The Slime You Wash May Be Your Own

This is probably my favorite O'Connor story; I love the sliminess of Shiftlet - from his greasy hair to his elusive name. He shifts names as easily as gears (just as Aaron Sparks might replace plugs, or George Speeds might get pulled over, or Thompson Bright might warn you of deer on the road), shifts locations (from Lucynell's "permanent place" to Mobile); his name seems to beg its audience for permission to do as he wills, as his spirit would, as an automobile would, "always on the move"; just let Shiftlet shift.

But his slipperyness foils me, too. Is he a malicious character, or simply a negligent (i.e., shiftless) one? At times, to me, his gestures seem if not generous, then at least benign. "He had not been around a week before the change he had made in the place was apparent." He doesn't suggest marriage, though does wait to be offered the car to consent. He never made clear his intent to abandon Lucynell Jr., it only seems to have occured to him immediately before he did it.

And his mother, whom he talks to the young hitchhiker about - I hope I'm not alone in reading this as a composite of the Lucynells. If that's true then he's either lying to the hitchhiker or to himself, or both. If it's his real mother, then man, we don't know shift about Shiftlet.

And what of the grace moment? Does Shiftlet have it? Is it implied for Lucynell I? For the young hitchhiker?