The Life You Save May Be Your Own

Analysis

Mr. Shiftlet, a young man with one arm, showed up at Lucynell the mother and her daughter
Lucynell’s house. Throughout the story there are hints that Lucynell (the daughter) in mentally
disabled. Mr Shiftlet helped around the house asking for no money, just a place to sleep, but he
was hinting at the old woman owned. It was badly beaten up but he said he would fix it. The
man stays around fixing up the house and the car, also teaching the daughter how to speak.
The came up with a plan to marry her daughter off to him so he would continue to stay around
and maintain the house. Mr shiftlet agreed up only if he could take the daughter on a
honeymoon. She gave him $17.50 for a hotel and lunch. He then marries her and drives her to
restaurant. Here at the restaurant he leaves her there explaining to the waiter that she was a
hitch-hiker. After he leaves her there, he drives off. Shortly after he sees a sign saying “Drive
carefully. The life you save may be your own.” He felt as if he had a responsibility to pick up any
hitch-hikers. He picks up a young man from the side of the road and explains to him that his
mother is the best thing he can ever have. The boy yells at him and then lunges his body out of
the car. Shortly after, the story ends.

The story is filled with irony and symbolism. Shiftlet’s name is appropriate because he could
certainly be considered shiftless road or shifty. His saviorlike pose at the beginning of the story
is surely symbolic, but the title, taken from a sign that he later sees as he drives, suggests that
Shiftlet should be concerned more for his own redemption than for being anyone else’s savior.