Ascend – The Great Books Podcast

Grace and the Grotesque: “The Lame Shall Enter First” by Flannery O’Connor

Hosts: Deacon Harrison Garlick and Adam Minihan
Guest: Dr. Brian Kemple, Executive Director, Lyceum Institute
Release Date: December 2, 2025

Overview:

This episode delves into Flannery O’Connor’s haunting Southern Gothic story “The Lame Shall Enter First,” examining how her use of the grotesque becomes a vehicle for exploring grace, pride, and tragedy. Dr. Brian Kemple guides listeners through O’Connor’s craft, her personal suffering, and how these shape her depiction of brokenness, the possibility of redemption, and, ultimately, the limits of human reason. The discussion draws out parallels between O’Connor’s characters and Platonic concepts of the soul, investigates the story’s sacramental dimensions, and reflects candidly on the challenges O’Connor presents to readers—especially when the innocent suffer.

Episode Structure

1. Introduction to the Podcast and Lyceum Institute
2. On Flannery O’Connor: Biography and Style
3. The Grotesque in O’Connor’s Fiction
4. Pedagogical Purpose: The Grotesque as Sacramental and Instructive
5. Why Read Flannery O’Connor?
6. Synopsis and Deep Dive: “The Lame Shall Enter First”
   • Character Analysis
   • Central Themes
   • Significant Scenes and Quotes
7. The Ending and Its Implications
8. Personal Reflections and Recommendations
9. Outro & Further Reading

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Flannery O’Connor: Who is She?

• Born in 1925 in Georgia; suffered from lupus and wrote much of her work from her family farm.
• Known for her devout Catholicism, though her fiction centers on Southern, often Protestant characters.
• Her work is distinguished by the use of the grotesque, violence, and a “Southern Gothic” style—often confronting readers with uncomfortable realities to reveal deeper truths.
• O’Connor’s personal experience of suffering (illness, isolation) pervades her fiction, often shaping her characters’ sense of displacement and spiritual longing.

  “She was, from what I understand, somewhat embittered… she lived the last 14 years of her life walking around on crutches. That’s a very, you know, limiting thing.” – Dr. Kemple [11:00]

2. Why the Grotesque and Violence?

• O’Connor wrote an essay, The Grotesque in Southern Fiction, stating that her use of violence and deformity is a feature of Southern literary tradition and a means to reveal reality more acutely.
• The grotesque is not mere shock value; it’s a way of making spiritual realities visible:

  “If anything, she messes it up a little bit more so that we can see the filth more clearly… it shows you something.” – Dr. Kemple [16:51]

• There is a “pedagogical purpose”: Her violence and grotesquery serve as “sacramental analogies”—the physical world mediates grace, and so, too, the shocking events in her stories.

3. What Does O’Connor Want Us to Learn?

• O’Connor’s stories “impress themselves on the soul” in a way few authors manage, likened to Dostoevsky’s psychological depth and ability to haunt the reader.
• They help make sense of the world’s senselessness—her fiction provides concrete particulars to embody philosophical and theological truths.

  “You’ll have a hard time... stopping yourself from thinking about it for a while. They impress themselves upon the soul in a way that very few authors... are truly capable of.” – Dr. Kemple [24:33]

• She is less didactic and more invested in the “magical sign” of art—her stories instruct not through lecture, but through image, action, and ambiguity.

4. Why This Story? “The Lame Shall Enter First”

• Chosen for its dramatic depiction of false reason and spiritual blindness, especially in the character of Shepard.
• The story’s title resonates with the Gospel of Luke 14:13–14, underscoring the theme of inviting the outcast but also misreading what such charity requires.
• Kemple suggests the story’s three main characters (Shepard, Rufus Johnson, and Norton) can be analogized to Plato’s tripartite soul:
  • Shepard: Reason, but falsely severed from the whole
  • Rufus Johnson: Spirited part (Thumos), untamed and cunning
  • Norton: Desire, yearning for what he cannot grasp

5. Deep Dive: Characters, Themes, and Notable Moments

A. Character Sketches and Dynamics

Shepard

• City recreational director; views himself as reasonable, enlightened, altruistic.
• Favors intellect—idolizes IQ, science, and social reform.
• Alienated from his son, Norton, whom he sees as mediocre and a burden.
• Sees his work in the reformatory as analogous to a confessional but pridefully dismisses genuine spiritual need.
• Blind to his own grief over his wife’s death, which stunts his ability to love Norton.

