Essay Flannery OConnors "Good Country People"

Most of Flannery O'Connor's stories seem to contain the same elements: satirical and regional humor, references to God and Christianity, violent similes and metaphors, lots of stereotypical characters, grotesque humor and often focuses a lot of description on character's clothes and faces. However, one of the most important elements of O'Connor's "Good Country People" is the relevance of names. Her choice of names seem to give indications about the personalities of the characters and seem to be more relevant to the story than what the reader would commonly overlook as simply being stock character names. Mrs. Hopewell losing her "joy" (both her daughter and her

Freeman are not the good country people, but Mrs. Hopewell and Joy-Hulga are. Mrs. Hopewell comes across as very sincere and earnest. She tells Manley up front that she didn't want a Bible and he "might as well put those up" (302). She didn't mislead him in any way. Joy-Hulga also demonstrates her qualifications to be a good country person. As she spends more time with Manley, and the story develops, she shows her genuine self that she has been trying to hide behind Hulga. She becomes very open and honest with Manley. She tells him that "there mustn't be anything dishonest between [them]" (307). She also shows how simple, or innocent, she really is. She, despite having a Ph.D. in psychology, is very naive to the way people behave. She is clueless about Manley's real intentions with her. He had met her the day before and had already proclaimed his love to her. She reveals her innocence when she asks him "Aren't you, aren't you just good country people?" (309). The masked truth and reality are most obviously revealed through the character's souls. Mrs. Freeman, who had a "special fondness for the details of secret infections, hidden deformities, [and] assaults upon children," had an evil soul that was fortunately very passive in its actions (299). Mrs. Hopewell, on the other hand, "had no bad qualities of her own" (298). Her soul was passively good.

When Manley and Hulga sneak away from the sanctity of the home to rendezvous on the road outside, it is toyed with as a

Dorothea Mackellar’s ‘My Country’ is a poem expressing Mackellar’s deep passion and love for her country, Australia. The whole poem’s intention seems to evoke the sense of praising for the country and express Mackellar’s deep relationship and passion with her land. Mackellar attains this response from the audience by using numerous language techniques such as; Juxtaposition, personification, sound patterns including alliteration and assonance, imagery, and paradox. The use of first person throughout the whole poem suggests that the theme of this poem has been evoked by personal experience.

He has been able to have her “[surrender] to him completely” by taking off her wooden leg, a piece of her identity that she has never shown other people, especially men (O’Connor 8). By instilling a sense of understanding and longing for her, Manley has finalized his alternate persona as a conman. Soon after, he pulls out a Bible and opens it to reveal hidden contents of a flask of whiskey, a pack of cards, and condoms. His goal is to have sex with her by getting her drunk first and then leaving her broken and scared and without her leg. She stammers, “’Aren’t you… aren’t you just good country people?’” when finally coming to the realization that Manley is not the man he claims to be (O’Connor

Changing her name was a very arrogant action. Her arrogance is a major part of her personality. This is evident in her interactions with Mrs. Hopewell. She obviously looks down upon her as ignorant - she stands up in the middle of a meal and says “do you ever look inside and see what you are not?” (637). The arrogance is evident to the reader, because if Hulga were to really look at herself she would see all that she is not. She obviously thinks of herself as above all the good country people, saying “she would be in a university lecturing to people who knew what she was talking about” (637).

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.

Hulga had been missing for three days when Mrs. Hopewell received a call from the police. Shortly after Hulga had gone missing, Mrs. Hopewell jumped to the conclusion that her daughter was in danger; as a result, she quickly notified the police about her daughter’s disappearance. Over the phone, an officer told Mrs. Hopewell that they had arrested a man whom they believed had something to do with Hulga’s disappearance.

By definition joy means a great feeling of pleasure and happiness. In Mary Flannery O'Connor's short story Good Country People, Joy Freeman was not at all joyful. Actually, she was the exact opposite. Joy's leg was shot off in a hunting accident when she was ten. Because of that incident, Joy was a stout girl in her thirties who had never danced a step or had any normal good times. (O'Connor 249). She had a wooden leg that only brought her teasing from others and problems in doing daily activities. Joy was very rude as well. In the story it speaks of her comments being so rude and ugly and her face so glum that her mother's boss, Mrs. Hopewell, would

Manley Pointer is introduced as a good country simple young man who is going around selling Bibles. He tries to sell Mrs. Hopewell a bible but she does not buy one, because she has one already so she invites Manley to stay for dinner. As she talks to him she is under the impression that he is a good country person, which she believes is a person who is a person from the

Hulga uses her handicap, a leg partially shot off during a hunting accident, as an excuse for stomping loudly around the house in the hope of irritating her mother. Although Hulga sees herself as intellectually superior, her self-esteem and self-image are low due to her handicap, as evidenced by her complete disregard for her appearance. Further evidence of her low self-esteem is her changing her name from Joy to Hulga, a name that her mother, Mrs. Hopewell, felt was ?the ugliest name in any language.? Unbeknownst to Hulga, Mrs. Hopewell grieved for her daughter?s tragic life and excuses much of her behavior ?because of

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.

With that being said, the relationship between Hulga and Manley Pointer starts out shallow. Hulga’s willingness to invite a complete stranger solely based on the fact that they have the same heart condition implies that Hulga was lonely. But then it says “[she] was sorry the instant she heard herself say it” (O’Connor 4). With that being said, her relationship with him was fluctuating rapidly. Their relationship starts out as indifferent; then it turns really good; then it goes downhill rapidly. For some odd and unforeseen reason, she accepts his offer to go on a

Joy-Hulga, who had grown cynical and cold as she grew up with only one leg and heart ailment, creates an image that she is smarter and better than the rest of the characters in the story. Her education and self-absorption seemed to instill this attitude in her to greater extent than if she hadn’t studied and read so much. Her weakness is the feeling of power she believed she gained from her studies. She refers to herself as a person who “sees

We are all taught at a young age that lying is bad and we should always tell the truth, the truth shall set you free. Certainly characters from the movie Chicago directed by Rob Marshall and the book The Great Gatsby by: F. Scott Fitzgerald had a lot of trouble with the truth. They did not seem to stop lying in particular the female characters. They lie for their own benefit, but also lie because of their fear what society will think of them as a result of their sins.