The Life You Save May Be Your Own Analysis

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The life you save may be your own The story “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” is written by an American writer and essayist called Flannery O’Connor, who is an important figure for the American literature. The origin of the author is from the southern part of America and largest part of the time she uses the Southern Gothic style. Very often she relies on the grotesque characters, just like Mr. Shiftlet in this story. The author describes the protagonist as a humorous character, despite his tries to look as a smart guy, his southern accent and the words he says make no sense; qualities that turn him into the humorous character he is.
Author’s humor is the eye catching point of the story for the readers. The title alone “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” indicates the author’s purpose of using symbolism and her southern jocularity. There is a sign in the story with the exact same phrase as the title of the story, which shows us that if the protagonist can save his own life by saving the life of his just married wife. Since he is a tramp and his only skill is to deceive people, he is such a fine liar that he believes himself and thinks that the world is a harmful and …show more content…

Shiftlet drives to the courthouse and gets married with Lucynell, while the Senior Lucynell is a witness. Mr. Shiftlet is not satisfied with the act of signing of papers, and he mentions again that if they cut his heart out they still wouldn’t know anything about him. He says that he was raised knowing that he should send his wife to a hotel and a nice dinner, but since he had no money to do that, he ‘milked’ the Senior Lucynell for seventeen, fifty dollars for a modest honeymoon. Mr. Shiftlet and the young Lucynell take a trip for their honeymoon and the Senior Lucynell felt pained saying goodbye to her daughter for the first time, but she knew or she thought she knew that they were going to come back in two

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