Irony in The Lame Shall Enter First Essays -- Lame Shall Enter First E

Irony in The Lame Shall compute First When thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth counsels the Bible, and so setting the precedent for all well-meaning members of western society concerning their charitable intentions (Matt. 6.3). Humanitys motivation to aid others, regardless of the outcome, is oft times spotted by the knotty struggle between selflessness and selfishness. Flannery OConnor captures this classic conflict between good and evil in Southern Grotesque fashion through her characters, the protagonist Sheppard and his foil, Rufus Johnson, in comment2 The Lame Shall Enter First.comment3 Challenging the literal paradigm of light and darkness, OConnor weaves together well crafted characterization, cryptic dialogue, and both biblical and literary allusion in this monstrous plot and, by way of Sheppard and the antithetical Rufus, blends the pitch blackness and white of Christian dogma into an ironic grey. The contrast of light a nd dark begins with the description and characterization of the simply angelic comment4 Sheppard, and continues with the introduction of the obscure and ominous Rufus Johnson. OConnor is not pretentious in her description and development of either character. Sheppards white hair and halo are writ large references to his protagonistic status as the storys do-gooder comment5 (Norton 371). The narrator continues on by lauding his charitable contribution to the community as a counselor and weekend volunteer for boys no one else cared about (372). The readers only initial clue toward Sheppards self-righteous mania is his deliberate, guilt-implying sermon towards Norton, his disconcerted and doomed son. It is n... ...pherd, only the agony of total defeat. Sheppards epiphany comes too youthful and the stark contrast that once distinguished him from the dark object of his alms turns into the faded realization that he is no better than the beleaguered beneficiary. Through OC onnors strategic literary devices, adroit character contrast, and parody of entrenched Christian values, the reader is left to digest and dissect the fact that maybe the entire flock comment15 isnt worth one black sheep. Between the black and white islands of moral certainty, good and evil, there lies a sea of ironic grey. Works Cited The King James Version. Great Britain Cambridge UP, 1996. OConnor, Flannery. The Lame Shall Enter First. The Norton Introduction to Literature. Eds. Jerome Beaty and J. Paul Hunter. 7th ed. New York Norton, 1998. 371-414.