Shiftlet is physically broken. Although he has skills, he is a carpenter and he fixes Lucynell’s car later in the story, he is a one-armed man, who early on in the story stretches out both arms in a way that signals the redemptive nature of where the story is headed: "He swung out both his whole and his short arm up slowly so that they indicated an expanse of sky and his figure formed a crooked cross." But the image is lost on Lucynell and her daughter:
“The old woman watched him with her arms folded across her chest as if she were the owner of the sun, and the daughter watched, her head thrust forward and her fat helpless hands hanging at the wrists.”
The story goes on with Shiftlet making references to deep things that disturb his thinking and that Lucynell thinks are plain foolish. For example, Shiftlet talks about a surgeon in Atlanta who had “taken a knife and cut the human heart” and “studied it like a day-old chicken.” Shiftlet is correct in concluding that the motives of the heart are beyond science. And he makes a reference to European monks who sleep in coffins, a reference O’Connor borrows from a James Joyce story, “The Dead,” but again the reference is lost on Lucynell who responds that “they wasn’t as advanced as we are.”
Later Lucynell has Shiftlet marry her daughter in a civil ceremony. But, although it’s "legal," it’s not satisfying to Shiftlet even though it “satisfies the law” as Lucynell tells him. Shiftlet responds that “it’s the law that doesn’t satisfy” him – which expresses a deeper spiritual need that he is currently not aware of.
There’s so much more to the story that I won’t cover here. Shiftlet immediately abandons his legally new wife in a café called The Hot Spot – where he feels more uncomfortable, and later he picks up a boy (note: good deed to cover up guilt and sin), a hitchhiker, who quickly recognizes Shiftlet as a moral liar and calls Shiftlet’s bluff on his waxing and jumps out of Shiftlet's car in disgust. (Hint: The boy becomes the vehicle of grace in the story.)
I hope that you’ll read it. If so, let me know how you respond to The Life You Save May Be Your Own.
Article comments
1 - Rufina
Gothic and painfully funny.
Kind of pointless, but that's how you learn literature...
2 - Steve
Lucynell is the daughter, not the old woman. Way to mess that up.
3 - TJ
if you had bothered to reread you would know both the mother and daughter are named Lucynell
4 - Roland Allen
Thanks for noting that they're both named "Lucynell." A fact that I believe indicates something about the old woman.
5 - mac
the old woman and the daughter both have the same name, Lucynell Carter.
6 - Priscilla
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.
7 - Priscilla
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.
8 - Zarrin
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).
9 - george
why do they have the same name
10 - Louis
i do not understand this short story one bit.
11 - Ian
I had to think this one over with my mom but I think I've got it. Maybe. For starters, think of Lucynell (daughter) as a symbol for good. The mother makes flamboiant remarks to her never letting someone take her daughter, a roundabout way of attracting Tom to her. Tom talks of how he can fix up her car, a roundabout way for him to steal a ride to Mobile. In the end, both seem to get their wish: The mother marries off her daughter and Tom steals the car. However, they have both truly failed, because in all their petty desires, they abandoned good and kindness.