The Life You Save May Be Your Own Character Analysis

The complex protagonist of Flannery O'Connor's "The Life You Save May Be Your Own"-Mr. Tom T. Shiftlet- exhibits a morally ambiguous character ironically in name and action. As with her best firctional works, O'connor articulates an intrinsic relationship between the main character's narrative and the typological Significance of the story. Mr. Shiftlet epitomizes moral ambiguity by his inconsistency in showing grace and his unrefined motives. For the work as a whole, his moral ambiguity accurately contextualizes the spiritual malaise that plagues the south. When a character commits actions of grace without moral criteria and his or her motivations are twisted, he or she is certainly morally ambigous. Mr Shiftlet imbue these symptoms of moral ambiguity when he feels that a "man with a car [has] a responsibility to others" (89). Mr. Shiftlet's inability to identify his hypocrisy is revealed by his inner dialogue, where he has no issue doing away with Lucynell but feels compelled to help a hitchhiker. Such a selectivity in showing grace is demerited by an apparent imbalance in not only the 'when' but the 'where'; Lucynell is Mr. Shiftlet's term of trade for the automobil but Mr. Shiftlet relieves himself to an obligation of his commitment and chooses to fulfill a self-serving moral compass attempting to satisfy an easier commitment. Furthermore, the main character's motivations …show more content…
Arguably, a majority of the stories beloning to O'Conoor's "A Good Man Is Hard To Find" collection develops commentary on the aformentioned topic. What makes Mr.Shiftlet's tale so compelling is its capacity to discourse, its moral truths, and prominently, doing away with the subleties. With a flawed chaacter that drives its core truths, O'Connor's "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" is an exemplar for moral ambiguity in the