preview

The Lame Shall Enter First Analysis

Better Essays

Amanda Pina Professor Focht-Hansen English 1302 20 July 2015 Incompleteness in “The Lame Shall Enter First” Thesis: In “The Lame Shall Enter First,” Flannery O’Connor illustrates the theme of incompleteness in human nature when dealing with a major loss. From the beginning of the story O’ Connor lets the reader know that Sheppard’s wife has passed; the household has from then had no major feminine presence. This lack of feminine presence leads the family to have little to no communication support for one another, and sense of connection for other family members. With this important part of the society unit not including these important elements, family members experience a greater sense of loss. Family is the base from which humans learn and establish their first relationships with other humans like John Martens states, “families, the building block of society then and now is, the place where each of us belongs”( 1). Martens stresses the importance of family to humans as it is there at “home” where humans should feel …show more content…

The shades were down and the air was close with a faint scent of perfume in it. There was a wide antique bed and a mammoth dresser whose mirror glinted in the half-light” (455). The room is a place of the past similar to a museum; it is a place where what is left of something or someone is put up nicely to be viewed, but not touched. The words “antique bed” and “mammoth” are connected to the past. The antique bad is especially important item in the room as it alludes to the special emotional and physical connection that Sheppard and his wife used to have. O’ Connor also suggests the family’s incompleteness by utilizing the words “semi-darkness” and “half-light.” Applying this particular diction, O’Connor describes a significant setting in the

Get Access