Analysis of Characters in Flannery O’Connor’s “the Life You Save May Be Your Own”

Laura Furdge Dr. McDaniels ENG 495 February 5, 2013 Analysis of Characters in Flannery OConnors The Life You fork out whitethorn Be Your Own The Life You Save May Be Your Own is a short story written by the American author Flannery OConnor. It is sensation of ten stories in her short story collection c all(prenominal)ed A nifty Man Is Hard to Find. In this S forbiddenhern Gothic tale, we are introduced to a mother and her daughter as they sit on a porch in an impoverished country town. A valet de chambre, Mr. Shiftlet, crosses their path and after a deed of conversation is offered a place to sleep and food to eat in exc adheree for fixing things round the house.He nonetheless sotually is offered the daughters hand in marriage, and accepts with the reward of make itting a railcar. The two attach and the mother provides funds for them to go on a weekend h adeptymoon. But, in an unexpected ferment of events, at least 100 miles away from her home, Mr. Shiftlet leaves the gir l sleeping and abandon at the counter of a breakfast restaurant. Feeling genuinely guilty, he searches for a hitchhiker to pick up in an effort to right his ruin and finds a little boy that had respectable run away from home.Mr Shiftlet convinces the child to go back home to his mother and the story ends with him driving to Mobile. Flannery OConnor does much than tell a humorous Gothic story with this piece of feed she uses the lives of Lucynell, Lucynell Jr, and Mr Shiftlet to illustrate the human condition and how we often put our morals to the lieu for our own selfish gain. Lucynell Crater is the retarded daughter of Mrs. Crater.She has a young mind and is unable to speak. She is a simple spirit and lacks comprehension of her surroundings. She has commodious pink-g old hair and eyes as blue as a peacocks bonk(OConnor). She was almost thirty but could pass for 15 or 16 be run of her innocence. She is almost entirely silent the whole story, yet she plays a major role in the events that take place throughout the story. Lucynell was a signalize player in this story because she was Mrs. Craters only opportunity to get a son-in-law, and Mr. Shiftlets best opportunity to get a car. The story revolves around Mrs. Craters attempts to get Mr. Shiftlet to sine qua non to link up Lucynell.She lies just about Lucynells age, brags on how she is able to do housework, and even makes sure that he knows she is simple. All the while, Lucynell is totally oblivious to the things that are winning place around her. Lucynell is used as a symbol in this story she is a representation of the rejected salvation for Mr. Shiftlet. Mr. Shiftlet (Shiftlet suggesting that he is a sketchy character or that he will eventually change) is straightway recognized as a tramp by Mrs. Crater as he walks up the road.His conversation leads the reader to believe that he is energy but a con-man. OConnor makes it apparent in Mr. Shiftlets speech that he knows incisively what to say in disposition to get what he wants. From the time he approached their porch, he was eying their car. He spoke as if he cherished to hang around because he wanted to be able to share their hitch of the sunset every morning, but it is apparent that he wants the car for himself in order to be free. Tom Shiftlets inability to be truthful and innocent about his intent creates a situation for him that could impart been avoided.He hangs around the house, fixing things and even teaching Lucynell to speak. Because he is a poor modify friendless drifting man(OConnor) according to Mrs. Crater, and therefore there is no place in the world for such a man as he, it was assumed that he would marry her daughter, fulfilling her hopelessness for a son-in-law, and live out the rest of his life with the Craters. Because he went along with the assumption, he is in essence, forced to marry Lucynell and this leads to him abandoning her at the diner because he really did not want what he agreed to .Mrs. Lucynell Crater (the name Crater suggesting an empty berth or hole, indicating that she is in want/need of something) is a toothless old widow. Her husband died 15 years ago, leaving her to take care of Lucynell and the do work by herself for the rest of her life. It makes sense that she would be so welcoming and trust of a complete stranger. OConnor connects the Craters lack of a man in the mansion to immobility and deterioration and Shiftlet presents a solution to both problems(Arant). Though