The Life You Save May Be Your Own

by Flannery O’Connor

The Life You Save May Be Your Own: Part 2 Summary


Part II: Resurrection
Once Shiftlet moves into the Crater’s farm, he fixes a broken fence and hog pen, teaches Lucynell how to speak her first word (‘‘bird’’—a recurring symbol in O’Connor’s fiction), and, most importantly, repairs the automobile. ‘‘With a volley of blasts it emerged from the shed, moving in a fierce and stately way. Mr. Shiftlet was in the driver’s seat. . . . He had an expression of serious modesty on his face as if he had just raised the dead.’’ At this moment, when Shiftlet most clearly appears to be the bearer of heavenly...

(The entire page is 454 words.)

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