The Lame Shall Enter First

Last updated
"The Lame Shall Enter First"
by Flannery O'Connor
Country United States
Language English
Genre(s) Southern Gothic
Published in Everything That Rises Must Converge
Publication typesingle author anthology
Publication date1965

"The Lame Shall Enter First" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It appeared first in The Sewanee Review in 1962 and was published in 1965 in her short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge . O'Connor finished the collection during her final battle with lupus. She died in 1964, just before her final book was published. A devout Roman Catholic, O'Connor often used religious themes in her work.

Plot summary

The main character Sheppard is a middle-aged widower whose wife died a year before the story. An atheistic rationalist, he consoles himself with humanitarian causes, and regards the grief of his young son, Norton, as a form of selfishness. Ironically, while Sheppard devotes himself to helping the boys in the local reform school, he cannot sympathize with Norton's grief and resulting foibles. Sheppard tells Norton that his mother is dead and no longer exists, and frequently berates him for his lack of reason and altruism.

Sheppard invites Rufus Johnson, a fourteen-year-old juvenile delinquent, to live with them against Norton's wishes. Johnson has a high IQ and a clubfoot, and was raised by his violent pentecostal grandfather. Sheppard desperately wants to enlighten Johnson, to turn his life around by teaching him about science and buying him a telescope to expand his horizons.

Johnson holds Sheppard in contempt and strongly believes in God and the Devil, but believes that he himself is evil and resists all of Sheppard's naive attempts to help him. Though Sheppard buys him an orthopedic shoe, Johnson refuses it, quoting the words of Jesus that "the lame shall enter first" into the kingdom of heaven. Against Sheppard's wishes, Johnson tells Norton that his mother is in heaven above the earth, and he will only see her again if he dies as a child before he is corrupted. Norton eventually thinks he sees his mother through the telescope, but Sheppard dismisses such nonsense.

The story ends with Johnson being taken away by the police for a burglary, which Johnson committed just to embarrass his patron Sheppard. Sheppard feels a wave of remorse over his treatment of his own son, and runs up to the attic to find that Norton has hanged himself on a rafter above the telescope. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Cú Chulainn</span> Irish mythological hero

Cú Chulainn, called theHound of Ulster, is a warrior hero and demigod in the Ulster Cycle of Irish mythology, as well as in Scottish and Manx folklore. He is believed to be an incarnation of the Irish god Lugh, who is also his father. His mother is the mortal Deichtine, sister of king Conchobar mac Nessa.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Flannery O'Connor</span> American writer (1925–1964)

Mary Flannery O'Connor was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing</span>

"O for a Thousand Tongues to Sing" is a Christian hymn written by Charles Wesley. The hymn was placed first in John Wesley's A Collection of Hymns for the People Called Methodists published in 1780. It was the first hymn in every (Wesleyan) Methodist hymnal from that time until the publication of Hymns and Psalms in 1983.

<i>Wise Blood</i>

Wise Blood is the first novel by American author Flannery O'Connor, published in 1952. The novel was assembled from disparate stories first published in Mademoiselle, Sewanee Review and Partisan Review. The first chapter is an expanded version of her Master's thesis, "The Train", and other chapters are reworked versions of "The Peeler," "The Heart of the Park" and "Enoch and the Gorilla". The novel concerns a returning World War II veteran who, haunted by a life-long crisis of faith, resolves to form an anti-religious ministry in an eccentric, fictionalized Southern city after finding his family homestead abandoned without a trace.

<i>The Violent Bear It Away</i> 1960 novel by Flannery OConnor

The Violent Bear It Away is a 1960 novel by American author Flannery O'Connor. It is the second and final novel that she published. The first chapter was originally published as the story "You Can't Be Any Poorer Than Dead" in the journal New World Writing. The novel tells the story of Francis Marion Tarwater, a fourteen-year-old boy who is trying to escape the destiny his uncle has prescribed for him: the life of a prophet. Like most of O'Connor's stories, the novel is filled with Catholic themes and dark images, making it a classic example of Southern Gothic literature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Exemplum</span> A moral anecdote used to illustrate a point

An exemplum is a moral anecdote, brief or extended, real or fictitious, used to illustrate a point. The word is also used to express an action performed by another and used as an example or model.

<i>Everything That Rises Must Converge</i> 1965 short story collection by Flannery OConnor

Everything That Rises Must Converge is a collection of short stories written by Flannery O'Connor during the final decade of her life. The collection's eponymous story derives its name from the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The collection was published posthumously in 1965 and contains an introduction by Robert Fitzgerald. Of the volume's nine stories, seven had been printed in magazines or literary journals prior to being collected, including three that won O. Henry Awards: "Greenleaf" (1957), "Everything That Rises Must Converge" (1963), and "Revelation" (1965). "Judgment Day" is a dramatically reworked version of "The Geranium", which was one of O'Connor's earliest publications and appeared in her graduate thesis at the University of Iowa. "Parker's Back", the collection's only completely new story, was a last-minute addition.