invalid by the lack of one arm, Mrs.Crater believes Mr Shiftlet will be a great help around the house and decides to provide food and a place to sleep for him in counterchange for his services. As the story progresses, Mrs. Craters desperation for a son-in-law begins to show more clearly in her conversations with Mr. Shiftlet. She begins to use Lucynell as a bargaining tool as she offers him the car in exchange for marrying her daughter. She loses sight of the fact that Lucynell is not competent enough to enter into a marriage because her focus is gaining a son-in-law that could take care of the farm.This is a very immoral decision because her duty as a mother is low gear and most importantly to take care of and protect her child. Her decision to marry Lucynell off also speaks to the fact that she either does not understand the inviolable nature of marriage or does not care at all about it. As stated earlier, Mrs. Crater is well aware of Mr. Shiftlets lust to obtain the vehicle that had been sitting up for years so she uses it to do a marriage between him and Lucynell. Mr. Shiftlet and Mrs Crater agree that he would marry her and take her out on a weekend honeymoon.OConnor makes it apparent that innocent Lucynell does not know what has taken place because she falls asleep on what ought to be the happiest day of her life. Lucynell was the saving grace for both Mr. Shiftlet and Mrs. Crater, but instead, just as the world rejects Christs salvation, she was r ejected and these two characters are damned to a life of loneliness and guilt. Lucynell was Mrs. Craters life before Mr. Shiftlet came along, and the fact that she was crying at the thought of Lucynell being gone for only two days proves that she is unimpeachably going to suffer more if she never returns.As far as Mr. Shiftlet is concerned, Mrs. Crater trusted him with Lucynell, telling him I wouldnt let no man have her but you because I seen you would do right. (OConnor) and he betrayed her trust. He cast away his salvation, he is on the run from grace he longed for a car so that he could run faster and farther(Rogers). He realizes that his actions were horrendous and even after trying to redeem himself by picking up a hitchhiker he cries out to the Lord, Break forth and wash the grime from this earth and the story ends with him attempting to outrun the approaching storm.A closer whole tone at the characters in this story gives an accurate example of the human condition. The characters in most Southern Gothic stories are often decrepit, unsavory, poor and/or affablely ill. The authors use the extremities of the people in their stories to expose our internal mental condition as human beings. The purpose in doing so is to cause the reader to take a moment and examine their own lives. It makes one stop and think about how they may have acted in the situations presented in the stories and it gives them insight as to what could result from it.On the surface, the automobile and wedding in The Life You Save May Be Your Own seem to return little to no importance. But from the beginning, it is clear that Mrs. Crater only wanted to keep Mr. Shiftlet around for the potential services that he could provide. He could have been her live-in carpenter as well as a husband for her daughter. At this point her daughter becomes an object instead of a human being. unconstipated though Mr. Shiftlet pretends to be unconcerned with the money, he winds up asking about the ca r and even wants money for the wedding.Eventually, just like Mrs. Crater, he abandons Lucynell for the tenet that a car would fulfill his needs. Through the approach of Mr. Shiftlet and Mrs. Crater in relation to their desire to gain the things they thought they needed in order to be happy, Flannery OConnor reveals a world in which money or hooey things have become more important than people or even spiritual peace. Works CitedArant, Alison. A Moral Intelligence Mental disability and Eugenic Resistance in Weltys Lily Daw and the Three Ladies and OConnors The Life You Save May Be Your Own. Southern Literary Journal 44. 2 (2012) 69-87. academician Search Premier. Web 5 Feb 2013 Baym, Nina, Mary Loffelholz.Flannery OConnors The Life You Save May Be Your Own. The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 7th ed. Vol. D. New York W. W. Norton Co. 2007. 2522-2529. Print.Rogers, Jonathan. Flannery OConnor Summer Reading Club, week 2 The Life You Save May Be Your Own. Jonathan-Rogers. com. 11 June 2012. WordPress. Web. 4 Feb 2013. .