The Life You Save May Be Your Own Short Story

Shiftlet is so desperate to escape the responsibility of marriage that he is willing to showcase his more materialistic side, in hopes of making himself undesirable or seemingly unfit for that type of commitment. Another example of symbolism in this story is the title itself. Although he does not realize it, Tom has stumbled across the old woman’s farm because fate brought him there for a specific reason; he is given the choice of helping these people and possibly “saving” their lives, or saving his own life (in his eyes, his freedom). “In Mrs. Crater and Lucynell, Shiftlet is presented with an opportunity for a real sacrifice, an opportunity to love unlovable people. Shiftlet refuses it in order to remain free and mobile...Shiftlet is trying to save his own life - while he is given the chance to at least improve Lucynell’s or Mrs. Crater’s.” (Ragen). Just from the very first description of Tom, the readers could sense he may not be the most reliable or trustworthy person, but they also secretly hope that, as the story moves along, he will become a better person and realize his full potential as a husband and caretaker. The symbolism of the story’s title immediately gives the audience an idea that something is at risk here, and while the obvious answer is Mrs. Crater’s and Lucynell’s lives, Tom believes the answer is his version of life: freedom.

Throughout the story, O’Connor places emphasis on signs and the decisions that lay in front of both characters. The characters, Mr. Shiftlet and Mrs. Crater each struggle with which path to take. At their first encounter, Flannery points out how Mr. Shiftlet knowingly sheds doubt on his character by introducing himself with different names (439). While considering they had just met, he introduced himself in an absurd manner to Mrs. Crater. After all, the name Shiftlet portrays a negative light. Albert J. Griffith a known author of criticism echoes the image that Flannery portrays through her comparison of Shiftlet’s figure and a “crooked cross” (web). Granted this description allows the reader to envision Shiftlet as a twisted individual. Just the mere sound of his name reminds one of a shady person. While Mr. Shiftlet scopes out the property, he notices a rusty vehicle protruding from the shed. This provides him with an ample motive to stick around. A writer of criticism, Tom Deignan, affirms that Shiftlet’s goal is to acquire the automobile so he can travel like many other Americans of the time period (web). Naturally, it is understandable that Mr. Shiftlet yearns to feel like every other American. Despite the fact that Shiftlet had many jobs, some were more prestigious than the others. He boasts about his carpentry skills and

I was raised on the South Side of Chicago. I pretty much raised myself due to the fact my father is an alcoholic and gang banger. My mother was always working trying to support my four siblings and I. My mother could not always keep up with bills so we would get evicted a couple times a year. This was the norm for me. Lucky, for me I was accept to a boarding school where I begged my mother to let me attend. I honestly believe that school saved my life especially when I would lose a friend to gun violence. Not only that, there is where I found Jesus. My family did not raise me to be a man of God, but I met a man who taught how to become one. He would go out his way to take me to church driving an extra hour for I can receive the word of God.

What brings you true joy? Is it family and friends, a religion, or some material item? In the short story, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” Flannery O’Connor gives examples of what can bring Tom Shiftlet joy, but what he chooses instead. A tramp, Shiftlet, wonders to the Crater house in search of a job. Mrs. Crater knows she needs her farm fixed up, so she allows Shiftlet to sleep in the car and will feed him if he fixes things at the house. Mrs. Crater tries to pawn her daughter, Lucynell, off on Shiftlet. Shiftlet is offered the car he fixed, a place to live, and $17.50 just to marry Lucynell. Shiftlet finally agrees and accepts the bribe. On their honeymoon, Shiftlet leaves Lucynell at a diner and moves

“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.

In Flannery O’Connor’s The Life You Save May Be Your Own, Mr. Shiftlet is a grotesque character with selfish motives. His name even hints at how he is shifty. Mr. Shiftlet is a deceiver and has no morals, which is ironic since he thinks that the world is becoming rotten and immoral. In the story, the author shows the readers that Mr. Shiftlet has no morals when he leaves Lucynell Crater, the daughter, in the diner alone and drives off. He also contradicts whatever he says. He told Mrs. Crater “don’t ever let any man take her away from you” yet he takes her away and leaves her at a roadside diner.

