It was discussed in the “Artificial Nigger” about denying one’s son when Mr. Head denied Nelson just like Peter did with Christ. In “The Lame Shall Enter First” Sheppard also denies his son, just is a different way. Like Chelsea Lane pointed out, Sheppard had the “God” role in the story, but he completely messes it up. He tried to do good, but it was for all of the wrong reasons. He tried to help the “juvenile delinquent” who really didn’t need help, when he should have been helping his son Norton the whole time.
From the beginning Sheppard sees no potential in his son, and if he does, that potential isn’t what he wants for his son, “He would be a banker. No, worse. He would operate a small loan company. All he wanted for the child was that he be good and unselfish and neither seemed likely” (595). Sheppard sees his son as a failure, someone that can’t live up to Sheppard’s expectations and because of that he can’t see that his son needs help, and or even wants to help his son.
Sheppard sees Norton as a selfish coward and weak, “This was not a normal grief. It was all part of his selfishness. She had been dead for over a year and a child’s grief should not last so long” (597). Sheppard is an atheist who views those who believe in religion and the bible as weak. “’That book is something for you to hide behind,’ Sheppard said. ‘It’s for cowards, people who are afraid to stand on their own feet and figure things out for themselves’” (627). According to Sheppard Norton falls under that category because he cannot accept Sheppard’s explanation for where his mother is, “Your mother isn’t anywhere. She’s not unhappy. She just isn’t” (611). Sheppard fails to even recognize that this answer doesn’t satisfy his son, and excuses his son’s behavior as being selfish.
Finally Sheppard does recognize that his son needs him at the very end of the story, but it is only realized when he failed Johnson that he also failed his son. “He had done more for Johnson than he had done for his own child” (631). Sheppard finally sees that he ignored and had failed his own child, “His heart constricted with a repulsion for himself so clear and intense that he gasped for breath. He had stuffed his own emptiness with good works like a glutton. He had ignored his own child to feed his vision of himself” (632). But Sheppard realizes this too late, once again failing his son (for the last time).