The Life You Save May be Your Own Book Review

In society, people commonly make poor choices. No matter the time, the choices people make have never been perfect. Even then, most flaws in humanity come from their selfish nature. Authors manage to use these traits to amplify and enhance their stories through literary devices. Like in “The Life You Save May be Your Own” by Flanney O’Connor, characterization and irony show the defects in society. 

Throughout this story, the author uses characterization to show the selfishness and flaws in their characters. Like how Mr. Shiftlet shows many times throughout the story, he has selfish desires and will do almost anything to reach them even if he has to lie. For example, when he tells Ms.Crater, "’ Lady,’ he asked finally, ’where would you find you an innocent woman today'? I wouldn't have any of this trash I could just pick up”(O'Connor,4). Which in turn, leads to him marrying the old lady's daughter just to leave her to take the car. In fact, “Selfish people sometimes fear or resent doing more for others because they feel it can impede their own need”(Patel). This further proves Mr.Shiftlet's selfish desire to leave his “wife” to avoid the responsibility, but still takes the car since he wanted it. Another example would be Ms. Crater’s personality traits. She was an extremely untrusting person, but she would let someone do anything once she trusted them. An example of this would be when she began to trust Mr.Shiftlet around Her daughter and allowed him to take her away even though she loved her daughter more than anything. And overall, this led to her trust being why she wouldn't see her daughter past that point. In the end, this characterization showed the flaws in the characters’ ideals.

In addition to characterization, another literary device the author uses to amplify their story is irony. They did this with Mr.Shiftlet when he wanted the wrong to be washed from the world. When this happens, “After a few minutes there was a guffawing peal of thunder from behind and fantastic raindrops, like tin‑can tops, crashed over the rear of Mr. Shiftlet's car”(O’Connor, 10). This is ironic because he asked for all the wrongs to be washed from the earth, and it only rained on him. This rain has a particular meaning as “[a] rain that can be seen... as a cleansing, restorative force”(Glenn, Castle). This explains the fact that the rain falling on him was meant to be a cleansing force used to rid him of his flaws and sins. Another way would be that even though Ms. Crater loved her daughter more than anything, she gave her to a man she barely knew. As she said to Mr.Shiftlet," and she's the sweetest girl in the world. I wouldn’t give her up for anything on earth. She's smart too. She can sweep the floor, cook, wash, feed the chickens, and hoe. I wouldn't give her up for a casket of jewels’"(O’Connor, 4). But in the end, she ended up giving her away for nothing but to have her taken care of by someone else. Overall the irony in their actions established the flaws of how they think of themselves and others.

In conclusion,  “ The life you save may be your own”  uses characterization and irony to amplify the characters and their actions further. For example, the characterization of the characters shows their poor ideals and lousy judgment. Furthermore, both have an irony in their actions that establishes flaws in their thinking and trust toward others. In other words, both devices are used to show how flawed the characters genuinely are in everything they do.

Works Cited

Glenn, Lona, and Maria castle. “The Symbolism of Rain in Literature.” ScholarAdvisor.com, 31 Aug. 2018, www.scholaradvisor.com/essay-examples-for-college/symbolism-rain-literature/.

O’Conner, Flanney. “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”. San Diego, Calif: Harcourt  Brace Jovanovich, 1983. Print.

Patel, Arti. “You Can Be Selfish - but Experts Say Too Much of It Can Make You Toxic - National.” Global News, Global News, 11 Jan. 2020, globalnews.ca/news/6382265/why-people-are-selfish/.