Question

Although the old woman lived in this desolate spot with only her daughter and she had never seen Mr. Shiftlet before, she could tell, even from a distance, that he was a tramp and no one to be afraid of. His left coat sleeve was folded up to show there was only half an arm in it and his gaunt figure listed slightly.
Which phrase connects these characters to the Southern gothic genre?
A. half an arm
B. she had never seen
C. his left coat sleeve
D. folded up

Answer 1

Mary Flannery O’Connor was an American writer, she wrote two important novels, “Wise Blood” and “The Violent Bear it Away”, and many short stories.

The “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” tells the story of an old woman and her daughter who is deaf and mute and live by themselves in a farm. The old lady wants to marry her daughter and a man who arrived at the farm to help fix problems at the farm seems like the perfect candidate for the daughter. After some time the man, Mr. Shiftlet, accepts to marry Lucynell, but on one occasion he left her sleeping in a road restaurant and leaves forever.

The general idea of the novel is that of a stranger who arrives to the lives of two women and provokes a change in their lives, just as in “Good Country People”.

The stories with the Southern Gothic literature style often focused on grotesque themes. While it may include supernatural elements, it mainly focuses on damaged, even delusional, characters.

So, the answer for this question is:

A. half an arm

Answer 2

I think the answer is A) half an arm, because I can infer that Mr. Shiftley most likely got injured or shot during war in the South to take off half of his arm.