He was more depressed than ever as he drove on by himself. the late afternoon had grown hot and sultry and the country had flattened out. deep in the sky a storm was preparing very slowly and without thunder as if it meant to drain every drop of air from the earth before it broke. there were times when mr. shiftlet preferred not to be alone. he felt too that a man with a car had a responsibility to others and he kept his eye out for a hitch-hiker. occasionally he saw a sign that warned: “drive carefully. the life you save may be your own.”

which statement most accurately represents the excerpt’s larger idea?

a. beauty and truth appear in unexpected places.
b. social isolation may lead people to act immorally.
c. getting what you want may not make you happy.
d. you may not get everything that you have bargained for.

Mary Flannery O’Connor was an American writer, she wrote two important novels, “Wise Blood” and “The Violent Bear it Away”, and many short stories.

The “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” tells the story of an old woman and her daughter who is deaf and mute and live by themselves in a farm. The old lady wants to marry her daughter and a man who arrived at the farm to help fix problems at the farm seems like the perfect candidate for the daughter. After some time the man, Mr. Shiftlet, accepts to marry Lucynell, but on one occasion he left her sleeping in a road restaurant and leaves forever.

The general idea of the novel is that of a stranger who arrives to the lives of two women and provokes a change in their lives, just as in “Good Country People”.

The statement that most accurately represents the excerpt's larger idea is:

C. Getting what you want may not make you happy.

repetition is used to make the poem come off the page

to leave the reader thinking and wandering on their own. without a resolution we are clueless to what happens next, and why it does. it may even cause suspension with the reader.

explanation: