Question

Read the excerpt from Flannery O’Connor’s “The Life You Save May Be Your Own.”

Mr. Shiftlet was so shocked that for about a hundred feet he drove along slowly with the door stiff open. A cloud, the exact color of the boy’s hat and shaped like a turnip, had descended over the sun, and another, worse looking, crouched behind the car. Mr. Shiftlet felt that the rottenness of the world was about to engulf him. He raised his arm and let it fall again to his breast. “Oh Lord!” he prayed. “Break forth and wash the slime from this earth!”

Which best describes the irony of the excerpt?
Mr. Shiftlet has just deceived an old woman for personal gain, and yet he does not think he’s part of the “rottenness of the world.”
Mr. Shiftlet should never have given a ride to the young boy, who clearly was up to no good and should have been at home with his loving mother.
Mr. Shiftlet observes that the color of the cloud is the same as the boy’s hat, a grim reminder that the boy is part of a rotten world.
Mr. Shiftlet is unable to close the door of his car, which essentially forces him to invite the evilness of the world into his car.

Answer 1

"Mr. Shiftlet has just deceived an old woman for personal gain, and yet he does not think he’s part of the 'rottenness of the world.'"

Explanation: The irony is dramatic—Shiftlet prays for the world to be cleansed while he himself has committed dishonest, selfish acts, so he's part of the "slime" he asks to be removed.