Gothic and painfully funny.
Kind of pointless, but that's how you learn literature...

Lucynell is the daughter, not the old woman. Way to mess that up.

if you had bothered to reread you would know both the mother and daughter are named Lucynell

Thanks for noting that they're both named "Lucynell." A fact that I believe indicates something about the old woman.

the old woman and the daughter both have the same name, Lucynell Carter.

i just read the life you save may be your own for the second time. i read it along with all the others stories rather quickly the first time and so did not realy think about any of them too deeply. today though, i was imagining a nice southern life where i just lived in the middle of nowhere with someone i loved and had no responsibilites, and knew flannery o'connor would ease this desire, and so i searched for the story about the mother and the daughter and the man who came to live there.

o'connor's stories are interesting for me to find meaning in because i am an atheist, however, i find meaning in people's belief in god even if i don't have one myself.

that said, i think the overall motive of this story was exploring the differences between a body and a spirit. tom says, "the body, lady, is like a house: it don't go anywhere; but the spirit, lady, is like an automobile: always on the move, always..."

this is interesting because it seems as thought tom has quite a spirit, as he described his life as always being on the move. however, he steals a car in the end, and comments that he had never been able to afford one, insinuating that a spirit is something you buy. this relates back to tom claiming that man is made for more than money; it is a stark contradiction.

also, at the end, he starts bawling about leaving his mother. one can presume that he left his mother at his home, and according to his philosophy, this is alright because he still has his spirit. this refers back to his body i think. he left his home, his metaphorical "body", perhaps because his body was not complete.

i do not know everything i think about the story, but i think i gather some sort of hint of a need for both a home and a spirit--at least in this life. the spirit should be kept whole in order to live past the human life, but in this life, there should also be a home, and a body, that need to be cared for. with the damage of his body, perhaps he thought he didn't need the home, while later realizing that he still did?

i don't know. but i almost wish to be like tom. i want to travel like that. i hope i keep both arms though.

also, laws tend to cater to the physical body, because that is the only thing everyone can agree we have, which is why they did not satisfy tom.

I think that the reason why the old woman and her daughter have the same name is to indicate that Mrs Crater does not want her daughter to think for herself.

Although Shiftlet's behaviour is bad and selfish, it may perhaps have also been advantageous to all. In the end, Lucynell Jr is rid of both her selfish mother and uncaring husband. Shiftlet acted on his selfish desires, but may have also saved Lucynell from a terrible life (without intending to).

I had been wondering: Did Lucynell pretend to fall asleep? (to be rid of Shiftlet?) Who is the real manipulator? Who is the real victim?

One of the theses for the story: individual perceptions often define reality; one person's reality may be different from another's (different viewpoints).

why do they have the same name

i do not understand this short story one bit.