How the Characters in “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” Change Their Own Fates
(Relating the Grotesque Characteristics of Those in O’Connor’s Short Story to Her Title) “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” is the title of Flannery O’Connor’s short story that is about characters who are living life as they wish it to be. In our textbook, we learn about “grotesque” characters, who are bizarre and twisted. After learning about these literary characters, one would assume that the following text would be a terrifying and/or gruesome plot to read with crazy characters. Once a reader begins reading, they wouldn’t assume that any of the introduced characters are twisted or dark. Later in the short story, one begins to see the decisions the characters are making to create the path for their own
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Crater’s actions can be connected to the title by the way she finally reacts to her company, Tom, and tries to send off her daughter, Lucynell. At the beginning of Flannery’s short story, the reader meets Lucynell Crater, the old woman of the story. At first, it can easily be assumed that the old woman is a nice, caring lady. This can be assumed by the way she quickly offers Tom Shiftlet a job that is paid by housing and food. Readers also believe that Mrs. Crater is a nice woman because the way she speaks of her daughter, Lucynell. Lucynell’s mother speaks of her in such kind and loving ways, trying to see the best parts of having to take care of her even though she is mentally challenged and deaf. About half-way through the story, the readers are able to see a pattern in Mrs. Crater’s attitude, trying to convince Tom to marry her daughter. Mrs. Crater is taking control of her own fate by successfully convincing Mr. Shiftlet to marry Lucynell because she no longer has to take care of her now that she is Tom’s responsibility. So relating her experiences of the story back to the title, she may have saved herself from living her life for someone else the rest of her own
In conclusion, the story describes that life changes, and nothing stays the same throughout it. It is in the hands of the people to decide that how they want their life to be. They can make it as beautiful as they want to and they can also make it worse than it has ever been
No matter how much he put her through, she kept fighting for her life. I was confused by this because, in my eyes her life was completely over. I did not see how she could ever live a functioning life after all of the things that she went through. I would have thought that this reality would have been a reason for her to give up and choose fiction. Fiction would have been the easy way out of the pain, loses, and suffering that she faces and would continue to face. Then I thought to myself that is what makes humans amazing. Being able to endure the challenges of life and keep going. Originally, I thought she was a fool to keep going then I realized that she was strong. If I was her I would have chosen my reality
The Wrights home was a poor, lonely type of home. The trees that surround the house grew in a sad state. The road that led up to the farm was an unoccupied path. Minnie Wright is the woman who lives on these lonely grounds. She is friendless and mostly keeps to herself. There is no one for her to talk to, her husband died recently, thus, she lives out her life as an outcast. In hindsight, Mrs. Hale, a woman who knows Mrs. Wright, explains to her friend, “'But I tell you what I do wish, Mrs. Peters I wish I had come over sometimes when she was here I wish– I had.’ I [too] wish I had come over to see Minnie sometimes.’” Since no one takes the time out of their busy schedules to visit Mrs. Wright, Minnie feels unwanted.
The theme of this novel is to look at the good you do in life and how it carries over after your death. The moral of the book is; "People can make changes in their lives whenever they really want to, even right up to the end."
We are born into this world with the realization that life is hard and that life is like a box of chocolates and it is hard to take it at face value. The majority of our time is spent trying to answer an endless stream of questions only to find the answers to be a complex path of even more questions. This film tells the story of Harold, a twenty year old lost in life and haunted by answerless questions. Harold is infatuated with death until he meets a good role model in Maude, an eighty year old woman that is obsessed with life and its avails. However, Maude does not answer all of Harold’s questions but she leads him to realize that there is a light at the end of everyone’s tunnel if you pursue it to utmost extremes by being whatever you want to be. Nevertheless, they are a highly unlikely match but they obviously help each other in many ways in the film.
Everyone is faced with trials and tribulations throughout their whole life. The saying “life is 10% what happens to you and 90% is your attitude towards it” was made famous by well known Christian extraordinaire, Charles R. Swindle. I strongly agree with this statement and try to live my life by it. In “The Help”, we spend some time getting to know two of the ladies in this story, Minny Jackson and Celia Rae Foote. Now these ladies could hardly be any more different, however they seem to be dependent on each other for various different reasons. As the story unfolds we learn more of their back story and who they really are as people. I strongly believe that in Kathryn Stockett’s “The Help”, Stockket uses three significant subplots to show their growth as dynamic characters.
In the short story “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”, a common theme shown by the author is selfishness. This Selfishness is conveyed through why Mr. Shiftlet moves onto the farm, how the Old Woman pawns Lucynell off on Shiftlet, and how Shiftlet tries to teach a young man a lesson. Through their perpetration of each other, they both end up harming Lucynell in the end.
Veronica Roth’s book demonstrates, in a few key ways, how great literature must include life lessons. The story teaches readers to never give up and to push on even in hard and rough times of struggle. Beatrice prior (Tris), the protagonist in the book, leaves her home to live with the danger seeking “Dauntless”. During the evil plot set by the antagonist, Beatrice’s mother gets fatally wounded by a gun shot. Tris watches this horrible moment unfold right next to her as her mother lifelessly crumbles to the ground. Beatrice loves her mother very much and doesn’t want to leave her body there, but knows she has to uncover the strength to move onwards. Not only was Beatrice brave after witnessing the death of her mother but her mother was also brave. Beatrice’s mother was also brave, having to die like that for her people, sacrificing herself for her daughter and family. Beatrice shows how she feels about her mother’s braver when she says,” My mother’s death was brave. I remember how calm she was, how determined. It isn’t just that she died for me; it is brave that she did it without announcing it, wi...
