FREE ESSAY ON THE LIFE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN

THE LIFE YOU SAVE MAY BE YOUR OWN

In rural America there are many lame people that are of no use to this society. The reason
these people live in such slums is simply because they are worthless, just like the bums
on the streets of the big cities, these people have no ambition. They sit around all day
and rock back and back and forth in their rocking chairs made by the only person in their
gene pool that has any common knowledge of outside world. Such people are the rejects of
the social world. These rejects are the main characters of Flannery O' Conner's The Life
You Save May Be Yours. In this short story, O' Conner uses a lot of irony to show the
ignorance of these rural people. 
The irony used in this short story conveys the pure innocence of the backcountry people
in that they have no clue how stupid that their actions may look to others. They do what
they feel will be right, which make sense to them. But when others find that there are
such words, like inbreeding, for the silliness that they call life they feel sorrow. But
in this short story the character from the outside world, Mr. Shiftlet, is also an
outcast in society and does not feel any remorse for the other characters. He plays along
in their plans to be the same as years before and not to advance in technology and moral.

The irony of this story develops in that Mr. Shiftlet agrees with the actions and offers
of the other characters, the old woman and Lucynell. At first Mr. Shiftlet doesn't seem
to entertained by the offer of staying with and working for the old woman but he agrees
to it after little thought. Also, when the old woman offers her daughter up to marriage
with Mr. Shiftlet he doesn't consider the thought of love but instead the offer of money
that comes along. When he takes her as his wife he soon after leaves her for the car that
they are riding in. Then after leaving her and not looking back he picks up a hitchhiker
and admits the remorse he feels for leaving his mother and making the mistake of taking
on a life of wandering. 
Flannery has a way of making his audience uneasy at certain points during his story. He
makes them think for the characters and feel very unsafe with the characters' actions. He
makes the audience uneasy with the tragic reality of rural America. These people will be
poor and not care for the rest of their lowly lives. They will continue to be ignorant of
the world as others know it and not care to learn about the way they could be living. The
government will be their provider until they grow old and die.