The Lame Shall Enter First

by Flannery O'Connor

Reproduction from the New York, Farrar, Straus and Giroux edition of 1971.
At his wit’s end with his son’s grief over the death of his mother a year earlier, Sheppard invites a troubled youth, Rufus, into their home. Contemptuous of Sheppard, Rufus resists the man’s attempts to improve him, but the extent—and consequences—of Rufus’s disdain for Sheppard become clear only in Rufus’s dealings with Sheppard’s son, Norton.

American author Flannery O’Connor is known for her portrayal of flawed characters and their inevitable spiritual transformation. “The Lame Shall Enter First” is a haunting story of a flawed man unable to connect with and comfort his grieving son.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction, Classics, American, Literature

38 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1962

About the author

Critics note novels Wise Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear It Away (1960) and short stories, collected in such works as A Good Man Is Hard to Find (1955), of American writer Mary Flannery O'Connor for their explorations of religious faith and a spare literary style.

The Georgia state college for women educated O’Connor, who then studied writing at the Iowa writers' workshop and wrote much of Wise Blood at the colony of artists at Yaddo in upstate New York. She lived most of her adult life on Andalusia, ancestral farm of her family outside Milledgeville, Georgia.

O’Connor wrote Everything That Rises Must Converge (1964). When she died at the age of 39 years, America lost one of its most gifted writers at the height of her powers.

Survivors published her essays were published in Mystery and Manners (1969). Her Complete Stories , published posthumously in 1972, won the national book award for that year. Survivors published her letters in The Habit of Being (1979). In 1988, the Library of America published Collected Works of Flannery O'Connor, the first so honored postwar writer.

People in an online poll in 2009 voted her Complete Stories as the best book to win the national book award in the six-decade history of the contest.

Reviews

[Duane Parker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite in the class of "A Good Man is Hard to Find", but it's unmistakably O'Connor with her sparse but explicit descriptions of the struggles and anguish of her characters.

[Kristen Mcmahan · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this short story by Flannery O'Connor. This is the story of a young boy and his father. The boy recently lost his mother and the father can not understand why the boy has yet to get over it in such a short period of time. The father is constantly telling his son that he needs to be less selfish and needs to do good for others. To exemplify this the father takes in a young delinquent boy to care for. However, he soon pays much more attention to this new project then to his own son.
The element of craft that is so well constructed in this story is that of character building. There are very few characters in the story, really only the two boys and the father, however these characters are set up so well that they hold the readers captivated the whole time. I think one reason I found them so interesting is because of how odd they all are. O'Connor has a way of building highly eccentric characters that may or may not exist in real life, but convinces you that they could exist in the real world. The story is realistic, but the character are so odd that you keep reading to find out how they deal with the seemingly average situations at hand. I think that one thing that students could learn from this story is that the details of a writer's characters do not always have to be what readers see everyday; they do not have to be conventional. Often the best characters are so odd it can be hard to believe that they could actually exist. Some of the best characters ride the line of believability. Yes these characters could exist in the really world but probably not very often. These details take risk and creativity, but the characters created are interesting and memorable.

[Raha · Rating 3 out of 5]

دست ِنوازش گرِ سرنوشت هم کوتاه است، آنهایی که به او نزدیک اند، در ناز مطلق زندگی می کنند و اما آن دورتر ها، کسانی که همیشه از همه چیز محروم شده اند، نه تنها نوازشی در کار نیست، بلکه سرنوشت مدام به آنها سیلی میزند و یادآور می شود که زندگی لزوماً برای همه آدم ها نیست.

اما هیچ عدالتی در این کره خاکی وجود ندارد، یا شاید معنی عدالت را به درستی یاد نگرفته ایم.وگرنه آخر این همه تفاوت در زندگی دو کودک-نورتون و جانسون-غیرقابل درک است.
البته این سرنوشت گاها می‌خواهد روزهای سخت را تلافی کند، سعی می کند این بار شانس در خانه ما را بزند.اما غافل از اینکه انسانی که طعم نداری ها و نشدن ها را چشیده، به نظرتان گوشی برای شنیدن صدایِ در خانه دارد؟ جایی خواندم که فقر خیلی از حس ها را در انسان خاموش می کند.
جانسون با اینکه رفت در را باز کند تا ببیند سرنوشت این بار چه چیزی برایش مقدر کرده، ولی درنهایت به سراغ زندگی قبلی اش رفت.