  “He had never been inside a confessional, but he thought it must be the same kind of operation he had here, except that… his credentials were less dubious than that of a priest’s.” – [43:26]

Rufus Johnson

• A delinquent, highly intelligent (IQ 140), with a pronounced club foot.
• Fiercely self-reliant, resistant to “help,” and hostile to authority.
• Weaponizes the language of Christianity (“Satan has me in his power,” “Jesus’ll save me, not that lying stinking atheist”) to needle Shepard and influence Norton.
• Incites chaos and acts as a catalyst, unmoved by Shepard’s attempts at reform.

Norton

• Shepard’s neglected 10-year-old son, depicted as aimless, mourning his mother.
• Has a hunger for meaning and connection—finds in Johnson and religious talk a path to hope.
• His spiritual awakening is tragic; his longing to be reunited with his mother is his undoing.

B. Key Scenes and Insights (Timestamps Reference Content Segments)

Shepard’s Blind Charity & Intellectual Pride
[34:16]

• Shepard despises his son’s grief and interprets it as “selfishness,” while acting sacrificial on behalf of Johnson.
• Fails to recognize his own child’s need for love and care; sees Norton as an obstacle to his project of reforming Johnson.

Rufus’s Recalcitrance and Spiritual Sabotage
[51:55]

• Johnson subverts Shepard’s efforts: “I didn’t ask for an explanation… I already know why I do what I do. It’s Satan.”
• Johnson’s performative religiosity infuriates Shepard, deepening the gulf between the two.

The Telescope & The Meaning of the Stars
[69:20]

• The telescope, a symbol of science and material progress for Shepard, becomes a window for Norton’s spiritual longing.
• The same tool is both a sign of modern conquest (Shepard’s “space age” optimism) and a gateway to mystery, as in Dante: “This is where wonder begins… the soul’s being called up.” – Deacon Garlick

Norton’s Spiritual Awakening
[76:59]

• Norton is “revitalized” by the idea of heaven and of his mother’s continued existence, even in hell:

  “The boy would rather she be in hell than nowhere.” – Dr. Kemple [74:34]

• Shepard, however, cannot understand or address his son’s spiritual need.

Eating the Bible: Grotesque Faith
[105:55]

• In a climactic moment, Johnson “opened the book in his lap and tore a page of it out and thrust it in his mouth to show that he believed.” [105:55]
• This literalization of belief (referencing Ezekiel) underscores both the absurdity and intensity of Johnson’s faith—at once adolescent, deranged, and powerful.
• It signals the story’s approaching tragedy: faith that is misunderstood, manipulated, or detached from reason can be devastatingly destructive.

Threefold Denials and (Too Late) Redemption
[122:00]

• Shepard, abandoned by Johnson and the authorities, repeats his justifications in a mantra:

  “I have nothing to reproach myself with. I did more for him than I did for my own child.”

• Realizes, too late, the depth of his neglect:

  “He had stuffed his own emptiness with good works like a glutton and he had ignored his own child to feed his vision of himself… A rushing of agonizing love for his child rushed over him… The little boy’s face appeared to him, transformed, the image of his salvation.” [~121:56]

Norton’s Suicide: The Sacramental, Perverted
[123:05]

• Norton, having been led to believe he can reach his mother “in the sky,” hangs himself amid the attic’s jungle of shadows—“his flight into space.”
• This act completes the sacramental inversion of the story: the child, seeking reunion, takes the only path his twisted catechesis has left him.
• Flannery O’Connor neither comforts nor excuses—her story ends on the note of cosmic desolation, the price of spiritual blindness, and the perverse power of neglected grace.

