precise and charged worlds, where something is always about to happen, she writes like she’s sucking oxygen from a room. Ultimately her work is deeply psychological, but she was the first to say that was not her interest and on more than one occasion was concerned about her work’s misreading.2 The Lame Shall Enter First 3 is a fine example of her deeply conflicted morals and beliefs, seeing human nature and society as innately corrupted, with redemption as the only way to alleviate suffering. Using
Literary Analysis: The Lame Shall Enter First Nakia Chambliss Baptist College of Health Sciences Literary Analysis: The Lame Shall Enter First There are three main characters in this story: Sheppard, Norton and Rufus. Each character in this story is experiencing an emotional battle which they try to find healing but for some it will be too late. The narrator in the story is Sheppard. Sheppard
struggle between selflessness and selfishness. Flannery O'Connor captures this classic conflict between good and evil in Southern Grotesque fashion through her characters, the protagonist Sheppard and his foil, Rufus Johnson, in [comment2] "The Lame Shall Enter First".[comment3] Challenging the literal paradigm of light and darkness, O'Connor weaves together well crafted characterization, cryptic dialogue, and both
while others explored the idea of evil as an independent force or manifestation capable of answering for why innocent suffer. Both Flannery O’Connor and Oscar Wilde chose the latter consideration. In The Picture of Dorian Gray and in “The Lame Shall Enter First” outside influence(s) are held accountable for the misconducts of the given characters. For instance, Dorian is provoked, and arguably pressured into his sins by Lord Henry Watton who instills the belief in Dorian that youth is necessary in
to show God and the universe impact people’s lives in mysterious ways. Flannery O’Connor displays the theme of cosmology and explores the big picture of the universe in many other of her Southern Gothic stories such as, The Lame Shall Enter First. “The Lame Shall Enter First is even more disquieting than most of O'Connor's works, and her protagonist's maneuverings for redemption are thoroughly skewed” (Gentry 37). This short story is about a widower, Sheppard, whose main purpose in life is to raise
at salvation. In order to spread her religious ideas O’Connor injected moments of grace into stories such as: “ A Good Man Is Hard To Find”, “ Everything That Rises Must Converge”, “Good Country People”, “ The Displaced Person”, and “ The Lame Shall Enter First”. One of the most common ways that O'Connor's characters came to a moment of grace was through tragedy. By putting her characters through an intense gauntlet of fear or sadness, O’Connor made the sudden moment of grace much more believable
A religious reading of purity helps to situate the direction through which both The Picture of Dorian Grey and “The Lame Shall Enter First” choose to take in relation to sin. Heaven is in closest proximity to the individual in infancy. This is often when Christians are baptized, and so baptism cleanses the infants of original sin. Therefore, the aging process moves the individual further and further from the purity associated with baptism. In a similar way, interacting with Eve prior to the fall
Flannery O’Connor was an American author who often wrote about characters who face violent situations. These situations force the characters into a moment of crisis that awakens or alters their fate. Her short stories reflect her Roman Catholic faith and frequently discuss questions of morality and ethics. O’Connor’s Catholic upbringing influenced most of her short stories, often accumulating criticism because of her harsh portrayal of religion. O’Connor incorporates the experience of a moment of
Born in Hartford, Connecticut, in the year 1860, Charlotte Perkins Gilman experienced a painful and lonesome childhood (Gilman 526). While married to Charles Stetson, she suffered periods of depression until eventually, Stetson sent her to a doctor. Unfortunately for Gilman, the doctor told her that she was never allowed to be creative ever again. Months later, inspired by her taste of eventual ruin, Gilman wrote the short story “The Yellow Wallpaper,” which depicted the life of a woman prescribed
Enter the second stanza, and Owen has recreated the start of a gas attack “Gas! GAS! Quick boys!”(direct speech). The tone dramatically shifts to a completely chaotic nature, with the use of exclamation marks and short words that up the tempo. Notice that