Summary Of The Lame Shall Enter First By Flannery O Connor

Although Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “The Lame Shall Enter First,” creates a wicked atmosphere through its plot and characters, it can easily be compared to “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin with its dangerous environment within the city of Harlem. The evil shown in both of these stories are reflected through the effects of family neglect, the main characters’ persistence for change and the outcomes, and the secondary characters that are primary source of darkness. Family neglect and the different effects it can have on people are shown within O’Connor’s and Baldwin’s short stories. O’Connor shows this through the opposing circumstances it had on Sheppard and Norton. After his wife’s death, Sheppard took up a life of serving for the needy

Sonny becomes addicted to heroin due to Sonny’s friend that the narrator meets. “‘When I saw the papers this morning, the first thing I asked myself was if I had anything to do with it. I felt sort of responsible” (par. 26). From this, I can gather that Sonny’s friend is the one literally responsible for his addiction to heroin. Sonny’s friend also says, “‘I never give Sonny nothing,’ the boy said finally, ‘but a long time ago I come to school high and Sonny asked me how it felt’...‘I told him it felt great.’ The music stopped, the barmaid paused and watched the juke box until the music began again. ‘It did’” (par. 28). Although his sarcasm may not seem present in the first sentence, the rest still concludes that he is the one who gave him dope. As for “The Lame Shall Enter First,” Rufus Johnson is the main producer of evil. Even from the beginning of his entrance, O’Connor tells the audience that Sheppard had been “reading over the boy’s record--senseless destruction, windows smashed, city trash boxes set afire, tires slashed--the kind of thing he found where boys had been transplanted abruptly from the country to the city as this one had” (par. 51). All of these characteristics show Rufus’ true, troublesome aura. Not only does the record state his boisterous personality, but his words also tell his story of creating chaos. “‘If I kick somebody once with this,’ he said, ‘it learns them not to mess with me.’ The child nodded. ‘Go in the kitchen,’ Johnson said, ‘and make me a sandwich with some of that rye bread and ham and bring me a glass of milk.’ Norton went off like a mechanical toy” (par. 83-86). This shows Rufus is a listen-to-me-or-I-can-kill-you kind of boss; he ruthlessly tells Norton things like this, and because of his innocence, he