What is the author's purpose in "The Life You Save May Be Your Own"?

O'Connor was a devout Catholic, and her writing conveys her religious beliefs. In "The Life You Save May Be Your Own," her purpose is to show that a life full of material objects but lacking God is a life without meaning.

Shiftlet and Mrs. Crater are both characters who are so focused on the material world that they have lost their connection with God. Even their names suggest their emptiness. Shiftlet is a shiftless wanderer who doesn't grasp that he won't find rest until he finds it in God. Mrs. Crater's name points to the large spiritual hole inside her. Her hard-heartedness separates her from the divine.

Both characters reject Lucynell, the ‘‘angel of Gawd.’’ Lucynell is mute, and Shiftlet and Mrs. Crater both miss the way she conveys God's presence in ways other than speaking. Like Judas, both Shiftlet and Mrs. Crater are willing to trade the spiritual (Lucynell) for the secular.

When Shiftlet abandons Lucynell, the light leaves, a storm comes, and he feels that

the rottenness of the world was about to engulf him.

While Shiftlet embraces an ultimately meaningless life, he didn't have to follow that path. He had the choice to stay with Lucynell, but he decided to turn away from grace and love.

In O'Connor's work, God often speaks through or to characters who are disabled in some way, showing that God's grace is available to everyone and that God looks at people with the eyes of love.