باید به سرنوشت بگوییم که ای سرنوشتِ عزیز اگر می خواهی یکبار هم شانس درِ خانه ما را بزند لطفاً زود باش؛ چرا که بعضی وقت‌ها خیلی دیر می شود، خیلی دیر.
تا حدی دیر که دیگر توان و حوصله تغییر را نداریم.
سرنوشت عزیزم سعی کن کمی بیشتر با ما راه بیایی :)

[Michael David · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've always liked Flannery O'Connor ever since I read A Good Man is Hard to Find. Here she puts into question the purported 'nobility' of atheism, which is actually a cloak for overweening pride. Sheppard (a transmogrification of the Shepherd, Jesus Christ) thinks he can transform a delinquent named Johnson into someone progressive and civilized. He fails because he does not truly have faith in either the delinquent or in God. Goodness can only go so far without God. Sheppard thinks Johnson is his work in progress: he thinks that he can transform people because he is intelligent. Eventually, he forgets his child in the process.

He eventually alienates his child, and Johnson proves to him his frailty: as a hypocrite, Sheppard is worse because he thinks he is doing good in contrast with the resignation and discernment of Johnson's evil. It's a complex work that rewards many re-reads, and it's a work that stirs and ignites one's faith. It's classically O'Connor, and it's excellent: even read merely as a character study, it scintillates.

[Mumzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Flannery is hard core. I'm blown away by her absolute audacity. If she'll say this, she'll say anything. Dig out your rosaries, people.

[Alexa Ramm · Rating 4 out of 5]

WACK, BUT IN A JAW DROPPING WAY

[Emma Whear]

Flannery, doing her classic Flannery thing. You can see the violent grace coming from a mile away, but alas, there ain't no stopping the train before the collision.

[EB · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve read nearly all of O’Connor’s short stories, and this story by far appeals to one of the most powerful moral teachings in her body of work. Its ethical dimension struck me as incredibly relevant to our present time and the ways in which we operate from an understanding of what is Good for others and ourselves. This story questions the ability to make such resolute judgements about what is Good for one person over another, and criticizes the tendency to become self-righteous in our certainty about our perspective and judgements of others. Be emotionally prepared, though, because the story is pretty devastating by its end.

[petite_bibliotheque · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellente nouvelle avec des personnages super intéressants.

[Alex Morra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredibly disturbing and profound

[Jan Z · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very Flannery, with the religious overtones and startlingly ending

[Morgana Mendonça dos Santos · Rating 4 out of 5]

De tirar o fôlego! Thanks Galdino pela indicação.

[Jody · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow. This one just blew me away. That ending! After feeling fairly ambivalent after A Good Man Is Hard To Find, now I'm wanting to read more from her. Her characters can be fairly vile, but I loved this nonetheless.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.7 stars

This is a rough one. I knew where it was going once the youngest boy was told he could be with his mother if he went now, but not later. Who tells a kid missing their dead mother that?! Really, the whole story was compelling and intriguing. One of the best, so far, if one of the most heartbreaking.

[Tom Velasco · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn’t much care for it initially on account of fatigue over O’Connor’s relentless bleakness, as well as the fact that the final tragedy didn’t comport (as far as I could tell) with the rest of the story. It’s really stuck with me, however, and after discussion and some introspection, I’ve flipped on it.

Read the short story for our Ambrose Socratic discussion retreat.

[Maryna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Религия, Бог, вера... Эти понятия заложены в сердце рассказа и сядят там, как лава в жерле вулкана. Вот сейчас они вырвутся и сокрушат все на своем пути. В этом рассказе я наконец-то поняла, почему критики утверждают, что Фланнери О'Коннор работала в жанре южной готики. Действительно, готичненько, мрачненько, пессимистичненько. Ощущение постоянно нависшей угрозы. Однако этот рассказ пошел у меня все же лучше, чем "Revelation" ("Откровение"), так как, не смотря на то, что религия - тема главенствующая и преобладающая, TLSEF - все же более универсальный рассказ. Концепцию автора можно с успехом применить не только в поле "вера - атеизм", а и во многих обычных жизненных ситуациях. Заставляет задуматься вопрос о том, от чистого ли сердца мы делаем добро? что нами движет? истинное и ничем не омраченное желание сделать это самое добро или это желание помочь себе? не хотим ли мы, случайно, просто получить признание своей исключительности и "хорошести"? Иногда стоит взвесить...

На русском: Рассказ "Хромые внидут первыми" в сборнике "На вершине все тропы сходятся"

6 / 10

[Kaitlyn Witman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A really gut wrenching portrayal of a man blinded to the needs of his own son by his own need to feel like he’s a good and charitable person. In fact his behavior is the opposite of kindness, and is actually bringing harm to both boys in the story.

