Good Country People Analysis

One of Flannery O’Connor’s most successful stories, “Good Country People” was published in 1955. “Good Country People” addresses the of good versus evil, the foolishness of intellectual pretensions, and most importantly the theme of reality versus illusion. An important character Mrs. Hopewell’s daughter Hulga, born as Joy has a Ph. D but seems to have no common sense. She allows her self to be tricked by a “Bible salesman” and gets her self in to a binding situation. Good Country people deals with illusion vs. reality this is shown when the author discusses Manley Pointer; the bible sales man, Joy thinking she is ugly, and the fact the Hulga and her mother tend to disagree about Hulga’s life decisions.

The next story were going to examine is "Good Country People", of course, by Mary Flannery O 'Connor. At first, we can see that the title of the story “Good

In the Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People,” Joy/Hulga Hopewell is the main protagonist. In “The Minister’s Black Veil,” written by Nathaniel Hawthorne the protagonist is Minister Hooper. Both of the main characters represent different views on religion, humanity, and humility. Hulga does not really believe in anything. Her main focus is trying to be smarter than others to compensate for her medical problems. Minister Hooper is a very good man, believes solely in Christ, and throughout the story we come to see how his views on religion reflect his humanity and humility.

In the short story by O’connor, “Good Country People”, religion plays a major role in every aspect. From the characters all the way to the objects that are introduced in the story. The main characters which are Hulga and Manley have complete opposite views in life but Manley pretends he has the same as Hulga in order to accomplish his goal which O’connor puts into the story as dark humor in order to set a tone at the end of the story. In order for this to happen O’connor makes Manley a character which does not believe in religion at all and he pretends to be this good old country guy who is selling bibles and stumbles along the very unstable home of Hulga. Now Hulga in the other hand is a character that has minor religion beliefs but is a very isolated person who believes that everything has no meaning in the world according to Carle K. (55-56)

of the meaning of this story and her values reinforce it. Hulga is gullible and narcissistic one the

Author and essayist Flannery O’Connor in her short story, “Revelations,” published in New York in 1964 addresses the topic of social status and prejudice in the South. Throughout the story, the author gives hew own outlook on prejudice and the affects it has on other people. Revelations tells the story of several groups of people waiting in a doctor's waiting room. The story is told from the perspective of a woman named Mrs. Turpin who passes judgment upon the African Americans, impoverished and uneducated people, and other residents of the town that are waiting beside her. The author uses a variety of rhetorical appeals to emphasize the themes of christian values and southern morales. Through her use of ethos, pathos, and logos, the author

Flannery O'Connor used a very different type of southern gothic writing style. Her writing had an unexpected turn of events and cliffhangers making the readers have to think about what the ending would be like. Two of her stories "Good Country People" and "A Good Man is Hard to Find" both display O'Conners religious Catholic background. At the end, the turn of events for these stories is drastic, for example, in "A Good Man is Hard to Find" the Grandmother gets shot dead. While in "Good Country People" Joy loses her dignity, pride, and faith in men. They both change a great deal when abandoned hopeless.

For me, the most prominent element of “Good Country People” was the ending when Manly Pointer stole Hulga/Joy’s wooden leg, as I am sure is natural for anyone reading the story. I found it particularly interesting that Pointer also admitted to stealing another girl’s glass eye. As pointer remarks, ‘“I’ve gotten a lot of interesting things,’ he said. ‘One time I got a woman’s glass eye this way’” (Pg. 15).

Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People" is somewhat a representation of a scheme planned by a modern day con artist. The bible salesman, Manley Pointer, comes Hulga Hopewell’s house where she lives with her mother, whom she deeply resents because of a hunting incident. She immediately falls in love with him as soon as she hears that they have that same condition where they will both die at a young age. The heart condition is not described in the story as nothing more or nothing less than a heart condition. Through a series of unexpected events, the tables turn and reveal a side of Manley Pointer that is unforeseen. In Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People", O’Connor uses the personality and character development

Flannery O'Connor was noted for her strangely touching stories about the life in the South. O’Connor’s writing was influenced by her southern culture, family and time period. In her work demented comedy and grotesque violence often mask a deeper seriousness of purpose and an abiding religious faith. O'Connor's writing's made people open their eyes to our way of life and beliefs. They may not have changed their ways but at least they thought about it. The world is more open and objective because of O'Connor's moving stories.

O’Connor presents such irony of a theme that it can progress in just one person by itself. Manley Pointer, also known as the “bible salesman”, portrays that intelligence and corruptness presides together to make such a turn in the plot that you would not have assumed. Being bible salesmen we would think that Pointer would be a true to the heart Christian who knows the bible and would also be “Good Country People.”

O’Connor characterized each of them differently, depending upon their name. For example, first there is Mrs. Hopewell. Her name suggests that she hoped for everything to be well. Simply put in other words, her name suggests that she has hope, that she believes only the best in situations and in people, but due to her pride it makes her be the complete opposite. She decides to live her

Flannery O’Connor writes a fictional story with unique characters. Mrs. Hopewell has a daughter named Joy who is thirty-two years old. Joy changed her name to Hulga legally; she has a wooden leg due to a hunting incident when she was ten years old. Manley Pointer is an unintelligent young man who enters Mrs. Hopewell’s house when he is selling Bibles. Mrs. Hopewell thinks Manley is a good country person, and she learns that he has a weak heart just like Hulga and invites him for dinner. Manley and Hulga begin to seduce each other and confess one another that they love each other. Flannery O’Connor uses three important literary terms: symbolism, irony, and epiphany. Hulga’s wooden leg is used as a symbol of her vulnerability--it represents her soul and what makes her

In Flannery O’Connor’s stories, many of her stories reflect on a common theme relating to Christianity and how the characters are reflected as supposed heroes even though some came off as evil and twisting plots. In many of her short stories, she reflects what she was brought up with which is the conflict with beliefs in the North and South, Old versus New views, Christianity, and Atheism. Stories such as “Good Country People” which reflected and played a huge part on religion, society and how she portrayed it.

Flannery O’connor is one of the most shinning stars in American literature. Her distinct writing style makes her work recognizable and outstanding from other literature works. Many critics have commented on Flannery O’connor’s narrative voice. Louise Blackwell discovers Miss O’Connor often wrote according to southern tradition by using symbols in people’s daily life to convey the theme in a more profound way. From the perspective of the O’connor’s writing technique, Shirley Foster speaks highly of Miss O’connor’s works: O’connor’s skilled technique establishes the complicity between the readers and narrators. These two evaluations reveal the most important characteristics of Flannery O’connor’s works, directing readers to understand O’connor’s works much easier. Readers can understand the two critics’ comments by exploring the special narrative voices in Flannery O’connor’s well- known stories: “ Everything That Rises Must Converge” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find”.