of bad luck than of circumstance, both socio-economic and personal. Charlie does not deserve Marion's continued denial of custody of his daughter, but the story is less about what Charlie does or does not deserve than how easily one's life can spin out of control due to unforeseen circumstance.

Crater and her daughter, lives. Lucynell, a girl who cannot talk and cannot hear properly, is taken care of by Mrs. Crater. Mrs. Crater persuades Tom Shiftlet to work for their farm and to repair their car and tells him that she is able to feed Tom but is unable to pay him with money. As some time passes, Tom fixes the car and does some significant amount of work. Mrs. Crater offers Tom to marry Lucynell and Tom agrees in the condition that he gets some money. Lucynell and Tom Shiftlet go on a honeymoon, and during their travel they visit a small restaurant where Tom abandons Lucynell. As he travels, feeling lonely, he picks up a hitchhiker. He talks to the boy about being good, but the boy curses and gets out of the car. After the boy gets out the car Tom starts to pray to god as he seems to drive to run away from someone or

In Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”, Louise Mallard is caught in a cold marriage and a constrictive house. The same goes for Sarah Penn in Mary Wilkins Freeman “The Revolt of “Mother.’” Despite the fact that both stories share the topics of imprisonment and control, physically and inwardly, the ladies in the stories have diverse responses to their circumstances. Sarah battles the confinements without holding back, taking her opportunity, while Mrs. Mallard adopts a motionless strategy and is just liberated through the death of Mr. Mallard.

Everybody has certain dreams and expectations that they wish to be fulfilled in their lives. However when the chance finally occurs to realize one's dream, it may in fact be so overwhelming that it goes straight over your heads, and when we finally realize what had happened it will be far too late. Such a realisation occurs to the main character in Miranda July’s short story “Roy Spivey”, when the protagonist suddenly realizes that her life could have easily been very different, if she had just made a single phone call to a man she met a long time ago.