6. Themes and Takeaways

• Blindness of Reason: Shepard is a devastating portrait of “reason” divorced from faith, love, and the whole soul.
• The Grotesque as Revelation: O’Connor uses violence and deformity not merely to shock, but to make visible the consequences of spiritual abstraction and neglected charity.
• Sacramental Ambivalence: Both Johnson’s literal consumption of the Bible and Norton’s ascent point to the dangers and power of mediation—sacramental grace twisted can lead to horror.
• Providence and Cosmic Justice: The “punishment” of Shepard is not arbitrary, but echoes classical tragedy: repentance that comes too late cannot undo what has been set in motion.
• Enduring Power:

  “You might hate it. But you’ll come back to it again and again, thinking about it… because it is so catching.” – Dr. Kemple [130:17]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the Grotesque:
  “Well, I don’t intend to tidy up reality.” — Flannery O’Connor, quoted by Dr. Kemple [16:09]
• On Being Haunted by O’Connor:
  “They impress themselves upon the soul in a way that very few authors… are truly capable of.” — Dr. Kemple [24:39]
• On Spiritual Longing:
  “The boy would rather she be in hell than nowhere.” — Dr. Kemple [74:34]
• On Faith and Reason:
  “I don’t care if he’s good or bad, he ain’t right.” — Rufus Johnson [101:38]
• On False Salvation:
  “I saved you from that at least.” — Shepard, after denying Johnson’s need for Christ [101:56]
• On Sinclair’s Regret:
  “He had stuffed his own emptiness with good works like a glutton and he had ignored his own child to feed his vision of himself.” — Narrator on Shepard [122:19]

Personal Reflections

• Deacon Garlick admits that, as a father, the story was hard to read—especially O’Connor’s willingness to visit suffering on children in ways that feel, and are, deeply tragic:

  “I struggled with it because as soon as I realized that the child was within the ambit of spiritual violence… I really struggled.” [85:32]

• Dr. Kemple defends O’Connor’s realism:

  “The sad reality is this is the sort of thing that happens… Children do misunderstand spiritual realities if left with no guidance.” [88:28]

• Both agree: her stories linger, unsettle, and force us to reckon with cosmic, not merely personal, stakes.

Further Recommendations

• For new readers, Dr. Kemple suggests:
  • “Revelation,” “Greenleaf,” “Everything That Rises Must Converge,” “Wise Blood.”
• Deacon Garlick recommends:
  • “Revelation,” “Greenleaf,” “Good Country People,” and for the brave, “Parker’s Back.”

Closing Thoughts

Flannery O’Connor’s fiction, and “The Lame Shall Enter First” in particular, exposes readers to a world where grace is ever possible but seldom tidy. The grotesque, the violent, and the tragic are not ends in themselves, but the “jungle of shadows” in which the soul must seek its true order—sometimes at devastating cost.

Dr. Kemple on the necessity of reading O’Connor sparingly:

“O’Connor’s stories are best read spread out over time—because they do have this dark imagery... But perhaps, if there’s a constant theme, it’s that, even in the most grotesque and awful and terrible moments of life, there is still purpose…” [134:41]

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [11:00]: O’Connor’s biography and context
• [16:09]: The purpose of the grotesque (“I don’t intend to tidy up reality.”)
• [24:33]: The unique power of O’Connor’s storytelling
• [34:16]: Shepard’s neglect and rationalization
• [51:55]: Johnson’s first refutation of Shepard’s “help”
• [69:20]: The symbolism of the telescope and the stars
• [74:34]: Norton’s longing (“the boy would rather she be in hell than nowhere”)
• [101:38]: Shepard’s “anti-confessional” and spiritual blindness
• [105:55]: Johnson eating the page from the Bible (grotesque as belief)
• [121:56]: Shepard’s dawning realization (“the image of his salvation”)
• [123:05]: The climax—Norton’s fate

Final Words

O’Connor compels readers to confront the darkest recesses of grace and depravity. The horror that lingers is, perhaps, an alarm—a call to attend more deeply to the neglected, the grieving, and the complex terrain of the soul.

For more on Great Books and further reading guides, visit thegreatbookspodcast.com. For classes in philosophy, the Trivium, and more, see lyceuminstitute.org.