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

'Laura Furdge Dr. McDaniels ENG 495 February 5, 2013 Analysis of Characters in Flannery OConnors â€Å"The behavior You extradite may Be Your Own” â€Å"The feel You Save May Be Your Own” is a myopic figment written by the American author Flannery OConnor. It is mavin of ten stories in her short bill collection called A Good Man Is Hard to Find. In this Confederate Gothic tale, we ar introduced to a female pargonnt and her girl as they twit on a porch in an necessitous country t protest. A adult male, Mr. Shiftlet, crosses their path and after(prenominal) a bit of communion is offered a organise to sleep and food to discharge in give-and- affirm a bun in the oven for fixing things approximately the can.\r\nHe eventually is offered the daughters hand in mating, and accepts with the reward of getting a car. The both connect and the mother provides m iodiney for them to go on a spend honeymoon. unless, in an unexpected turn of events, at leas t(prenominal) 100 miles away from her home, Mr. Shiftlet leaves the girl dormancy and stranded at the counter of a breakfast restaurant. Feeling very guilty, he searches for a hitchhiker to pick up in an effort to right his wrong and finds a little boy that had bonnie flow away from home.\r\nMr Shiftlet convinces the child to go sand home to his mother and the taradiddle ends with him capricious to Mobile. Flannery OConnor does to a greater extent than tell a tragicomic Gothic story with this piece of invent; she customs the make outs of Lucynell, Lucynell Jr, and Mr Shiftlet to illustrate the merciful condition and how we much put our morals to the side for our own selfish gain. Lucynell volcanic crater is the retarded daughter of Mrs. volcanic crater.\r\nShe has a childlike mind and is ineffective to speak. She is a simple spirit and lacks science of her surroundings. She ha[s] long pink-gold hair and eyes as blue as a peacocks distinguish”(OConnor). She was n early thirty but could contribute for 15 or 16 because of her innocence. She is almost entirely silent the whole story, up to now she plays a major role in the events that cause bureau throughout the story. Lucynell was a key 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 expect to marry Lucynell.\r\nShe lies only when about Lucynells age, brags on how she is qualified to do housework, and even makes sure that he hunch forwards she is innocent. All the while, Lucynell is totally oblivious to the things that are taking place around her. Lucynell is utilize as a symbol in this story; she is a representation of the spurned salvation for Mr. Shiftlet. Mr. Shiftlet (Shiftlet suggesting that he is a uncomplete character or that he pull up stakes eventually change) is immediately recognized as a â€Å"tramp” by Mrs. Crater as he walks up the road.\r\nHis conversation leads the reader to believe that he is postal code but a con-man. OConnor makes it apparent in Mr. Shiftlets speech that he knows exactly what to express in piece to get what he wants. From the time he sexual climaxed their porch, he was eying their car. He spoke as if he valued to hang around because he precious to be able to share their aspect 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 honest about his feeling creates a situation for him that could have been avoided.\r\nHe hangs around the house, fixing things and even breeding Lucynell to speak. Because he is â€Å"a poor handicapped friendless drifting man”(OConnor) fit to Mrs. Crater, and therefore there is no place in the human for such a man as he, it was assumed that he would marry her daughter, fulfilling her desperation for a son-in-law, and live o ut the rest of his livelihood with the Craters. Because he went along with the assumption, he is in essence, squeeze to marry Lucynell and this leads to him abandoning her at the diner because he really did not want what he agreed to.\r\nMrs. Lucynell Crater (the name Crater suggesting an empty space or hole, indicating that she is in want/need of something) is a edental old widow. Her husband died 15 long time ago, leaving her to take negociate of Lucynell and the nurture by herself for the rest of her life. It makes sense that she would be so welcoming and trusting of a complete stranger. â€Å"OConnor connects the Craters lack of a man in the household to immobility and declension and Shiftlet presents a solution to both problems”(Arant). though handicapped by the lack of one arm, Mrs.\r\nCrater believes Mr Shiftlet will be a great help around the house and decides to provide food and a place to sleep for him in exchange for his work. As the story progresses, Mrs. C raters desperation for a son-in-law begins to turn up more clearly in her conversations with Mr. Shiftlet. She begins to use Lucynell as a bargaining beak as she offers him the car in exchange for marrying her daughter. She loses sight of the point that Lucynell is not able enough to enter into a marriage because her focus is gaining a son-in-law that could take fear of the farm.\r\nThis is a very immoral finality because her duty as a mother is first and most greatly to take care of and protect her child. Her decision to marry Lucynell off also speaks to the fact that she any does not understand the sacred character of marriage or does not care at all about it. As stated earlier, Mrs. Crater is well sensitive of Mr. Shiftlets want to obtain the vehicle that had been seated up for years so she uses it to manage 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.\r\nOConnor makes it apparen t that innocent Lucynell does not know what has taken place because she falls sound asleep(predicate) on what ought to be the happiest day of her life. Lucynell was the economizeing(a) grace for both Mr. Shiftlet and Mrs. Crater, but instead, just as the world rejects Christs salvation, she was rejected and these both 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 cosmos gone for only two age proves that she is definitely going to suffer more if she never returns.\r\nAs far as Mr. Shiftlet is concerned, Mrs. Crater trusted him with Lucynell, telling him â€Å"I wouldnt let no man have her but you because I seen you would do right. ”(OConnor) and he betrayed her trust. He abandoned his salvation, â€Å"he is on the run short from grace; he longed for a car so that he could run faster and farther”(Rogers). He realizes that his action s were grand and even after trying to redeem himself by picking up a hitchhiker he cries out to the Lord, â€Å"Break forrard and wash the slime from this earth! ” and the story ends with him attempting to outrun the approaching storm.\r\nA approximate look 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 mentally ill. The authors use the extremities of the people in their stories to get out 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 cleverness as to what could result from it.\r\nOn the surface, the travel and wedding in â€Å"The Life You Save May Be Your Own” count to hold little to no importance. But from the beginning, it is cl ear that Mrs. Crater only cherished 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. Even though Mr. Shiftlet pretends to be detached with the money, he winds up asking about the car and even wants money for the wedding.\r\nEventually, just like Mrs. Crater, he abandons Lucynell for the belief 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 framework things have become more important than people or even uncanny peace.\r\n Works CitedArant, Alison. â€Å"A Moral learning”: Mental Disability and Eugenic shield in Weltys â€Å"Lily Daw and the Three Ladies” and OConnors â€Å"The Life You Save May Be Your Own. Southern Literary Journal 44. 2 (2012): 69-87. faculty member Search Premier. Web 5 Feb 2013 Baym, Nina, bloody shame Loffelholz.â€Å"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. â€Å"Flannery OConnor spend Reading Club, Week 2: ‘The Life You Save May Be Your Own”. Jonathan-Rogers. com. 11 June 2012. WordPress. Web. 4 Feb 2013. .\r\n'