Simple Summaries

The Life You Save May Be Your Own

Flannery O'Connor

Simple Summary by Sarah Frank

·      Mr. Shiftlet comes up to the old lady and after introduces himself, says “nowadays, people'll do anything anyways. I can tell you my name is Tom T. Shiftlet and I come from Tarwater, Tennessee, but you never have seen me before: how you know I ain't lying?”

·      He says he is single because he doesn’t know where to find an innocent woman

·      The old lady’s daughter is around and she describes her daughter as the sweetest

·      The old lady lets him stay around and work on the house

·      Lucynell (the daughter) is deaf but Mr. S teaches her the word bird

·      If a man wanted Lucynell, the old lady would say “I wouldn't pass up a chance to live in a permanent place and get the sweetest girl in the world myself. You ain't no fool”

·      The old lady asks Mr. S “you want you an innocent woman, don’t you?”

·      “On Saturday the three of them drove into town in the car that the paint had barely dried on and Mr. Shiftlet and Lucynell were married in the Ordinary's office while the old woman witnessed.”

·      Old lady says “I wouldn't let no man have her but you because I seen you would do right”

·      Ata diner, Mr. Shiftlet lies and says Lucynell is a hitchhiker but that he is in a rush and needs to get to Tuscaloosa

·      The boy behind the counter “bent over again and very carefully touched his finger to a strand of the golden hair and Mr. Shiftlet left.”

·      He did all this to steal the car!