The commonality between O'Connor's "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" and Porter's "He" was the presence of a mentally handicapped child. In both cases, the treatment of that child drives the narrative.
But what really stood out for me was the children's lack of identity. In the former, Lucynell has the same name as her mother rather than her own unique moniker, and in the latter the child isn't even referred to by name, only as "He." I wonder if by not truly naming their kids, it was easier for the parents to treat them as they did. With Lucynell, she was used as a bargaining chip. With the son in "He," the child was treated as livestock, making it all the more troubling when he showed true emotion at the end.
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I have to say I disagree with the lack of independent names of the disabled children as a lack of identity. In "He" I assume that the boy does have a name but, since the story is driven by the mother's insight, we don't get it. However, I think this is more because she doesn't need to give us a name to show how invested in Him she is. Everyone knows who she is talking about when she is referring to He or Him. Her whole world revolves around Him. I feel like we get to see how involved she is in him by not getting a name. He is more than just a name to her. He isn’t really a child to her, therefore she does not expect to name him and treat him as such. He is something that she revolves around and is so invested in that I don’t think his lack of a name makes him livestock. After all, she worries about him and does her best to take care of him, even when that means the rest of the family suffers. His lack of a name doesn’t mean he has a lack of identity. I think it more shows that his identity is more through the mother and how she treats him rather than him as a person.
In “The Life you Save May Be Your Own,” I also don’t think the repetitive name is a lack of identity, though it is more so than in “He.” The mother does use her daughter as a bargaining chip but we do understand her as a person. I felt that her lack of identity is more that no one really knows how to deal with her than they don’t care about her identity. I think the mother is doing as best she can for her daughter. Sure she is marrying her off but I read that as she’s looking for someone to take care of her daughter when she is gone. She is taking the steps to make sure her daughter is cared for. If her daughter had no identity, she wouldn’t care as much about that. The mother realizes that her daughter’s life will go on after her so she needs to be taken care of.
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