The physical world is important, her lost leg teaches her, through the instruction and instrument of Manley's crime. Similarly, Jacob dies in a way that is horrifying to him, given his moral credo. Twain's comic style renders the death of a child funny rather than pathetic, given that Jacob has been rehearsing his death speech, and hoping for a glorious end since the beginning of the story. Twain suggests that it is likely that if Jacob lived, he would be a miserable, pious hypocrite. Instead, he is mistaken for being a 'bad boy' while trying to thwart the actions of other bad boys who leave the scene of the crime 'scott free.' Alderman McWelter, "full of wrath" strikes the boy which leads to the accident that leaves poor Jacob in pieces.

Because Twain satirizes religious hypocrisy, and O'Connor uses a religious hypocrite to highlight what she sees as the even greater

However, both satirize the same thing: arrogance, and use a similarly ironical tone. Both Hulga and Jacob believe that they have the meaning of life 'figured out' from their reading, and that truth can be gleaned by reading a Sunday school primer or a philosophical text. Reading and observing rote forms of morality can never elicit truth, suggests both Twain and O'Connor, and it does not matter if that morality is secular or faith-based, particularly since Hulga pursues her atheism with the zeal of a pious believer.