The Life You Save May Be Your Own Character Analysis

To Save a Life

(An analysis of the characters and the title of The Life you Save May Be Your Own)

What does it mean to save a life? How many ways can a life be saved? Do things such as wearing a seatbelt count as saving a life? There are so many ways that lives can be saved. Physically, doctors work every day to preserve the health and safeness of the general public. Often times, accidents take away lives and it is often wondered what could have happened to save that life. One of the most prominent places of death and despair are in stories. Edgar Allen Poe for example usually incorporates some form of death into his short stories and poems. Gothic stories are known for their grotesque characters and unrelenting scenes. One unique horror style

Flannery O’Connor presents and American horror with The Life you Save May Be Your Own. She follows typical grim setting with the grotesque characters with odd behavior and obsessions. One thing that sets this apart however is the fact that it is held in a typical American setting. There is a beautiful day, hardworking people, American towns and dialect. This aspect adds a whole other level of horror because it suddenly becomes relatable to the American public. In addition, the title provokes a unique life lesson as well as the contemplation of the value of life, friendship and relationships that are seen through the three main characters. In Flannery O’Connor’s short story titled The Life You Save May Be Your Own, all of the characters struggle to save their lives in different ways such as Mrs. Crater attempts to save her own life by giving away Lucynell, Lucynell trying to learn to speak and be a normal human

Crater, Lucynell, tries to save a life that ends up being her own when she attempts to learn to speak and act as a normal human being. It is not a surprise when it is revealed that Lucynell is not mentally sound as many gothic and horror stories contain a character like so. Although Mrs. Crater claims her to be normal in every other womanly aspect, it is clear that she cannot speak nor can she function fairly normally with her random outbursts of screaming and tears. One example of this is on page 1019 when the first words that come out of her mouth other than screams and sobs are those of her trying to imitate the chickens. In reality, the loss of Lucynell’s voice represents that she ultimately has not discretion over her own life. It signifies that she is unable to take control and make her own decisions. Whether she knows it or not, she evidently tries to make her mother’s life more bearable by helping with what she can do around the house. Ironically, Lucynell is caught in the middle of the battle over greed between mom and mister. What she does when she speaks just as an imitation of birds, is open up the door for her to intervene and make her own decisions about her life. Ulitmately, Lucynell could have held the power to rule over her own life, but as a chance taken by her mother to “save” her daughter, Lucynell never had someone like Mr. Shiftlet who tried to teach her