Obeying Pontius Pilate's orders, the Roman soldiers nailed Jesus onto a cross but not before ridiculing and physically beating him. At nine o' clock in the morning, the men proceeded to crucify him along with two robbers. One of the robbers joined the soldiers in lampooning Jesus while the other one asked for forgiveness in hopes of reserving his place in Heaven; within hours, all three men had died. The concepts of faith, death, and salvation exemplified in the aforementioned anecdote continually permeate the text of Flannery O'Connor's short stories. As exhibited in the aforesaid account, each man, by asking Jesus to bestow his grace upon him, possesses his own chance for salvation, but only one of the...