Comparing Pride in A Good Man is Hard to Find, Good Country People and Revelation

Because of her poor self-image, Hulga Hopewell melts as soon as she sees that the Bible salesman thinks that she is beautiful. He looks at her in a way that no one else ever has before. Manley Pointer not only smiles at her, but gazes at her in admiration and tenderness. The mere idea that this Bible salesman would be drawn to her leaves Hulga in complete astonishment and wonder. The narrator describes Hulga's fascination with the boy's fondness by saying, "It was like surrendering to him completely. It was like losing her own life and finding it again, miraculously, in his" (141). No one, including her mother, had ever seen Hulga as beautiful. For this reason, Manley easily wins her trust, and ultimately, tricks her. Hulga's immediate surrender to Manley

Pride, which becomes a major life lesson that is being taught throughout this book, concludes that pride it self is a life changing characteristic that one may chose to attain. In attaining pride one may seem arrogant or stubborn or one may chose to toss the pride aspect of life aside, yet seem somewhat less respectable. This book entails that pride should be taken into serious consideration since it has a major impact in everyday

Pride is a leading theme in most of the short stories in the unit. All show that your pride can endanger you or someone else.

Joy-Hulga does not hope well for the people around her. For her, life is beyond hope, or belief in anything. In her mind this indifference makes her vastly superior to those around her. O’Connor depicts Joy-Hulga as person deformed physically and spiritually. Although she is highly educated, she lives an unproductive and unhappy life. A state she blames on a weak hart and a missing leg. Conditions that can be seen as allegorical to her presumptuous, embittered nature. She is joyless, relegating herself to the company of individuals who she feels cannot, “understand her, because of her superior intellect. She expects that they are inferior because of their “simple ways”, their religious beliefs, and their lack of education. For Joy-Hulga Hopewell believing in nothing is her accomplishment, accomplishment as a philosopher.

In the the story “The Scarlet Ibis” by James, Hurst shows his audience that self pride is a positive aspect in this story, it can help people get through difficult obstacles they have in life, but when people worry too much about their self pride it can lead to hurting others physically and mentally.

Pride is like an iridescent object. From one angle, it can seem like a great feeling. But when viewed from a different perspective, it can be seen as a source of destruction to a relationship. In the short story, “The Scarlet Ibis”, the author, James Hurst, shows us the negative impacts of pride through the character of Brother. Within the short story, Brother goes through many conflicts and ends up realizing what pride is and how powerful or dangerous it can be if used in a relationship. “The Scarlet Ibis” expresses the idea that whatever relationship you’re lucky to have, you should fill it with love and understanding, and not pride, selfishness and expectations.

Pride, can be either good or bad or maybe both in some situations. Their are many ways to use pride in many situations faced everyday. In the book “The Scarlet Ibis” the narrator uses pride in ways that can be confusing at times and some examples are self explanatory. The story begins with a narrator who has not been assigned a name but we know that he was age 6 when William Armstrong was born. He was born with disabilities and the family even constructed a coffin for him.

Even with all the annoyances from Mrs. Freeman, Mrs. Hopewell is willing to endure it because they were good country people to her. Hulga was a very quiet and troubled woman. Oliver Kate explains that, “Joy-Hulga's physical afflictions--her heart condition, her poor eyesight, and her artificial leg--symbolize her emotional, intellectual, and spiritual impairments.”(Kate 234) Due to Hulgas medical problems she could not enjoy many things in life, like teaching philosophy and interacting with others outside the house. She was very detached from other people. Hulga had to be like this to protect herself. The world can be a very cruel place, where they could of judged her because of her fake leg, glasses and heart issues. She was afraid and hand no trust for others outside of her house.