The Story of Tấm and Cám commonly known as Tấm Cám is an ancient Vietnamese fairy tale. The first part of the tale's plot is very similar to the European folk tale Cinderella.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Revelation (short story)</span> Short story by Flannery OConnor

"Revelation" is a Southern Gothic short story by author Flannery O'Connor about the delivery and effect of a revelation to a sinfully proud, self-righteous, middle-aged, middle class, rural, white Southern woman that her confidence in her own Christian salvation is an error. The protagonist receives divine grace by accepting God's judgment that she is unfit for salvation, by learning that the prospect for her eventual redemption improves after she receives a vision of Particular Judgment, where she observes the souls of people she detests are the first to ascend to Heaven and those of people like herself who "always had a little of everything and the God-given wit to use it right" are last to ascend and experience purgation by fire on the way up.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A Good Man Is Hard to Find (short story)</span> Short story by Flannery OConnor

"A Good Man Is Hard to Find" is a Southern gothic short story first published in 1953 by author Flannery O'Connor who, in her own words, described it as "the story of a family of six which, on its way driving to Florida [from Georgia], is slaughtered by an escaped convict who calls himself the Misfit".

"The River" is a Southern gothic short story by the American author Flannery O'Connor that was first published in 1953 about a very young boy who is taken by his babysitter to a preacher at a Christian healing where he is baptized in a river, and, the next day, runs away from home to the site of his baptism and baptizes himself, and then is taken by the river to find the Kingdom of Christ, as told by the preacher, and drowns.

Ferdinand is the prince of Naples and the son of Alonso, the King of Naples, in Shakespeare's play, The Tempest. He falls in love with Miranda. He is quick to promise the title of queen and wife to Miranda even though he doesn't know her name. He is happy in humble labours, blinded by love. He makes a solemn vow to be truthful to Prospero, and not to violate Miranda's chastity before their wedding.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brad Watson (writer)</span> American writer (1955-2020)

Wilton Brad Watson was an American author and academic. Originally from Mississippi, he worked and lived in Alabama, Florida, California, Boston, and Wyoming. He was a professor at the University of Wyoming until his death. Watson published four books – two novels and two collections of short stories – to critical acclaim.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parker's Back</span> Short story by Flannery OConnor

"Parker's Back" is a Southern gothic short story by American author Flannery O'Connor about the efforts of a worldly tattooed Southern man to demonstrate his love for a fundamentalist Christian woman whom he courts and marries but never understands why he stays with her. After a self-indulgent, disordered, and carefree life, the story's protagonist accepts God's grace and fulfills the meaning of his given name, Obadiah, but his wife with her Old Testament beliefs rejects grace in the form of Jesus Christ tattooed on her husband's back. The work was published in 1965, in her final short story collection, Everything That Rises Must Converge. André Bleikasten, a scholar who studied Southern American writers and their works, said "'Parker's Back' belongs with O'Connor's most explicitly religious stories" as well as “one of her most enigmatic and gripping texts”.

"The Displaced Person" is a novella by Flannery O'Connor. It was published in 1955 in her short story collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find. A devout Roman Catholic, O'Connor often used religious themes in her work and her own family hired a displaced person after World War II.

"Good Country People" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was published in 1955 in her short story collection A Good Man Is Hard to Find. A devout Roman Catholic, O'Connor often used religious themes in her work. Many considered this to be one of her greatest stories.

"The Partridge Festival" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was published in 1961. A devout Roman Catholic, O'Connor often used religious themes in her work.

"A View of the Woods" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was completed in the fall of 1956 and was first published in the Fall 1957 issue of Partisan Review. It was later republished in The Best American Short Stories of 1958, and again in 1965, in O'Connor's short story collection, Everything That Rises Must Converge. O'Connor had first submitted it to Harper's Bazaar, although she correctly expected that the story was "a little grim" for the Harper's readership and would be rejected. A devout Roman Catholic, O'Connor often used religious themes in her work; "A View of the Woods" contains numerous references to the Christian tradition. It explores the ideas of modernism and materialism pitted against salvation.

"The Enduring Chill" is a short story by Flannery O'Connor. It was written in 1958 and published in 1965 in her short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge. After suffering for many years, O'Connor died of lupus at the age of 39. A devout Roman Catholic, O'Connor often used religious themes in her work.

The Heart of the Park is a short story written by Flannery O'Connor.

References

  1. Richard Giannone, Flannery O'Connor, hermit novelist (University of Illinois Press, 2000)