The Christ Figure in La malasangre by Griselda Gambaro and "The Life You Save May Be Your Own" by Flannery O'Connor

Southern Catholic writer Flannery O’Connor and Argentine playwright Griselda Gambaro both employed shocking acts of violence in their work in order to startle audiences into recognizing universal truths. In her 1982 play La malasangre, Gambaro explored the dynamics of fascism, misogyny, and the abuse of power through the lens of one family during the Rosista period of 1840s Buenos Aires. While the cultural milieu of the play is apparently secular, Gambaro utilizes a Christ figure in the character of the young hunchbacked tutor Rafael Sánchez. The events in the plot follow the pattern of Christ’s Passion, with Rafael stripped, beaten, mocked, and ultimately killed. In contrast, O’Connor’s 1955 short story “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” employs a distorted Christ figure in Tom Shiftlet, a one-armed drifter whose actions embody a dark parody of the narrative of Christ’s ministry. Not only does Shiftlet not save anyone else, the story ends with a foreshadowing of his own impending judgment, demonstrating the inverse truth of the title—the life he did not save was his own.