Flannery O'Connor was educated at Georgia State Women's College and also attended Iowa State. O'Connor wrote her first literary work at the age of twenty-seven, and she expresses her personal beliefs and opinions in her writing. O'Connor often has characters in her literature who are disabled in one way or another, and most of the time she feels sympathy for these characters. O'Connor died of a rare disease called lupus, and she lived with the disease most of her life ("Flannery" 1050). “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” tells the story of a traveler, Mr. Shiftlet, who marries a mentally retarded girl to obtain an automobile and money from the girl's mother. In the end, Mr. Shiftlet ends up abandoning the girl. In "The Life You Save May Be Your Own", O'Connor uses duality to show that people and things can have two sides. In the story, O'Connor parallels Mr. Shiftlet with Christ and an anti-Christ. O'Connor reveals, through the character Mr. Shiftlet, that people can have two different sides. Mr. Shiftlet's past occupations match what Jesus Christ did while on earth. Mr. Shiftlet “is a carpenter and has in the past been a gospel singer…and a visitor to all foreign lands” (Griffith 140). Just like Mr. Shiftlet, Jesus was a carpenter and he continually traveled to many different places while preaching the gospel. Although Christ was not a gospel singer, this relates directly to Jesus because the gospel songs are for him and for him. O'Connor shows that each profession of Mr. Shiftlet is connected in some way to the professions of Jesus. Another way Jesus and Mr. Shiftlet parallel each other is through blood donation. Jesus was crushed, bruised and beaten, and his blood spilled onto the middle of the paper... the result of Mr. Shiftlet's decisions. Mr. Shiftlet is the one who evokes the negative side of nature in order to develop it (Deignan 3). O'Connor revealed that nature has contrast and duality, portraying it both positively and negatively in the story. The duality in O'Connor's short story reveals the two aspects that humans and objects can have. O'Connor presents the duality of Mr. Shiftlet's character by showing that he bears similarities to the person of Christ. It also shows that he possesses certain traits that correspond to an antichrist. Duality also manifests itself in nature, through the use of nature in a positive and positive way. Nature is also described by O'Connor as destructive and evil. O'Connor puts specific details into his story that support the use of Mr. Shiftlet's positive and negative nature and two personalities. “The Life You Save May Be Yours” Is Filled With Two Sides.