"The Lame Shall Enter First" is a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest t ...

Flannery O'Connor Mary Flannery O'Connor (March 25, 1925August 3, 1964) was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist. She wrote two novels and 31 short stories, as well as a number of reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer who often ...

. It appeared first in ''

The Sewanee Review ''The Sewanee Review'' is an American literary magazine established in 1892. It is the oldest continuously published quarterly in the United States. It publishes original fiction and poetry, essays, reviews, and literary criticism. History ''Th ...

'' in 1962 and was published in 1965 in her short story collection ''

Everything That Rises Must Converge ''Everything That Rises Must Converge'' is a collection of short stories written by Flannery O'Connor during the final decade of her life. The collection's eponymous story derives its name from the work of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin. The collecti ...

''. O'Connor finished the collection during her final battle with

lupus Lupus, technically known as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), is an autoimmune disease in which the body's immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissue in many parts of the body. Symptoms vary among people and may be mild to severe. Commo ...

. She died in 1964, just before her final book was published. A devout

Roman Catholic Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

, O'Connor often used religious themes in her work.

Plot summary

The main character Sheppard is a middle-aged widower whose wife died a year before the story. An

atheist Atheism, in the broadest sense, is an absence of belief in the existence of deities. Less broadly, atheism is a rejection of the belief that any deities exist. In an even narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there no ...

ic rationalist, he consoles himself with humanitarian causes, and regards the grief of his young son, Norton, as a form of selfishness. Ironically, while Sheppard devotes himself to helping the boys in the local

reform school A reform school was a penal institution, generally for teenagers mainly operating between 1830 and 1900. In the United Kingdom and its colonies reformatories commonly called reform schools were set up from 1854 onwards for youngsters who were ...

, he cannot sympathize with Norton's grief and resulting foibles. Sheppard tells Norton that his mother is dead and no longer exists, and frequently berates him for his lack of reason and altruism. Sheppard invites Rufus Johnson, a fourteen-year-old

juvenile delinquent Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is the act of participating in unlawful behavior as a minor or individual younger than the statutory age of majority. In the United States of America, a juvenile delinquent is a person ...

, to live with them against Norton's wishes. Johnson has a high IQ and a

clubfoot Clubfoot is a birth defect where one or both feet are rotated inward and downward. Congenital clubfoot is the most common congenital malformation of the foot with an incidence of 1 per 1000 births. In approximately 50% of cases, clubfoot aff ...

, and was raised by his violent pentecostal grandfather. Sheppard desperately wants to

enlighten Enlightenment or enlighten may refer to: Age of Enlightenment * Age of Enlightenment, period in Western intellectual history from the late 17th to late 18th century, centered in France but also encompassing (alphabetically by country or culture): ...

Johnson, to turn his life around by teaching him about science and buying him a telescope to expand his horizons. Johnson holds Sheppard in contempt and strongly believes in God and the Devil, but believes that he himself is evil and resists all of Sheppard's naive attempts to help him. Though Sheppard buys him an orthopedic shoe, Johnson refuses it, quoting the words of Jesus that "the lame shall enter first" into the kingdom of heaven. Against Sheppard's wishes, Johnson tells Norton that his mother is in heaven above the earth, and he will only see her again if he dies as a child before he is corrupted. Norton eventually thinks he sees his mother through the telescope, but Sheppard dismisses such nonsense. The story ends with Johnson being taken away by the police for a burglary, which Johnson committed just to embarrass his patron Sheppard. Sheppard feels a wave of remorse over his treatment of his own son, and runs up to the attic to find that Norton has

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...

himself on a rafter above the telescope.Richard Giannone
Flannery O'Connor, hermit novelist
(University of Illinois Press, 2000)

References

Short stories by Flannery O'Connor 1965 short stories Southern Gothic short stories {{1960s-story-stub