Many people wish to save the lives of other people, but so often we forget that we also have a life that needs protecting, and quite often, saving. However, the ways in which people go about guarding themselves aren’t always the healthiest for the people around them. Often humans scramble to aid their best interests and survival in ways which harm other people, even if they believe they are doing the other individual a favor. In Flannery O’Connor’s The Life You Save May Be Your Own¸ she explores the idea through her exaggerated characters about the ironies of life, and the struggle to protect your own interests and well-being at cost to others. The initial character, Mrs. Crater, is well-meaning toward her daughter and the world, but her …show more content…
Throughout the story, she is referred to as beautiful, innocent, and frequently as angelic. Mrs. Crater also refers to her as “a prize.” Lucynell seems grossly objectified in this story, and she has no idea of her powerlessness, and is therefore perfectly content. In Lucynell’s position, the title “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” is purely ironic, as well as iconic. Her appearance seems to play a large role in a few different places in the story. Her first truly physical description is: “She had long pink-gold hair and eyes as blue as a peacock’s neck.” During the story, Lucynell seems to have an invested interest in Mr. Shiftlet, who returns it with a bare-minimum sort of kindness, teaching her a word or two. Clear foreshadowing takes place with Lucynell’s fate when Mrs. Crater and Mr. Shiftlet begin to discuss marriage. After Mrs. Crater asks whether or not he’s married, and he replies that he doesn’t want trash but an innocent woman, Lucynell ends up falling out of her chair. “The daughter was leaning very far down, hanging her head almost between her knees watching him through a triangular door she had made in her overturned hair; and she suddenly fell in a heap on the floor and began to whimper.” Since Lucynell has no ability to save her own life or anyone else’s, much less control her fate at all, the title refers quite …show more content…
Shiftlet. Since he is both the antagonist as well as protagonist, aka, the main character of the story, the title seems to tie in with his storyline the best. Since the title is The Life You Save May Be Your Own, his self-centered character is involved clearly and directly with that title. Throughout his supposed care for Lucynell and his assistance in fixing up their house and property, he is yet namely concerned with the automobile, his eyes constantly drifting toward it, and often suggesting what he could do to fix it up. His final scene of leaving with their car wraps up both the irony of the title, as well as of the story. The three main concluding events demonstrate both Mr. Shiftlet’s character as well as the purpose of the title. In chronological order, the first event is when Shiftlet sees the signs which warn, “Drive carefully. The life you save may be your own.” This is both ironic as well as mildly foreboding for the character of Mr. Shiftlet. Secondly, his run-in with the boy he picks up for hitchhiking is ironic because Mr. Shiftlet feels guilty, and therefore wishes to redeem himself in some way by helping out a stranger. However, this goes awry when he picks up a conversation with the boy, and the some of the boy’s final words are, “You go to the devil!” Finally, a bold statement about his character is made at the end when Mr. Shiftlet prays, “Oh Lord!...Break forth and