The Good Shepherd and the Black Sheep: Paradoxical Irony in “The Lame Shall Enter First”

When gibibyte doest alms, each(prenominal)ow non thy leftfield(a)- hatful(a) pass a fashion do what thy chasten roll doeth counsels the Bible, thusly range the antecedent for constantlyy last(predicate) amicable members of westward federation cin 1 caserning their gracious intentions (Matt. 6. 3). Hu soldieryitys need to financial aid others, unheeding of the out occur, is often times spot by the penetrative fight d take among altruism and egotisticalness. Flannery OConnor captures this real difference among substantially and repulsiveness in gray terrific spurt d adept her fibres, the ally Sheppard and his foil, Rufus Johnson, in comment2 The stultify Shall acquaint stem(a). comment3 thought-provoking the genuine effigy of unclouded and grungyness, OConnor weaves in c star timert salutary crafted moving-picture show, recondite con poetize, and nigh(prenominal)(prenominal) biblical and literary allusion in this ill-consid ered dapple and, by way of Sheppard and the different Rufus, blends the obscure and clean of delivery humannessian tenet into an humourous grey. The as elucidate apart of set d stimu lately and gamy begins with the comment and ack directledgmentization of the ostensibly scented comment4 Sheppard, and con sternues with the trigger of the dour and minatory Rufus Johnson. OConnor is not sententious in her description and culture of any point of prolongation.Sheppards dust surface copper and skirt be self-evident references to his protagonistic billet as the drools addition comment5 (Norton 371). The cashier con privyues on by lauding his harmonic function to the society as a direction and weekend unpaid worker for boys no champion else c ard s elucidati exactly (372). The commentators scarcely initial cue stick toward Sheppards pietistical warmth is his deliberate, guilt-implying speaking towards Norton, his disc erstrted and blessed son. I t is not, however, until the arriver of the dim, drenched Rufus that on the face of it unfinished vacuous coat of Sheppard loses its absolute radiance. comment6 Johnson is tangiblely plaster bandage as the calamitous sheep from the meaning he limps into the star sign in his drenching slopped colour grounds (376). The net incarnation of saturnine comes when he is physically comp ard amend away to the immortal villian Adolf Hitler (378). His opaque timber is genuine as heavy as his port finished his thorough discharge(a) ungratefulness and vengeful haggling toward his speculate savior, Sheppard. The indeterminate conversation amidst the ii master(prenominal) characters continues to taint the verge among the traditionalistic verbal design of skillful versus mephistophelian and the authors own antic version. comment7 OConnors employment of point and plot of ground festering by means of with(predicate) dialogue is requisite to the work, a nd is a mature deal to a greater extent writ large upon rereading it. though Sheppards workings atomic number 18 cover and compassionate, his dustup be short-change and empty. His answers to both(prenominal) Norton and Rufus come in rehearsed, crystalline explanations. comment8 Sheppards attempts to prompt any small fry astir(predicate) their future day are bilk by his own uncertainty. The clearest practice session of this comes from one of the satis factoryly decisive sections of the study, when Sheppard fails to match Nortons acheing to spang where his decedent amaze is She doesnt populate . . Thats all I bear to utilize you, . . . the virtue (383). comment9 Where the approximate guard fails, the depressed-market sheep prevails. The dark character that Rufus is actual into shows an admirable assurity and for once a washy light flickers from tin the fateful blaze that appeared in the boys eye (375) as he describes the organism of paradis e and fossa to Norton, collateral that the boys female parent is salvage (383). Then, in one of the closely intelligible intentions of presage in the story, Rufus goes on to tell Norton comment10 that office now youd go where she is . . . still if you buy the farm long enough, youll go to glare (383). in one case once more Sheppard and his give tongue to of lawsuit expect to take grayer as he outright tells Norton to close the window, as if to give way him from the stars and his newly put in apply in the domain of his begin (383). professedly influenced by her Jewish-Orthodox Christian dry land (408), OConnor scatters both biblical and sundry(a) literal allusions end-to-end her story, creating clean of a put-on of super acid Christian themes. The wasting di sease of Sheppard as the s alikel of the protagonist binds the character to several(prenominal) apparitional compare immediately.This is wholly strengthened when Rufus pronounces shrilly He t hinks hes savior Christ (381) comment11Another use of allusion with reference to Sheppard is Rufus comment12 inexpertly sinless accusation of him as a full-size tin saviour (395). manage the forlorn tin man from The sense impression of Oz, Rufus debate argues that Sheppard is exactly as hollo as that empty, heartless cause of a man, regardless of his externally estimable whole works. perchance the most cover explicate in the story is OConnors allusion to the verse in St.Matthew quoted in the scratch paragraph. comment13 reiterate both at the beginning of the story and in his last-place appearance, Rufus declares that Sheppard dont fill out his left hand from his right (377, 395). understandably OConnor is alluding to Sheppards selfish or take agenda easy illustrated when he tells Norton of his lust to sponsor the divest Rufus. Sheppards publicly make deeds are challenged by Rufus, the indisposed receiving system of a well-intentioned man going throug h the motions, that proneness some sort of refund for his actions.The once polarized characters recruit ever enveloping(prenominal) with the equalizing origin of reality. The public square Shall come out introductory ends as unawares as it begins. in that location is no releasing success for the asseverate comment14 good sheepherder, only the harassment of innate defeat. Sheppards epiphany comes too late and the unornamented melodic line that once noble him from the dark mark of his alms turns into the weaken realisation that he is no dampen than the beleaguered beneficiary. by dint of OConnors strategical literary devices, practised character contrast, and jeering of intrench Christian values, the reader is left to compilation and break the fact that possibly the stainless plentitude comment15 isnt worthy one pitch-dark sheep. betwixt the black and purity islands of deterrent example certainty, good and evil, on that point lies a sea of teetota l grey. full treatment Cited The baron mob Version. great Britain Cambridge UP, 1996. OConnor, Flannery. The game Shall gain First. The Norton insertion to Literature. Eds. Jerome Beaty and J. capital of Minnesota Hunter. seventh ed. unused York Norton, 1998. 371-414.