The Lame Shall Enter First

E381595

"The Lame Shall Enter First" is a darkly comic and morally complex short story by Flannery O’Connor that explores themes of pride, faith, and redemption through the fraught relationship between a rationalist father and a troubled juvenile delinquent.

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The Lame Shall Enter First canonical 1

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Statements (44)

Predicate Object
instanceOf literary work
short story
antagonist Rufus Johnson
author Flannery O'Connor
surface form: Flannery O’Connor
authorBeliefContext The Church and the Fiction Writer
surface form: reflects Flannery O’Connor’s Catholic worldview
centralConflict conflict between father and son
conflict between secular rationalism and religious belief
characterRole Norton is Sheppard’s son
Rufus Johnson is a juvenile delinquent
containsElement irony
moral ambiguity
religious symbolism
countryOfOrigin United States of America
surface form: United States
exploresRelationship relationship between a rationalist father and a juvenile delinquent
relationship between a rationalist father and his son
genre Christian fiction
Southern Gothic
dark comedy
hasAllusion biblical phrase "the lame shall enter first"
language English
literaryMovement Catholic literature
Southern Gothic
surface form: Southern Gothic literature
mainCharacter Norton
Rufus Johnson
Sheppard
moralFocus limits of rationalism
misguided altruism
motif charity and social work
disability
religious prophecy
science and reason
narrativePerspective third-person narration
protagonist Sheppard
setting urban American South
settingPeriod mid-20th century
theme faith
grace
parent–child relationships
pride
rationalism versus faith
redemption
suffering
tone darkly comic
tragic

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Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.

Everything That Rises Must Converge hasTitleShortStory The Lame Shall Enter First