“The Life You Save May Be Your Own” Theme Analysis
In this paper “The Life You Save May Be Your Own theme analysis", we will discussed this story and its significance. Flannery O’Connor is well known for her southern gothic literature, in which her stories often included grotesque characters whom have an extreme obsession which twists their moral view on life. In addition, her characters were often people who were socially odd, sick, mentally challenged and corrupt. O’Connor’s “The Life You Save May be Your Own,” shows how deceitful people will be in order to obtain their extreme obsession.
The main character, Mr. Shiftlet represents the corruption and deceit people commit to get their obsession. From the beginning of the story, the reader can quickly pick up that Mr. Shiftlet is a very sly and shifty tramp that no one should deal with. In the beginning of the story, Mrs. Crater asks him for his name and where he is from, and he replies, “Lady, nowadays, people’ll do anything anyways. I can tell you my name is Tom T. Shiftlet and I come from Tarwater, Tennessee, but you never have seen me before, how you know I ain’t lying? How you know I ain’t Aaron Sparks,…from Singleberry, Georgia, or… George Speeds,…from Lucy, Alabama, or Thompson Bright from Toolafalls, Mississippi”? This quote from the story reveals that Mr. Shiftlet is bad news through indirect characterization. He works his way around from answering any questions that would give away his identity. From this we can assume that he is evil and that he should not be trusted. Mr. Shiftlet is a grotesque character because his moral conscience is twisted, due to an extreme obsession. He takes advantage of an old lady and her daughter, so he can steal their car for himself. He abandons his new wife who is mentally disabled, mute, and deaf, alone at a road side diner, while he drives away with the car and money. Any ordinary person who saw this happen would realize that this is a terrible thing to do, since Mr. Shiftlet is so obsessed with getting the car, he does not realize what a terrible thing he has done. Along the way he picks up a hitchhiker and preaches to him the need of a good mother, the boy then shouts, “You go to the devil!” and then jumps from the car. Mr. Shiftlet should have never picked up the hitchhiker because he stole a car, abandoned an innocent girl, and took advantage of an old woman, who was a good mother. Mr. Shiftlet is so obsessed with obtaining the car that he does a good deed by picking up a hitch hiker, but does not realize his devilish behavior leading up to it. He prays to the Lord to wash the slime from the earth. Then it starts to rain. The rain represents the washing of the slime being Mr. Shiftlet in the car. The rain tells the reader that justice and punishment are soon to come to Mr. Shiftlet. Mr. Shiftlet is successful in his quest of obtaining the car, but his actions that enabled his successful journey harm two innocent people in the end. As a character, Mr. Shiftlet symbolizes a deceitful mad man crazy for his obsession.
Mrs. Crater represents someone who gets victimized through deception. Just like Mr. Shiftlet, Mrs. Crater has an obsession, which is to get Lucynell married off, but unlike Mr. Shiftlet, Mrs. Crater’s action is not selfish. Young Lucynell is described to be mentally disabled through her immature actions and by being deaf and mute. Mrs. Crater’s desire to marry off Lucynell is out of love, so that she will be cared for in her later years. The reader can see Mrs. Crater’s intentions are good. “You want you an innocent woman don’t you?... You don’t want none of this trash… One that can’t sass you back or use foul language. That’s the kind for you to have, Right there, and she pointed to Lucynell”. This shows how Mrs. Crater thinks Mr. Shiftlet is a good man. Mr. Shiftlet fixes her property and teaches young Lucynell her first word. The only reason Mr. Shiftlet does this is because he is driven by the obsession of the car. Mr. Shiftlet’s obsession leads him to do some little good, but then drives him to do the unthinkable, abandoning an innocent and helpless girl, stealing a car, and taking advantage of an old lady. Mrs. Crater’s obsession to marry off Lucynell is driven to an extreme. Mrs. Crater is so obsessed in doing a good deed for her daughter, that she does not realize the flying red flags warning danger. Mrs. Crater’s good intentions led her to be deceived when her intention grew into an obsession.
Young Lucynell represents an innocent person caught and tricked by the deception of an evil person. Young Lucynell was affected by her mother’s good intentions which turned to an obsession changing Mrs. Crater’s perception of people. Mrs. Crater’s good intentions blocked her from common reality, which puts Lucynell’s life in jeopardy. Lucynell was born with a defect in which she could not talk and hear. Through the story, O’Connor hints that Lucynell has even more problems by her immature actions. “Lucynell was sitting on a chicken crate, stamping her feet and screaming, ‘Burrddtt! Bddurrddttt’”! From this excerpt, O’Connor shows through direct and indirect characterization that Lucynell has a big disability. Young Lucynell is just as innocent as an infant. Lucynell’s innocence represents all innocent people caught in the midst of deceitful people. The person that was hurt the most through Mr. Shiftlet’s obsession was Lucynell, abandoned and left hopeless.
To end up, the story, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” shows how far a person will go to deceive people in order to attain their obsession. From the beginning Mr. Shiftlet liked the car. He became so obsessed that his obsession took control of him, which led him to do evil things. This shows how obsession can blind people.
