Friday, February 15, 2008
The Life You Save May Be Your Own
I did not particularly enjoy reading the short story The Life You Save May Be Your Own. There were several reasons for this. The main reason I did not like the story, was that I knew the man was going to hurt the old woman and Lucynell from the very beginning. I do not know how or why, but when those types of characters come along in a story they are relatively easy to pick out. From the moment he first showed up, though, it was clear his only interest was in the car. I thought of that as a great useage of foreshadowing in the story. However, it did not make it any more enjoyable to read. Whenever I read a story such as this one, I tend to actually get mad at the character doing the wrong. If we were to discuss this in class, I could almost guarentee I would speak out quite harshly against the man and his actions. I was very disappointed that the man took advantage of the two women the way he did. Not only were they nice people who worked for everything they had, but Lucynell, the daughter, was deaf. The old woman, who repeatedly kept mentioning the fact that she would not trust any man. However, she did trust the man. The thing that makes me madest about this is the man new this, and he still took advantage of them. To make it even worse, the man did not stop once he got his hands on the car. He actually married Lucynell, drove away with her, and left her at a diner far away from her home. All along, the man was only looking out for himself, which is where I think the title ties into the story. The life you save may be your own . . . seems fitting for a character like him.
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7 comments:
I didn't like Mr. Shiftlet either. I just didn't understand about anything that he did. but I don't think that the Lucynells are totally innocent either. The mother was kind of a hypocrite sometimes. She said how she never would give her daughter up, and quite soon she was trying to convince Mr. Shiftlet to marry her daughter, and basicaly take her away. Then the younger Lucynell just followed him around all the time, she was probably the mos tinnocent of anything, but jus tthe same. Do you have any idea why he tried to pick up that boy at the end?
I did not think that Mr. Shiftlet was going to hurt the woman and her daughter in the beginning. Maybe I'm just naive, but I actually thought that he was going to help the woman out on her farm, possibly marry her daughter, and then they would all live "happily ever after." Obviously, I was very mistaken. I agree that Mr. Shiftlet was totally in the wrong by leaving Lucynell and taking advantage of her mother. However, I did not think that he was intending to leave Lucynell at the restaurant. I think he maybe got irritated with her, or maybe even himself, and just found it more convenient to leave her there. It was definitely not the right decision to make, after all, how is a deaf/mute girl going to get home? The least he could have done was left her at her house.
It is my personal belief that Mr. Shiftlet was simply looking for the best deal he could find when he worked for the Craters. I would imagine that he saw the country simplicity of their lifestyle and took advantage of it as well as he could. From the beginning of the story, Mr. Shiftlet showed he had no difficulty in fabricating a story of his name and town of origin, he was, in all likelihood, a consumate liar. Just as any con would, he nabbed what he could get and ran when his way was clear. Simple, deceitful, but effective.
I completely agree with you Aaron. I do not enjoy the story at all neither, and like you the thing that made me most mad was that Mr. Shiftlet guy. To be able to take advantage of a old woman and her deaf daughter like that, then that person would have to have no heart at all. I think that Dan said it the best, when he called Mr. Shiftlet a con artist. Con artists take what they can get then they leave and do not leave anything behind that they could possibly be traced by.
I don't know how you knew Mr. Shifftlet was going to hurt Lucynell. I thought he was a nice guy at the beginning of the story, a little strange at first, but he grew on me. I thought he was nice for helping the old lady and Lucynell so much. Ohh another thing that bothers me..we never found out the "old lady's" name? .. Anyways, I was kind of bothered when he left Lucynell. That is just rude, especially because she won't know how to find her way back. My feeling changed for Mr. Shifftlet after he did that. I didn't really understand the end of the story with the kid in the car? That just made me not like Mr. Shifftlet even more.
I totally agree with you when you said that you knew Mr Shiftlet was bad news from the beginning. I also thought that he was going to do something horrible to the women at the house. I also agree how he took advantage of the women, but I also think that the old woman had it coming. She was pushing the marriage of her daughter to someone she barely knew. I don't think the girl deserved to be deserted, but the woman should have picked up something strange with the one armed man.
I agree with Sara he seemed shady to me, but I trusted him anyways. Or course this came back and bit me in the butt. I didn't think of it before, but now that you mention the fact about the foreshadowing of the car, it occurred to me that he was really just out for their car. I also do not like characters like this, they are really greedy and only care about themselves.
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