Flannery O'Connor the Life You Term Paper

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document

Total Length: 821 words ( 3 double-spaced pages)

Total Sources: 1

Page 1 of 3

Dark thunderclouds now literally crowd around him, the worst "crouched behind the car" ("The Life You Save May be Your Own"). Mr. Shiftlet, his almost-empty shirtsleeve flapping outside the driver's window, begins driving into a storm: a stray lone wolf outside Noah's Ark. As the storm is about to "Break forth and wash the slime from this earth" (O'Connor) Mr. Shiftlet seems, especially now, a demon of deceit. But there is also more to him. O'Connor states early in the story, that against "an expanse of sky... his figure formed a crooked cross" [emphasis added]. A "crooked cross" is still a cross, if imperfect. Mr. Shiftlet says later:

lemme tell you something. There's one of these doctors in Atlanta that's taken knife and cut the human heart -- the human heart,... out of a man's chest and held it in his hand," "and studied it like it was a day-old chicken, and lady," he don't know no more about it than you or me (O'Connor, "The Life

You Save May be Your Own")

Here he is arguably a prophet seeing clearly the best and the worst human capacities, entwined. For all his frothy declarations about purity, he is most impure.

Stuck Writing Your "Flannery O'Connor the Life You" Term Paper?

View All Our Example Flannery O'Connor the Life You Term Paper

Have A Custom Example Essay Written

His foil (he thinks), Lucynell the elder, is no better. He sees in his/her own opportunism.

Mr. Shiftlet gets something: a car, but it leaves his heart empty. His next stop, as the story ends, is Mobile, an Alabama destination Flannery O'Connor does not select by accident. He will keep moving, as always. The older Lucynell gets her house repaired (if not a permanent son-in-law). She would not have, had Mr. Shiftlet not arrived. The younger Lucynell is delivered to where her angelic sleepy appearance is sublimely beautiful to a man. Her "Burrttddt" gets wings. In the end, the various desires of everyone's hearts are imperfectly satisfied. Mr. Shiftlet says early on that even a skilled cardiac surgeon cutting the human heart into pieces for study "don't know no more about it than you or me" (O'Connor, "The Life You Save May be Your Own"). The less literal truth of that is now more apparent. With his premeditation and deceit Mr. Shiftlet shows a demonic side. Yet he is also a prophet, accurately portending the flawed results of his and strangers' heartfelt strivings.

Works.....

Show More ⇣

     Open the full completed essay and source list


OR

     Order a one-of-a-kind custom essay on this topic


sample essay writing service

Cite This Resource:

Latest APA Format (6th edition)

Copy Reference
"Flannery O'Connor The Life You" (2007, March 26) Retrieved June 4, 2026, from
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/flannery-o-connor-life-39082

Latest MLA Format (8th edition)

Copy Reference
"Flannery O'Connor The Life You" 26 March 2007. Web.4 June. 2026. <
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/flannery-o-connor-life-39082>

Latest Chicago Format (16th edition)

Copy Reference
"Flannery O'Connor The Life You", 26 March 2007, Accessed.4 June. 2026,
https://www.aceyourpaper.com/essays/flannery-o-connor-life-39082
   

Open, View, and/or
Download this Document
order custom essay example