The first comparison I made between Good Country People and The Life You Save May Be Your Own by Flannery O’Conner is how the elder women in the stories, Mrs.Crater also known as Lady, Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell, are referred to as Mrs. even though their husbands play no significant role in the stories, one has passed away, another was divorced and the other is husband is mentioned with no explanation as to why he is not in the rest of the story. Which leads me to my second comparison Character similarities, aside from the elder women the younger women that are main characters, Joy, otherwise known as Hulga, from Good Country People and Lucynell from The Life You Save May Be Your Own both have impairments. Joy has a prosthetic leg and Lucynell is Deaf. The male main characters, Mr. Shiftlet from The Life You Save May Be Your Own and Manley Pointer from Good Country People…show more content… Shiftlet and Mr. Pointer both have impairments as well, Mr. Shiftlet has only a half arm and Mr. Pointer has a heart condition in which he will pass away from approximately the same time as Joy would pass away. The story line is clearly very similar as well. Both Good Country People and The Life You Save May Be Your Own follow two women approximately 30 years of age with impairments through meeting two men with impartments. The men Mr. Shiftlet and Mr. Pointer manipulate the women and get them away from their home and family only abandon them, take and item of value and leave. The story finishes with an open ending and as readers we are left without knowing if the women manage to get home and what happens to the men. Another similarity between these two short stories is the authors sense of humor, it is very dry, sarcastic and most often involves one of the main characters poking fun at another character. For example, Joy from Good Country People is described as well-educated and she often makes sly remarks about the intellectual capabilities as well as the common sense of the other
