Critics recognized the importance of "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" immediately after it was published in the literary journal Kenyon Review in the spring of 1953. That year the story was included in the annual collection of exemplary short fiction published to honor the memory of the short story writer O. Henry. Critics have seen this story as a nearly paradigmatic example of O'Connor's almost obsessive concern with religious themes— specifi- cally, an individual's ability to find opportunities for salvation and redemption in everyday life.

Initial critical reaction to "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" was largely positive, though some critics were not quite sure what to make of O'Connor's alternately ordinary and grim story. Highlighting the ambiguities and difficulties present in O'Connor's stories, with their odd characters and often harrowing endings, the New Yorker went so far as to suggest...