During the family trip in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” to Georgia, the grandmother attempts to exude a lady-like facade. The grandmother wears “white cotton gloves...a navy blue straw sailor hat with a bunch of white violets … a

The quote acts as foreshadowing for what her attitude towards life will be. We later find out that she is right, but that she does not live by her credo. Manley Pointer exploits this weakness as soon as she opened her door. Showing up as a pathetic bible salesman with an ailing heart (which is coincidentally exactly what Joy-Hulga had) laying the old guilt trip on Mrs. Hopewell on how no one wants to deal with a simple country boy like himself, he attacks her weakness right at the heart of it. Not more than two minutes after he knocked on the door, he ends up eating dinner with them and at the conclusion is even invited to return any time he’d like. His persona blinds Mrs. Hopewell and prevents her from being somewhat suspicious of Manley. At the end of the story, we see that Mrs. Hopewell is still clouded by her weakness and refers to Manly as simple as he passes through a field by Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman. Unlike Mrs. Hopewell, Joy-Hulga faces and comes to a realization of her weakness.

O'Connor's use of violence holds a similar yet restrained quality in "Good Country People", although there is a shift in its use and context. Hulga, like the grandmother, has her anti-social qualities, which, in Hulga's case, protect her from the world in which she feels vulnerable. The conflict/resolution to "Good Country People" comes at the end, when Hulga leads the Bible salesman to an abandoned barn with the hopes of seducing him. Little to her knowledge, the salesman is not a "good country" guy as she would like to believe. Hulga receives the salesman's kisses with no real passion, but as kind of a bitter curiosity. As the old saying goes though, ‘curiosity killed the cat.' Hulga indulges in Manley Pointer's apparent ease by responding to his requests of her to say "I love you." This allows the Bible salesman to confirm Hulga's overconfidence and take advantage of the weakest point in her life, her leg. The

In “good country people”, Hulga’s trust is misplacing and it leads to her artificial leg be stole by Manley. Hulga placing her trust in a stranger and believes the bible salesman is purely good and honest; she even imagines to seduce the salesman. However, the immoral salesman lies to Hulga and takes her wooden leg then disappeared. At last Hulga realizes that good country people are hard to find in the word. Mrs. Hopewell also placing her trust in the immoral bible salesman, both Hulga and Mrs. Hopewell erred in believing that the bible salesman is good and honest. Therefore, misplacing trust in strangers is one of the most important theme leads to the story progresses.

The unnamed grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” considers herself morally superior to others by her strong morals or standards of her being a “lady.” for example, she emphasizes appearance over substance. She often freely and frequently passes judgment on others to prove her point or to make herself feel better. She claims that her conscience is a guiding force in her life, this can be proven when she tells Bailey that her conscience wouldn’t allow her to take the children in the same direction as the Misfit. She criticizes the children’s mother for not traveling to a place that would allow the children to “be broad,” and she compares the mother’s face to a cabbage. She chastises John Wesley for not having more respect for Georgia, his home state. She also takes any opportunity to judge the lack of goodness in people in the world today. During all this, she proudly wears her carefully selected dress and hat, certain that being a “lady” is the most important value of all, one that she alone harbors. the grandmother is portrayed as a selfish character that puts her status and pleasure before others. The grandmother is so stuck in

In both “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “A Rose for Emily,” the authors portray primary female leads which depict many typical and sometimes stereotypical, Southern ideals and values. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find, “the lead character, the Grandmother, epitomizes the stereotype of an elderly southern woman. O’Connor skillfully conveys the Grandmother’s superficiality by describing the over-the-top outfit she wears on the day of the trip, writing, “Her collars and cuffs were white organdy trimmed with lace and at her neckline she had pinned a purple spray of cloth violets containing a sachet. In case of an accident, anyone seeing her dead on the highway would know at once that she was a lady” (406). The Grandmother assigns value to being a “lady” among all other virtues, placing the physical appearance of herself and others of the utmost importance. The grandmother is also nostalgic of the past, and constantly reminisces about the

The Cross of Two Spiritual Paths: The Characterization of the Grandmother and the Misfit and How Their Rendezvous Connects Them Both to a Religious Awakening of Faith, Grace, and Salvation.