He is completely blind to the direct harm that Rufus causes to Norton, when Rufus is given unfettered access to his home. Rufus plants the idea in Norton that he can join his mother in death. And Norton, lonely and abandoned by his father emotionally, clings to the seeds of hope that Rufus planted.

No amount of charity would change Rufus, because he is firm in his belief that he is untouchable and will never ever be punished - this is the title, “the lame shall enter first.” This untouchable complex gives him complete freedom to behave beyond reproach. And, instead of condemning his actions, Shepperd explains them away and even defends him. This level of hypocrisy is a lesson he pays for dearly with his son’s life.

[Greg · Rating 2 out of 5]

At about 16,000 words, this is one of O'Connor's longest shorts. And for me that's a problem. Johnson is a furious kid, he has a bad foot. At one point, he says, about another kid "He made suggestions to me!" A reporter asked, "...what kind of suggestions?" Johnson's response is, "Immr'l suggestions," because of course he's lying. Reporter then asks, "Can you tell us exactly what he said?" Johnson comes back with, "He's a dirty atheist." This is O'Connor so you just know things are gonna get even worse. Naturally, the end of the story is crushing. For me, this story would have been better at maybe half the length.

[Nolan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really a critique against faithlessness more than anything, and a somewhat absurd take on an atheistic household bereft of values. While it was set up with foreshadowing, the ending felt like extreme whiplash beyond just shock value.

Not poorly written and not unenjoyable (although it felt overlong), the short story stretched towards the edge of polemic and didn't really stand out to me. I think this one's for the Christians out there, I don't feel vindictive or defensive about my beliefs in life any more but the message rang hollow for me.

[Dorian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well, book 27/31 was certainly a book to remember. You could easily foreshadow that this would not be a happy ending, especially with how long the story was.

It is a very perplexing book. On one hand, Johnson (Rufus) knew more about the Bible than Sheppard did, and it was a clever way to write his name as he was supposed to be a sheppard to Rufus, but denied Jesus at all occasions. The boy Norton was a mean spirited child who finally found Jesus and peace.

Not sure what to believe anymore, but every day I grow older I get closer to Jesus, not farther away.

[toria · Rating 5 out of 5]

"If you are a preacher of mercy, do not preach an imaginary but the true mercy. If the mercy is true, you must therefore bear the true, not an imaginary sin. God does not save those who are only imaginary sinners. Be a sinner, and let your sins be strong, but let your trust in Christ be stronger, and rejoice in Christ who is the victor over sin, death, and the world... Do you think such an exalted Lamb paid merely a small price with a meager sacrifice for our sins? Pray hard for you are quite a sinner." -Rev. Dr. Martin Luther to Philip Melanchthon

[Lloyd Hughes · Rating 5 out of 5]

The line between compassion and enabling is thin, very very thin AND it is constantly moving. Turn the other check— not seven times but seventy times seven times. Accountability, personal responsibility: what does this look like. I could give my opinions but Ms O’Connor gives us a marvelous little story that lays it all out in true-to-life fashion so we can poke and probe and ponder and draw our own conclusions.

[Jackson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oh my god, Flannery! This is the craziest shit I’ve even read in my entire life. I couldn’t help but die of laughter at how crazy some of these situations are. So insane, and the tone is like, pitch black and heavy and everything is in such a weird light. The story becomes this insane science vs. religion metaphor. I can’t even comprehend how great this story is. Ends with a bang too!

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished up this short story last night. Man, O’Connor has a way of revealing the hardness of some people, their self righteousness, or “goodness” by their own standards. It makes me want to introspect the ways in which I cling to subtle idolatries in the same way.

[Juergen John Roscher · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent short story by Flannery O'Connor about a father ignoring his own hurt son to try and save another youth with a troubled past. The father relaizes to late that he sacrificed his own son to try to help someone that was beyond help. A little disturbing short story but with a power moral.

[nashaly]

can't even tell you if I enjoyed this or not. great writing and I definitely got the message but I hated all the characters (except Norton). that ending made me wish I never read this but I won't rate it until after the discussion of this in my seminar class.

[Zorayda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un texto de lectura rápida, pero bastante intenso.

[Brody Danel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow. At once beautiful and devastating. Many layers to peel back upon further readings, this is one that will stick in my mind for some time.

[Gavin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short story about family, pride, virtue. The characters rang very true. I was shocked by the ending, but in retrospect it made perfect sense. Nurture what you've got.

[flopsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

favorite flannery o'connor story ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️ it's so good it's so perfect it's... it's... waow.