Conflict in the Lame Shall Enter First by Flannery O'Connor (Essay Sample)

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Conflict in the Lame Shall Enter First by Flannery O’Connor
This is an emotional story ending in a broken heart, the central conflict is exhibited between Rufus and Sheppard, and between Sheppard and his conscience after losing his wife. He tries to mold a young boy, Rufus but he refuses to change completely. Rufus has an unfortunate background in that he is suffering from clubbed feet; his father passes on and the mother going to prison as if that is not enough the grandfather beats him and abandons him. It’s ironical that Rufus suffers more than Sheppard in the story but he is understands religion better and has strong faith than Sheppard who only loses his wife and quits believing in God. Sheppard too has a misfortune that is disturbing him in that his wife passes away. The writer does not see revelation as a glorious or positive experience but argues it necessary for one to live with suffering and be aware of it than to walk blindly through life (Thesis statement).Religion is major point of disagreement between Sheppard and Rufus and to some extent affects Rufus. The writer uses a vivid language to describe characters and makes the reader develop some empathy for Sheppard and Rufus.
The essential conflict is reflected to be a universal aspect of human psychology, interpersonal power dynamics. This is portrayed by Shepard who is so eager to save Rufus who admits he does not want to be rescued by Shepard because he considers him a hypocrite who sees himself as Christ but lacks in his faith and further tells him that the devil has him in his power. It is evident that Shepard does not believe in the bible since he says that he is too intelligent to believe in it .Rufus and Sheppard have different beliefs in that Sheppard does not believe in God while Rufus does and teaches Norton, Sheppard's son about heaven. The primary conflict, therefore, is in a broad sense universe and not necessary because of the social and historical setting of the story as religious beliefs and effects of misfortune are experienced in the world over and not necessarily affected by one's background. The central conflict is because Sheppard has particular expectation son Rufus whom he has made a project of hope after his wife passing on, but Rufus has personal beliefs that they don’t match with Sheppard and both take these turns due to their misfortunes.
The first episode we see a conflict between Rufus and Sheppard is in that there is a personal disappointment in that Sheppard had planned to bring in Rufus to his home after passing of his wife to inspire hope in him. This action disappoints Sheppard because he immediately realizes they are not in conformity with their religious beliefs, this creates first major conflict, and they ensure in heated arguments. The second episode of conflict is when Rufus goes ahead to teach Norton, about heaven, and hell. He manages to convince the boy that his mother is in the sky, this is very deliberate as Rufus is aware that Sheppard does not believe in God and that his son will share this belief with him which will cause significant disagreement between them. Another conflict is personal in nature as Sheppard struggles with his feelings after his wife's death, he loses the sense of hope and feels there is nothing more to live for and does not believe in God anymore.
The two sides of conflict presented are not even as the personal conflict between Sheppard and his beliefs is not elaborated as clearly as the battle between him and Rufus. Rufus and Sheppard are in constant disagreement and at the end exchange bitter words. Both have diverse beliefs, and none is willing to change for the other thus the ongoing conflicts.
The narrator's attitude on Rufus is not very clear, and he seems to be against his behavior, he somehow links Rufus to the death of Norton. The narrator is also skeptical of his methods as he says the police arrest Rufus as he is causing havoc to the world. He, therefore, justifies the conflict between Rufus and Sheppard but is not linking the personal conflict of Sheppard to his ongoing struggles with the son. The tone towards Sheppard is soft and leaves the audience feeling sorry for him for the loss of his son and trying to help Rufus but fails miserably. Rufus is also portrayed as suffering from a clubbed foot which is a clear sign of hardship. Rufus suffers psychologically from grandfather’s beatings and also the loss of his father and incarceration of his mother, but the narrator does not link this turmoil as having an effect on his behavior.
