Intro

“Desire is the key to motivation but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting

pursuit of your goal a commitment to excellence that will enable you to attain the success you seek”.

This quote by Mario Andretti explains that as humans, when one wants something enough, we become

determined and devoted to acquire it. Flannery O’Connor, throughout her life has always been a devout

Catholic. In every one of her stories she mixes in Religion and God in some form. O’Connor illustrates

Mr. Tom Shiftlet as a man with one and a half arms, which she uses to display what Christ is not; a

crooked cross. Shiftlet as well as Mrs. Lucynell Crater are deemed as manipulators who use a human

being, Lucynell, as a bargaining chip. The desires of Mrs. Crater and Shiftlet take precedent over

Lucynell’s desires and well-being and in the end they both obtain their sinful desires, in the process

costing the helpless Lucynell her life. O’Connor uses God’s messages and biblical stories as a way of

revealing the flaws of her characters, and the twisted morals and ethics they uphold.