57 pages • 1 hour read
Flannery O'ConnorThe Life You Save May Be Your Own
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1953A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
The Missing Arm
In both the European and Southern Gothic traditions, characters’ external features often reflect internal traits. Mr. Shiftlet’s partially missing arm therefore indicates that he is incomplete. Whereas Mrs. Crater is missing a husband and Lucynell is missing some mental capacity, Mr. Shiftlet is missing his ability to take part in “functional society.” He lacks the ability to commit to others—to care for them long term.
Ironically, Mr. Shiftlet is perfectly capable of doing carpentry and fixing things on the farm, making him “handy.” He does not lack the ability to help others, but his appearance causes him to appear useless in those people’s prejudiced eyes. This makes Mrs. Crater think that she can use him, just as he thinks he can use her. Rather than helping one another, they exploit one another’s weaknesses.
Mr. Shiftlet is, in more ways than one, a man divided. He says as much: “Lady, a man is divided into two parts, body and spirit. […] The body, lady, is like a house: it don’t go anywhere; but the spirit, lady, is like a automobile: always on the move” (Paragraphs 66-68). He views his “spirit” as separate from his body and seeks to find succor only in movement. However, his actions make him spiritually grotesque.
The Human Heart
The heart has long been a symbol for a person’s desires, character, and soul. When Mr. Shiftlet discusses the human heart with Mrs. Crater, he is speaking about the literal, biological heart, but it is also a symbol for desire, behavior, and character in the abstract:
‘Lady,’ he said, and turned and gave her his full attention, ‘lemme tell you something. There’s one of these doctors in Atlanta that’s taken a knife and cut the human heart—the human heart,’ he repeated, leaning forward, ‘out of a man’s chest and held it in his hand,’ and he held his hand out, palm up, as if it were slightly weighted with the human heart, ‘and studied it like it was a day-old chicken, and lady,’ he said, allowing a long significant pause in which his head slid forward and his clay-colored eyes brightened, ‘he don’t know no more about it than you or me.’
[…]
‘Why, if he was to take that knife and cut into every corner of it, he still wouldn’t know no more than you or me. What you want to bet?’ (Paragraphs 14-16)
It is a given that nobody in this story believes they can understand the human heart, metaphorically speaking. This statement foreshadows the deceitful character of Mr. Shiftlet, who will prove to have a heart that others cannot predict. It also introduces the ambiguity of human desire and self-knowledge. Mrs. Crater easily agrees that nobody can understand the human heart, foreshadowing her own ignorance and inability to discern this man’s desires. This proves to have dire consequences.
The statement Mr. Shiftlet makes about the human heart returns after he marries Lucynell. He says, “That was just something a woman in an office did, nothing but paper work and blood tests. What do they know about my blood? If they was to take my heart and cut it out, […] they wouldn’t know a thing about me” (Paragraph 75). The statement touches on the theme of The Spirit Versus the Law; Mr. Shiftlet wants to be known in a more profound and personal way—one that cannot be measured and recorded—but feels that this is impossible.
Colors
O’Connor makes ample use of color symbolism throughout the story. Mr. Shiftlet is described as having “black slick hair that hung flat from a part in the middle to beyond the tips of his ears” (Paragraph 3); he also wears “a black town suit and a brown felt hat” (Paragraph 1). On the surface, these are ordinary clothes that mark him as conforming to social conventions, but black is also the color of darkness—that is, of hiding true feelings and intentions.
Lucynell is described as having “pink-gold hair and eyes as blue as a peacock’s neck” (Paragraph 5). Both of these colors suggest something otherworldly about her, foreshadowing the declaration that she is an “angel of Gawd” (Paragraph 86), as the boy at the Hot Spot calls her. Gold traditionally symbolizes wealth; pinkness suggests blushing and therefore innocence. Blue is sometimes associated with tranquility but also with isolation and sadness. It is possible that Lucynell is all of these things, especially considering her condition as a deaf woman in a speaking world. Taken together, her coloring suggests (as her mother says) a “baby doll,” making her mother’s and husband’s actions toward her all the crueler and The Loss of Innocence that she represents all the greater.
On their wedding day, Lucynell is wearing white, which is the color of purity. She also has a Panama hat with red cherries on it. In the car ride toward Mobile, Mr. Shiftlet observes her throwing the red cherries away. Red is often a sign of lust and anger. It is possible that Lucynell is throwing away anything that might tarnish her innocence.
The car is painted green with a yellow stripe. Green is the color of money, and also of growth and rebirth; in marrying Lucynell, Mr. Shiftlet has the chance for rebirth into a more stable life. However, the yellow stripe symbolizes sickness and even cowardice; yellow is often associated with decay, and the term “yellow-bellied” means fearful. Rather than accept rebirth, the yellow-bellied Mr. Shiftlet runs away from his new home and responsibilities.
The Automobile and Driving
The automobile is a symbol for movement, power, and status. Mrs. Crater tells Mr. Shiftlet that her automobile broke down the day her husband died, which implies that Mrs. Crater lost her own power and prospects when her husband passed away. She and Lucynell are like that automobile: stuck in one place, unable to move or advance themselves. They are waiting for someone to fix their lives as much as they are waiting for someone to fix the automobile.
For Mr. Shiftlet, the automobile represents both status and mobility. The first place he takes the car, once he has tricked Mrs. Crater into giving it to him, is Mobile, Alabama. He is literally driving to a place where he can be more mobile. If Mr. Shiftlet is already a man who “shifts” his beliefs, his position, and his ideals, the automobile facilitates this.
The automobile is also a symbol of modernity and the shifting socioeconomic landscape of the South. Famously, Henry Ford pioneered the mechanized assembly line to produce cars; the process required people to work together, but it alienated them from their work, as Mr. Shiftlet explains in the quote below.
‘You take now,’ he said, ‘one man puts in one bolt and another man puts in another bolt and another man puts in another bolt so that it’s a man for a bolt. That’s why you have to pay so much for a car: you’re paying all those men. Now if you didn’t have to pay but one man, you could get you a cheaper car and one that had had a personal interest taken in it, and it would be a better car.’ The old woman agreed with him that this was so (Paragraph 42).
The automobile tempts Mr. Shiftlet to work on the farm for Mrs. Crater, but it also makes it easier for him to leave her and his new wife.
The title of the story “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” refers to a sign Mr. Shiftlet sees on the highway while driving. The sign warns drivers to slow down, which he ignores in his hurry to make it to Mobile before dark. In a modernized world that allows and requires fast decisions, the author reminds the reader that decisions made in haste can have life-threatening consequences. This is the case with Mrs. Crater’s haste to marry her daughter to Mr. Shiftlet, and with how soon he abandons her to make his getaway.
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