...ing identity to the point where it no longer exists. This identity can be lost through extreme devotion, new experience, and immense tragedy. Relationships with the most meaningful companions impact both main characters, Elie and Frederic. Due to the events they must encounter alongside loved ones, Elie and Frederic change completely, losing the identity that once existed. The most impactful events of any life are those that involve struggle and tragedy. Any tragic event that one encounters can significantly alter the purpose of life forever. Tragic events such as taking away what one may hold dearest, such as a loved one in the cases of Elie and Frederic. This type of loss can create a saddened, purposeless life in all humans.
Oates surprised many readers when she wrote from a man’s perspective, but she still wrote a great story. In What I Lived For her main focus was conflict. The reader was hooked from the beginning and kept interest as the scandalous story developed. These conflicts contributed to, not only the reader’s interest, but also the novel’s plot and theme.
In I Am The Messenger by Markus Zusak, the main character Ed is a nineteen-year-old cab driver in Australia who has never amounted to anything. One day, while with his three best friends, an event occurs that forever changes his life. While in a bank, they are held up at gunpoint. Ed ends up stopping the criminal and saving the day. Days later, as the bank robber’s trial is ending, he tells Ed that he is “a dead man… [And to] [r]emember it every day when [he] look[s] in the mirror” (Zusak 38). This overlooked statement by the reader comes back in the end of the novel to reveal an important message that “everyone can live beyond what they’re capable of” (535). Before attending the trial though, Ed begins to receive playing cards with addresses, names, times, and movie titles on them that require him to complete tasks, which challenge him in more ways than he could ever imagine. In the short story “Good People” by David Foster Wallace, the two characters, Lane and Sheri, are faced with a situation that changes their lives as well; Sheri is pregnant with Lane’s baby. Even though Lane’s and Sheri’s situation is a little different than that of Ed’s, they relate greatly as all the characters are forced to make decisions that can alter the rest of their lives. In the novel, morality is used to accomplish self-discovery and growth of Ed’s personality by pushing his boundaries, and in the short story “Good People” by David Foster Wallace, morality is used to accomplish growth and the realization of consequences of one’s actions by placing the young couple in a faith questioning situation no adolescent wants to face.
Miss Lottie, the woman that she had once believed was different from those she thought of as normal, was really a person aged from difficult times. Lizabeth’s actions, although at the time had brought her small joy and an antidote to her boredom, had effected Miss Lottie by taking away the last bit of hope and care put into the flowers. Her father was no longer the center and the support of her family, but just a person who could no longer work and earn like he had once done. Lizabeth had not noticed the change and the depression in her father, as a result of childhood blinding her to the troubles of the rest of the world. Lizabeth’s confusing emotions spurred her to continue the destruction of the marigolds, as her brother, who did not understand her actions, sat confused and upset. He was not experiencing the rite of passage that his sister was faced with. As Lizabeth is sitting in the middle of the mess she made in Miss Lottie's garden, “...that was the moment when childhood faded and adulthood began.” Lizabeth's actions as child had opened her eyes as an adult and “... gazed on a reality that is hidden from childhood.”
As Winfield 's wife, Amanda is worthy of love and respect. Amanda is a southern lady, when she was young, she had an attractive appearance and graceful in manner, and her families were also quite rich. These favorable conditions made her the admiration of many men. Still, her final choice was a poor boy. She did not hesitate and bravely to choose her own love. Though her marriage was not as good as she had imagined the happiness of life, and the husband, Winfield meager income also drinking heavily, finally abandoned Amanda and two young children, but she still remembered and loved her husband. Her husband 's weakness did not make Amanda fall down; instead, she was brave enough to support the family, raising and educating of their two young children. Daughter Laura was a disability to close her fantasy world, and she was collection of a pile of glass small animals as partners. Amanda knew Laura sensitive, fragile, she was always in the care and encourages her daughter. Because of her shortcomings, Laura sometimes frustrated and Amanda immediately replied that "I 've told you never, never to use that word. Why, you 're not crippled, you just have a little defect". Amanda for the care of the children was more reflected a mother 's strong from the play that Amanda paid money to send Laura to typing school. She hoped daughter have a better future and married a good man to take care of the family, and encouraged her daughter, prompting her to go out of the glass menagerie to experience her real life, but Amanda placed more expectations for his son Tom because her husband left home, Tom is the only man and the mainstay of the family. She wanted Tom to realize that is a kind of family responsibility, also is a kind of essential social
It subtly exposes the tragedies that people with instinct of self-interest could control their own fate in the unpredictable future, while others who paralyzed in past success and unrealistic fantasies could not. It also shows how those who were unable to update themselves from 1.0 finally became the prey of those 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and so on. It is a story about self-interest is the winner.
...t that at times do not fit crimes as the Misfit in the story says it best when he states “Because I can’t make all I done wrong fit all I gone through punishment” (O'Connor 238-248). Flannery O’Connor sends a chilling message capturing the core of civilization in just a few lines the Misfit in the story is none other than every other college student trying to find himself, or someone taking the wrong turn somewhere in life. However, the truth is we all have a little bit of every character in us even the Misfit if not the talent to dream. It is the sympathy towards the value of life as he states “it’s no real pleasure in life” (O'Connor 238-248).