Highly criticized and well renowned author Flannery O'Connor was explained by Robert Fitzgerald in the introduction to Everything That Rises Must Converge: "She was a girl who started with a gift for cartooning and satire, and found in herself a far greater gift, unique in her time and place, a marvel"( May). While she was best know for her confusing logic and bizarre use of the many different styles of writing, O'Connor was also well know for her short life as a writer. O'Connor's works came from many years of schooling. After two Colleges' she went on to write many pieces. Among the 31 Short-stories that Flannery O'Connor wrote, O'Connor composed "The Life That You Save May Be Your Own" in which she expresses her view of anti- materialism.

Mary Flannery O'Connor was born March 25, 1925 in Savannah, Georgia and was the only child of Edward F. O'Connor Jr. and Regina Cline O'Connor, both from established Georgia Catholic families (Butterworth). During her childhood she was able to get her first glimpse of fame when her chicken was filmed by a New York newspaper reporter because it was able to walk forward and backwards. O'Connor was fascinated by breeding fowl, especially peacocks. "Her stubborn, independent nature is illustrated in a 17 January 1956 letter by her recollection of a childhood practice she terms 'anti- angel aggression.' She would lock herself in her room and 'with a fierce (and evil) face, whirl around in a circle with fists knotted, socking the angel' the nuns had told her guarded every person. During grade school she began drawing (mainly chickens) and writing verses and short narratives based on daily life experiences, which she illustrated with cartoons"(Butterworth). O'Connor was mostly influenced by her father as she said that he "wanted to write but had not the time or money or training or any of the opportunities that I have had"(Butterworth).

During O'Connor's up bringing, in the early 1900's, most of society based on the peoples religion including the schools. O'Connor attended mostly catholic schools until in 1938 her father's disseminated lupus, a hereditary autoimmune blood disease (Butterworth) became so over whelming that O'Connor and her family were forced to move to Milledgeville, Georgia with O'Connor's maternal grandfather Peter Cline. O'Connor kept at her writing while living in the Cline house in Milledgeville writing a journal entitled "Don't Tuch" and also writing for her high school newspaper until the death of her father at the age of fifteen at which time her and her mother moved to Andalusia, Georgia.

At the age of seventeen, O'Connor entered Georgia State College for Women and while attending was elected to the Phoenix Society and was also editor of the school paper as well as editor of the yearbook and by attending summers O'Conner was able to graduate early from Georgia College ( as it was later renamed ) in July 1945. In the fall of 1945 O'Connor was admitted to the prestigious Iowa School for Writers where she wrote many pieces as part of masters thesis which was entitled The Geranium: A Collection of Short Stories, which included six stories: "The Geranium," "The Crop," "The Barber," "Wildcat," "The Turkey," and "The Train" and after two years graduated with a Master of Fine Arts Degree. After a rough start as a child, losing her father and moving to and from so many locations in the south, O'Connor went to college and became an accomplished author and student.

                In 1953 O'Connor published a short story entitled "The Life That You Save May Be Your Own" in which she showed her beliefs in the anti- materialism movement. Many believed this work not to be one of her best works but showed her belief in the anti-materialism movement in which many at this time were embracing. And for this reason and many more that will be expressed later I believe that O'Connor used the theme of anti-materialism in this story. In "The Life That You Save May Be Your Own", the main character Tom Shiftlet comes upon the Crater's farm where "Shiftlet's desire for the automobile indicates a hollowness within him, just as Mrs. Crater's desire to use Shiftlet's carpentry skills and his availability as a mate for her daughter reveal her own emptiness. Each character is willing, for the sake of some form of material comfort, to dehumanize not only Mrs. Crater's mute daughter Lucynell but themselves as well, shunning religious grace (whether represented in nature or Lucynell) for common goods"(Deignan). I thought that it was very odd how the mother said "'My only,' the old woman said, 'and she's the sweetest girl in the world. I wouldn't give her up for nothing on earth. She's smart too. She can sweep the floor, cook, wash, feed the chickens, and hoe. I wouldn't give her up for a casket of jewels'"(O'Connor). And then after Mr. Shiftlet has done a good amount of work on the farm and on the car that he so desperately wanted she later appears to be pushing her daughter on to Mr. Shiftlet. After the two negotiate a "price" for him to marry Lucynell they go into town and Mr. Shiftlet and Lucynell are married. After they are wed, they take Mrs. Crater to the farm and drive off for their honeymoon which turns out to be a bad one for Lucynell for when they stop for something to eat she falls asleep on the counter at which time the waiter states "She looks like an angel of Gawd"(O'Connor) to which Shiftlet responds with "Hitchhicker"(O'Connor) and then goes on to say "I can't wait. I got to make Tuscaloosa"(O'Connor) and embarks heading toward Mobile.

Most of the public at the time that "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" was published didn't really react to the story. At that time many people were going out and buying their first automobiles and the story was believed to be a story about anti-materialism. In a critical overview of "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" Tom Deignan says: "In this story, O'Connor's critique of materialism centers around her main character, Tom Shiftlet, and his desire to obtain the Craters's automobile. O'Connor's criticism is particularly sharp given the context of the story, which was published in 1953, when many Americans were purchasing their first automobiles and hitting the roads to 'see the U.S.A. in their Chevrolet,' to paraphrase a popular television commercial of the time. Even such beatnik authors who also disdained conventional American lifestyles as Jack Kerouac, who published On the Road in 1957 while O'Connor was still writing, viewed the automobile as a vehicle of flight from stifling middle- class values." "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" was a well received story written in the time that automobiles were being bought by many Americans.

There is a very possible influence of O'Connor's life and experiences on this work. The story could possibly be about the thought of anti- materialism and O'Connor argued this through showing us how Shiftlet would work for free just to be able to get the chance to get to fix up the Crater automobile. While it would seem that she was against the idea of anti- materialism from this story. Now the influence that her life might have had on this is that she was not exactly what we could of called poor in those days being from a well off family she would have had all that she could have ever wanted. I believe that for this exact reason she was not materialistic at because she believed that she could replace anything or have anything that she would ever want. Now O'Connor was also a very contradictive person as well. She would say things such as "The only thing that keeps me from being a regional writer is being a Catholic and the only thing that keeps me from being a Catholic writer (in the narrow sense) is being a Southerner"(Butterworth). I believe this shows a certain uncertainty of herself, her work, and her life. Little influence on her work was shown throughout her life but there was a certain element of uncertainty and a very contradictive association with the world.

Mary Flannery O'Connor died shortly after writing "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" in 1964 of disseminated lupus which was the same disease that claimed her fathers life years before. A very accomplished writer and person, and she is looked at now as a woman of great intrigue. "Many readers have been disturbed by her bizarre characters and pervasive use of violence; others have been confused by her confounding of traditional regional, religious, and literary categories"(Butterworth). With her wide range of writing she gave future generations a view into the world of the early 1900's and her tragic death at such an early age reminds us all to take things slow and not take the things we do in life to lightly