Throughout The Lame Shall Enter First, Sheppard continually references the joy he feels when “helping” others. For example, O’Connor notes regarding Sheppard’s work, “On Saturdays he worked at the reformatory as a counselor, receiving nothing for it but the satisfaction of knowing he was helping boys no one else cared about”(146). At first, this seems benign, After all, Sheppard is helping forgotten people in need. Further, after Sheppard sticks up for Johnson in the face of policeman, “[Sheppard’s] spirits were soaring. This is exactly what he needed”(179). Again, the pleasure Sheppard derives from helping Johnson is not inherently negative. However, as the story unfolds, Sheppard clearly does not have Johnson’s best interests in mind. In fact, he goes so far as to ultimately despise the child. Thus, O’Connor seems to be posing the question: How can one reconcile the joy they feel when helping others? At what point does this joy become counterproductive? Is helping others ever truly selfless?
2 thoughts on ““The Lame Shall Enter First” What is selfishness?”
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Nico, I think you pose a very interesting point about the selflessness of helping others. I would like to bring up a marxist ideology: that we has humans only experience things for OURSELVES; in other words, we may volunteer and do all these selfless acts, but the only reason we do them because of how they make us feel! Even what on the surface may appear as the most helpful and least indulgent action is actually just a ploy to give ourselves an endorphin rush. Now I don’t necessarily agree with this way of thinking but I think it is intriguing to revisit the ideas of volunteer work and the acts of helping others when determining whether doing such things is actually for the betterment of other people, or more so just for our own happiness.
At the first glance, I agree that helping people is a way leading to selflessness. However, I think it depends on that rescuer of how much that person intelligently balance his/her support to himself/herself and to others. Sheppard blindly helps Rufus, even though it is for a good sake, he does not fulfill or worth his kind heart. If I were Sheppard, I will keep following up about the intention of a person who I am going to rescue. Then, I will figure out another way to explain him, by not just insisting to keep Rufus in the house. I am also wondering why Sheppard seems careless about finding Rufus in the custody.