The Life You Save May Be Your Own | Critical Overview

Critical Overview
Critics recognized the importance of ‘‘The Life You Save May Be Your Own’’ immediately after it was published in the literary journal Kenyon Review in the spring of 1953. That year the story was included in the annual collection of exemplary short fiction published to honor the memory of the short story writer O. Henry. Critics have seen this story as a nearly paradigmatic example of O’Connor’s almost obsessive concern with religious themes—specifi- cally, an individual’s ability to find opportunities for salvation and redemption in...

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