The story “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” is written by an American writer and essayist called Flannery O’Connor, who is an important figure for the American literature. The origin of the author is from the southern part of America and most of the time she uses the Southern Gothic style. Very often she relies on the grotesque characters, just like Mr. Shiftlet in this story. The author describes the protagonist as a humorous character, despite his tries to look as a smart guy, his southern accent and the things he says make no sense; qualities that turn him into the humorous character he is.

The story “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” is written by an American writer and essayist called Flannery O’Connor, who is an important figure for the American literature. The origin of the author is from the southern part of America and most of the time she uses the Southern Gothic style. Very often she relies on the grotesque characters, just like Mr. Shiftlet in this story. The author describes the protagonist as a humorous character, despite his tries to look as a smart guy, his southern accent and the things he says make no sense; qualities that turn him into the humorous character he is.

Many people are conned by conmen every day. In “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” it shows Mr. Shiftlet, a conman who deceived Mrs. Crater and her daughter, Lucynell. He was so charming and helpful that the two girls felt he was honest and kind. He took some of their money as well as their car. He also left Lucynell at The Hot Spot, a restaurant on the side of the road. In The Life You Save May Be Your Own, by Flannery O’Conner, it shows that Mr. Shiftlet was a deceiving and nasty con-man, based on his actions, thoughts, and effects on others.

For example, O’Connor uses his plea to God for help. After Shiftlet leaves Lucynell in the Hot Spot, he begins to feel depressed and guilty. He sees a hitchhiker and thinks that will help him. He is shocked when the hitchhiker says “my old woman is a fleabag and yours is a stinking polecat” (O’Connor 867), and then jumps out the car into a ditch. Soon a storm starts to develop and Mother Nature was turning on Shitftlet. Lucynell was at various times linked to both Nature and God (Deignan). He feels as if “that the rottenness of the world is about to engulf him” (O’Connor 867). Shitflet makes a plea to God for help, but his choice has already been made (Deignan). In choosing the car and mobility, greed and selfishness, Shitftlet has eluded nature and God’s grace. O’Connor portrays Shiftlet as selfish as she uses these

In each instance the selfish natures of the characters lead to conisquences that not only affect themselves but also the people around them. In “The Life That You Save May Be Your Own”, Mr. Shiftlet and Mrs. Crater contiuisly use young Lucynell as a pon in their game to gain and automobile and a son-in-law. Leaving the young girl to be abandoned by her new husband and left completely alone. While in “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, the grandmother’s selfish and deceitful tendencies lead to the death of herself and her family. All which could have been avoided if she had not tried and changed the family vacation from Florida to East Tennessee. When that did not work she continued to feel the need to make her family miserable and go against everything they asked her to do, including bringing the cat the caused the accident that lead to their

In this paper Flannery O’Connor wrote “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “A Life You Save May Be Your Own.” Many similarities can be found in these two famous short stories. One can infer based on these

"A hero is someone who does something for other people. He does something that other men don 't ' and can 't do." How does heroism play an essential role in the narrative?

“The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” by Flannery O’Connor, is a story of hope for humanity. To make way for hope O’Connor often uses tornado imagery in her writing as the cyclonic shape relating the smallness of humanity at the bottom of the shape to the grandness of Heaven represented by the wide top of the vortex. In “Break forth and wash the slime from this earth!” O’Connor’s Apocalyptic Tornadoes, Anne Elizabeth Carson, shows the recurrence of tornados in O’Connor’s work is more than coincidence. Carson states O’Connor checks the sins of pride, vanity, and cruelty with her tornadic version of the four horsemen of the apocalypse (19). The mighty cyclone imagery represents the reset of O’Connor’s characters allowing a second chance for

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