The story as a whole is not objective and seems to favor Sheppard's side compared to Rufus side. Rufus is portrayed as ungrateful and tries to cause havoc in the world hence his arresting by police. This is evident bias as both Rufus and Sheppard are suffering psychologically from deaths of their loved ones and both explore different paths to realize peace and hope for the future. Sheppard adopts Rufus in the hope he will change him and be the better person while Rufus turns to religion as a source of hope and inspiration. Both neglect their personal growth, and the challenges they face are as a result of lack of personal understanding, but the narrator focusses on Rufus as the antagonist and Sheppard as the protagonist. The narrator focuses on the teachings about heaven and hell by Rufus as selfish by showing in teaching Norton about heaven and hell Rufus was pushing his button to Sheppard. Towards the end, narrator portrays Sheppard as the better character in that he learns from his mistakes by realizing his goal on earth was to focus on his son and not changing people. On the other hand, Rufus story is not elaborated further, and we don’t get to learn if he advances with his goal of converting people mind believe about heaven or not.
The story depicts how the essential conflict is best understood through the psychological and emotional states of the three most famous characters. Shepard, a man, working for the local government and counseling of youth in the nearby rehabilitation center is very determined to help young people who he meets at the center. We see how Sheppard sees himself as ‘Christ’ insisting on saving Rufus even though the boy admits he does horrible things and believes he was going to hell. Sheppard refuses to accept the boys (Rufus and Norton) and wants them to be how he has planned for them to be. The writer reiterates her theme of revelation and redemption is taking too long. Norton commits suicide out of depression, desperation and the love he had for his mother. Sheppard wants to control Rufus and Norton has doomed him to live without either of them. Rufus does not accept the traditional virtues of Christianity, but he cannot escape from its powers. He says that even if he did not believe in the bible, it would still be true. Rufus however uses the same Bible to console Norton in his depression. The writer does not see revelation as a glorious or positive experience but argues it necessary for one to live with suffering and be aware of than to walk blindly through life. The essential conflict is best described through Norton’s emotional state where he is depressed about his mother being dead and his father not paying attention to him. During the time when the book was written, there's no evidence that men were not supposed to show their painful emotions. However, we see Shepard frequently criticizing his son for acting so dramatic over the death of his mother. It's clear that Shepard wanted his son to ‘man up’ but was unable to do so which led him to welcome Rufus to stay with them to help Norton overcome his grief.
To his thinking Sheppard dismisses the fact that repenting is indeed the way to access the path to heaven. His belief that he can control the two boys shows the amount of power he thinks he has over Rufus and Norton. This conflict can therefore be termed as the universal aspect of human psychology and interpersonal dynamics. The fact that Rufus believes in the bible despite doing the opposite of what it asks the believers to do goes to shows that he had decided to disobey God in just so that he could prove what kind of a man Shepard was. He was convinced that the man was so concerned with him just for the sake of gaining credit for helping him. He had decided to neglect his son in his mission of saving Rufus from his wrong ways. This was not the best example of a man willing to help others. The interpersonal power dynamics portrayed by Sheppard shows just how far human beings are willing to go to achieve their goals. Sheppard was willing to stay with Rufus despite knowing deep down that Rufus was committing all those crimes he was being accused of by the police just so that he would kick him out but he refused to do so. He wanted to control Rufus and change him, and so he spent so much time planning what to do with Rufus that he forgot his child who ended up committing suicide.
The general religious worldview expressed in the lame shall enter first is that believe in God is paramount to developing real virtues in life. Sheppard misses this important point by being an atheist and refusing to believe in God and in that his wife went to heaven after her death. This is detrimental to him as he develops a think that helping other people is more important in life than believing in God and at the end, he is greatly disappointed learning that he tried to change Rufus but fails substantially as well as losing his son. Sheppard peculiar believe in helping people to inspire hope is skewed as he neglects his son and is unable to help Norton deal with this grief resulting to him hanging himself.
Johnson strong belief in heaven and earth is also a reflection of the world today that can be further advanced in evil versus good. Johnson is c...