Duality in "The Life You Save May Be Your Own."

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Flannery O’ Connor was educated at the Georgia State Women’s College, and she also attended Iowa State. O’Connor wrote her first piece of literature when she was twenty-seven years old, and she expresses her personal convictions and views in her writings. O’Connor often has characters in her literature that are disabled in some way, and most of the time, she portrays sympathy for these characters. O’Connor died from an uncommon disease called lupus, and she lived with this disease most of her life (“Flannery” 1050). “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” is a story about a traveler, Mr. Shiftlet, who marries a mentally challenged girl to get an automobile and money from the mother of the girl. In the end, Mr. Shiftlet ends up abandoning the girl. In “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” O’Connor uses duality to show that people and things can have two sides.
In the story, O’Connor parallels Mr. Shiftlet to Christ and to an anti-Christ. O’Connor reveals, through the character of Mr. Shiftlet, that people can have two different sides to them. Mr. Shiftlet’s past occupations correspond to what Jesus Christ did while he was on earth. Mr. Shiftlet “is a carpenter and has been in the past a gospel singer…and a visitor to every foreign land” (Griffith 140). Just as Mr. Shiftlet, Jesus was a carpenter, and he continually traveled to many different places while preaching the gospel. Although Christ was not a gospel singer, it directly relates to Jesus because gospel songs are to and for Him. O’Connor is showing that each profession of Mr. Shiftlet is related to the professions of Jesus in some way. Another way in which Jesus and Mr. Shiftlet parallel is by the giving of blood. Jesus was crushed, bruised, and beaten, and his blood was poured o...

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...esult of Mr. Shiftlet’s decisions. Mr. Shiftlet is the one who evokes the negative side of nature to develop (Deignan 3). O’Connor revealed that nature has contrast and duality portraying nature positively and negatively in the story.
Duality in O’Connor’s short story reveals the two aspects that humans and objects can have. O’Connor presents duality in the character Mr.Shiftlet by showing that he has similarities to the person of Christ. She also shows that he has certain traits that correspond to an anti-Christ. Duality is also shown in nature, by the use of nature in a good, optimistic way. Nature is also portrayed by O’Connor as destructive and bad. O’Connor puts specific details in her story that support the use of positive and negative nature and both of Mr.Shiftlet’s personalities. “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” is filled with double-sidedness.

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