The Life You Save May Be Your Own

Characterization emerges from the various ways a writer reveals a character’s personality. In this story, Flannery O’Connor develops her characters by contrasting their words and actions. For example, after stealing the old woman’s car and abandoning Lucynell at a diner, Mr. Shiftlet calls a hitchhiker “slime” and asks the Lord to “wash the slime from this earth!” Write a two- or three-paragraph vignette that showcases two invented characters of your own using clear contrasts in words and actions.