The Life You Save May Be Your Own Study Guide

This story is set around 1944 on a rundown, desolate Southern plantation. On this plantation there lives an old woman and her daughter, Lucynell Crater. The old woman's name is also Lucynell, but she is simply referred to as "the old woman" throughout the story. Lucynell is slow and does not speak. Though she is around 30 years old, her mother presents her as being 15 or 16 years of age, because of her "innocence." Lucynell is a physically beautiful girl, with long golden hair and blue eyes. (read more)