Gender and Disability Theme Analysis

Throughout the story, Tom Shiftlet seems preoccupied with his own masculinity. He talks frequently about what defines a man, reflecting his insecurity that others might think his missing arm makes him less of one. Meanwhile, the characters treat Lucynell as though she were the perfect woman: she’s physically beautiful and, because of her intellectual disability, she’s docile and mostly silent. But in the end, Shiftlet’s disability makes him no less powerful—he’s a man with the capacity to not only fix things around the farm, but also to be profoundly cruel in pursuit of his own freedom. And while Lucynell’s disability might have made her an “ideal woman,” it also leaves her powerless to protect herself in a dire situation. In this way, the story satirizes traditional gender roles, showing how society’s real ideal is a woman who can’t defend herself against the strength of a man.

Shiftlet is preoccupied with what defines a man, which seems to stem from his insecurity about his missing arm. When Shiftlet asserts that he’s a man, if not “a whole one,” and that he can fix anything on the farm, it reveals the source of his anxiety about gender. Since he only has one arm, he worries that he might be—or that others might perceive him as—less of a man. Because of this, he overcompensates by insisting, over and over, on his masculinity. When he first shows up on the Craters’ farm, for instance, he goes on a long tangent about what a man is, and what a man is made for. And when Mrs. Crater says she can’t pay him to do work on the farm, he asks rhetorically if all a man is made for is money. Shiftlet’s apparent worry that Mrs. Crater won’t see him as a real man is well-founded; at first, Mrs. Crater doubts Shiftlet’s ability to provide, wondering “if a one-armed man could put a new roof on her garden house.” She later reminds him that the world is not kind to friendless, disabled drifters. Mrs. Crater does doubt his masculinity until he proves his ability to work, and she makes it obvious that others probably share her assumption.

While Shiftlet’s disability seems to undermine his masculinity, the other characters treat Lucynell as a perfect example of womanhood. Lucynell is depicted as an angelic, divine figure, in large part because of her cherubic beauty. The story frequently refers to her pink-gold hair and peacock blue eyes, which prompt a waiter at a roadside restaurant to exclaim “She looks like an angel of Gawd.” Physical beauty isn’t the only way Lucynell is idealized. Mrs. Crater emphasizes Lucynell’s feminine value in the very first scene, pointing out that she can perform domestic labor like sweeping, washing and cooking. This emphasis suggests that proficiency in household chores is one of the primary ways of determining whether a woman has value. Another of Lucynell’s supposedly feminine characteristics is her innocence. Mrs. Crater repeatedly points towards Lucynell’s innocence while trying to convince Shiftlet to marry her (Shiftlet had previously stated he was still unmarried because he wanted an innocent woman rather than “trash”). Historically, female innocence meant virginity, and was required for a woman to be a desirable bride. In this case, though, innocence also seems synonymous with mental impairment and a lack of worldliness. Similarly, the story frames Lucynell’s inability to talk as a virtuous quality in a wife, since she can’t “sass” her husband. Both Mrs. Crater and Shiftlet seem to agree these are all desirable qualities in a woman.

But Lucynell’s supposed womanly perfection contrasts with her childlike, infantilized, and inscrutable nature, suggesting the characters have a distorted view of female virtue. On Lucynell’s wedding day, Mrs. Crater notes approvingly that she looks like a baby doll—an inanimate object rather than a real person. This comparison suggests that Lucynell’s humanity isn’t taken seriously even by her mother, especially since it’s not clear that Lucynell has been able to consent to or even understands her marriage. Similarly, other characters’ projections onto Lucynell are not always true. For example, her mother lies to Shiftlet that she’s around 16 years old when in actuality she’s closer to 30. In this case, she is treated as more of a child than she really is, but the deceit—and Shiftlet’s acceptance of it—emphasizes that no one, not even the reader, can ever know the truth about Lucynell’s inner nature. Finally, Lucynell, in addition to being deaf and largely mute, is often described as blank and unseeing. After her courthouse wedding to Shiftlet she has a placid, thoughtless expression. When Mrs. Crater says goodbye to her—for perhaps the first and last time, as Shiftlet will abandon her soon after—Lucynell doesn’t “seem to see” her mother at all. Her apparent lack of an inner life suggests Flannery O’Connor is critiquing society’s idea of what defines an ideal woman. If Lucynell is the perfect wife, then any woman who can speak or think for herself is deficient.

It’s notable that Shiftlet’s physical disability throws his manliness into question, but Lucynell’s intellectual disability—which results in silence and sweetness—makes other characters see her as the perfect woman. This suggests that a “broken” man is unacceptable, while a “broken” woman is ideal. What’s more frightening is that Shiftlet’s disability doesn’t really hold him back; his missing arm doesn’t stop him from doing the masculine work of fixing things on the farm, and—though readers might expect him to feel empathy for another “broken” person—it doesn’t stop him from abandoning Lucynell, either. Meanwhile, Lucynell’s disability leaves her unable to defend herself at all against the cruelty of those around her. The story, then, seems to be emphasizing the horrific power dynamic of traditional gender roles: women are ideally powerless against the strength—and cruelty—that is valorized in men.