The Life You Save May Be Your Own

Juxtaposition is a literary device that places two people, places, or events side by side to suggest a comparison between them. The strongest juxtaposition in this story is between Mrs. Crater and Mr. Shiftlet. The two characters seem to be in alignment, agreeing to mutually benefit one another, yet the way they each speak and act shows how different their motivations are, as in this exchange about Lucynell’s age:

‘Fifteen, sixteen,’ the old woman said. The girl was nearly thirty but because of her innocence it was impossible to guess.

‘It would be a good idea to paint it too,’ Mr. Shiftlet remarked. ‘You don’t want it to rust out’ (Paragraphs 51-52).

Here, Mr. Shiftlet switches topics quickly from the girl he is considering marrying to the car. This shows both how Mrs. Crater and Mr. Shiftlet are treating Lucynell as an object, interchangeable with an automobile, and how they are each bargaining for what the other has. What Mr. Shiftlet wants is clearly the car, not Lucynell. It is one of many hints that he is not being genuine and that Mrs. Crater should not trust him.

The story’s setting establishes mood and tone as well as a layer of symbolism. The sun and a storm appear prominently at the beginning and end of the story, respectively. When Mr. Shiftlet first appears, he is walking “up [Mrs. Crater’s] road, his face turned toward the sun which appear[s] to be balancing itself on the peak of a small mountain” (Paragraph 1). At this moment the sun is “balancing,” suggesting that it might possibly falter and fall. This symbolizes The Possibility of Salvation—the potential that each character has to reform or to fall. It is also significant that Mr. Shiftlet arrives on the farm at sunset, which is the hour at which the world becomes dark, symbolizing the darkness of ignorance. The two women on the farm will act without clearly seeing this man’s true intentions.

At the end of the story, after Mr. Shiftlet leaves Lucynell to an uncertain fate, “The sun [begins] to set directly in front of the automobile. It [is] a reddening ball that through his windshield [is] slightly flat on the bottom and top” (Paragraph 90). Mr. Shiftlet drives into the remnants of the day, symbolizing his last chance at salvation before plunging into the darkness of his own evil action. The color red, which is referenced in the quote, recalls both the fires of hell and the color of a stop sign. Mr. Shiftlet is driving directly toward a warning sign that tells him to turn around, yet he fails to heed that warning, much as he will fail to heed the warning signs that tell him to slow down to save his own life.

As the sun sets a storm also gathers: “The late afternoon had grown hot and sultry and the country had flattened out. Deep in the sky a storm was preparing very slowly and without thunder as if it meant to drain every drop of air from the earth before it broke” (Paragraph 89). Later, after the boy abruptly leaves the car, “A cloud, the exact color of the boy’s hat and shaped like a turnip, had descended over the sun” (Paragraph 97). Both of these descriptors suggest Mr. Shiftlet is heading toward the boy’s rootless, ungrateful condition and that the road ahead will not bring him any more joy or meaning. Rather, he is heading toward more bitterness, moral ambiguity, and danger. This cloud is joined by “another, worse looking, crouched behind the car” (Paragraph 97), showing that Mr. Shiftlet, even with his automobile, remains trapped in the misery of both his past and his future.

O’Connor’s story is written from the point of view of an omniscient narrator. However, the narration only comments on the thoughts of two characters, Mrs. Crater and Mr. Shiftlet, and these comments are perfunctory. The narrator says, for example, that Mr. Shiftlet “had always wanted an automobile but he had never been able to afford one” (Paragraph 83).

The narrator’s omniscience is most significant during the marriage negotiation, where it offers clues as to the characters’ true intentions, commenting, for example, that Mrs. Crater “laid the bait carefully” (Paragraph 69). This insight into the thoughts of both Mrs. Crater and Mr. Shiftlet allows the reader to see more than either character sees—not just of one another, but also of themselves. Additionally, it hints at the coming danger, creating tension as Shiftlet and Lucynell marry and prepare for their trip.

The narrator does not comment on Lucynell’s thoughts or experience, except to allude to “a sly isolated little thought like a shoot of green in the desert” (Paragraph 78). This maintains an air of mystery around Lucynell. She does not have agency and remains as vague to the reader as she does to the other characters. This solidifies her role as more of an object than a person, which is how both Mr. Shiftlet and her mother treat her.