Theme Of The Life You Save May Be Your Own By Flannery O Connor

In this modern age, society is drifting away from God and toward materialism, and this drifting has caused for mankind to become corrupt and morally unintelligent, according to Flannery O’Conner, author of “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” a short story about Lucynell Crater, the owner of a desolate, rundown farm and old, dysfunctional car and her bargaining with a stranger, Tom Shiftlet, who is morally corrupt and is attempting to con her, to fix up her farm and to marry her daughter, who is also named Lucynell Crater and is deaf and mute. Shiftlet ends up stealing the car and abandoning the daughter shortly after marrying her and, wishing to show off his car, picks up a hitchhiker who points Shiftlet’s faults. Despite the hitchhiker’s

O’Conner uses a great deal of symbolism throughout the story in order to create the theme that society is lacking holiness and becoming corrupt because of its immorality. These symbols include the three most important characters in the story, Lucynell, her daughter, and Shiftlet. The courthouse, the car, and the sunset are also symbols in the story that help contribute to the theme. O’Conner utilizes multiple people, places, and objects that represent larger ideas to construct the story’s theme that people value material items more than God, and this misjudgment has created a morally misguided society.
One of the most important categories of symbols that O’Conner uses is the characters. The younger Lucynell Crater represents the angel-like qualities that humans are naturally born with and that most people drift away from. Her angel-like qualities are exemplified on page 866 when the boy behind the counter at The Hot Spot describes her as “an angel of Gawd.” When Shiftlet leaves her, he proves that people are more than willing to abandon these pure qualities. The older Crater, on the other hand, symbolizes those who, even at the end of their

Near the very beginning of the story, Shiftlet and the Crater’s admire the sunset on the farm. The sun itself is a symbol for God. Therefore, the sunset is a symbol for holiness leaving the farm. Shiftlet admires the sunset, and this admiration represents his love for a lack of holiness. When Shiftlet says about the sunset, “I’d give a fortune to live where I could see me a sun do that every evening” (860), O’Conner is revealing his love for a lack of morality and God, helping to create the theme about people’s lack of God in their lives. Another example of this symbolism is the car that Mr. Shiftlet fantasizes about owning. The car itself represents the ability to leave a good life with decent people, and O’Conner reveals its symbolism by making it the tool that Shiftlet uses to leave behind his potentially good life. When O’Conner says about Shiftlet on page 865, “He had always wanted an automobile but he had never been able to afford one before. He drove very fast because he wanted to make Mobile by nightfall,” she is pointing out the fact that Shiftlet is using the Craters in order to get the car, which is a symbol for missing good, holy opportunities. Additionally, the courthouse in which Shiftlet and Lucynell get married is, despite being intended to be a place of joining two people in loving matrimony, a symbol for