by Flannery O'Connor

America from the Great Depression to World War II
These black-and-white photographs from the Farm Security Administration-Office of War Information Collection "show Americans at home, at work, and at play, with an emphasis on rural and small-town life and the adverse effects of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and increasing farm mechanization." View the fifteen most Popular Requests for a better understanding of the setting of "The Life You Save May Be Your Own."

Riding the Rails
During the Great Depression, four million Americans took to the rails in search of food and lodging. Among these transients were 250,000 children. This is the Web site for the award-winning documentary Riding the Rails that examines the lives of such teenagers. Explore the site and reflect upon the circumstances that forced children into such a life. Then write a short story called "Riding the Rails" about a teenager during the Great Depression.

A South Without Myths
In this brief essay, Alice Walker shares her appreciation for Flannery O'Connor's work. She remarks, "O'Connor's characters--whose humanity if not their sanity is taken for granted, and who are miserable, ugly, narrow-minded, atheistic, and of intense racial smugness and arrogance, with not a graceful, pretty one anywhere who is not, at the same time, a joke--shocked and delighted me." How do you view O'Connor's characters? Write an essay giving your impression of the characters in "The Life You Save May Be Your Own."