Good Country People Analysis

Throughout O’Connor’s stories, the reader is taken through a journey of a relatable pride through characters in humorous situations. Having grown up in a religious environment in Savannah, Georgia, O’Connor uses her stories to tell of the inevitability of the grace of God in everyone’s life (Gordon 2015). In the story, “Good Country People,” O’ Connor follows her traditional writing style by showcasing the misconceptions people and “traditional Christian families” have with their connection to religion.

“Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor is a short story told in third person omniscient point of view. The story contains a lot of irony, symbolism, imagery, and many more literary devices. Flannery O’Connor’s purpose was to demonstrate how “good country people” are not so “good.” Instead, they were categorized as “trash” and “good.” The short story interprets how the characters are contradictory and how women are portrayed in 1955 as well as today’s society.

Everyone wants to believe that they are beautiful. For this reason, we tend to seek out that approval from others including our parents, friends, and other loved ones. Flannery O'Connor's story, "Good Country People," focuses on this particular theme. In her narrative, a young girl named Joy Hopewell longs for her mother's approval. When she does not find it, Joy begins to believe that she is unworthy of anyone's admiration. This basic premise allows for Manley Pointer to easily win Joy's trust. Flannery O'Connor includes this string of events in order to show the significant role parents play in developing their children's self-esteem, as well as reveal that even though Joy Hopewell begins to believe that she is not beautiful, she

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.

The people we see every day are not always who they appear to be. Our family, friends, peers, work associates, and even our own self’s change who we are sometimes to cope or to seem better off than we are. We put on “Mask” to show the person we want to be seen as and often times people wear more than just one. In Flannery O’ Connor’s, “Good Country People” many of her main characters wore mask. They each had their own reasons that they chose to conceal their real identity. Nevertheless, the characters in O’Connor’s short story wanted to hide their true persona’s or deceive other people. Sometimes it was merely done to cope with their tragic pain and in other cases it was done to deliberately take advantage

Literary devices are used periodically in the three stories to help the story create an image. Symbolism is used in Good Country People because Hulga’s artificial leg. Her leg stands as a representation of her broken identity from when she got shot. It represents that she does not feel pretty or have any self esteem for herself. Arturo’s flight uses imagery as a literary device. The author visually describes Arturo’s punk look. Arturo states himself as having a spiked purple hair and leather stage and creating a vivid picture to the reader. An allegory in Chrysanthemums are the flowers themselves. They represent Elisa’s strength within herself and the way she gardens them. The chrysanthemums also represents her feelings as the flowers are

“Good Country People” is a story written by Flannery O’Connor in 1955. It is a story written about four main characters; Mrs. Hopewell the overprotective mother, and Mrs. Freeman the helping hand, Manley Pointer the bible and Joy Hulga the dependent scholar. Mrs. Hopewell is Joy’s mother and Mrs. Freeman is there maid. Manley is the bible salesman’s who goes town to town scamming people. The story talks about good country people and who are considered good country people. As soon as Joy was old enough and away from her mother, she changed her name is Hulga. Joy Hulga has a problem with not being able to accept that the world has good and bad people. Joy Hulga has a chip on her shoulder about everything that transpire throughout “Good Country People”. Joy Hulga’s unapologetic attitude, harsh treatment from others and belief in people bring about her downfall in “Good Country People”.

The purpose of this essay is to correlate the theme of three different stories that had been read. I decided to choose the stories “Good Country People”, “Hills Like White Elephants”, and “The Storm.” I believe that the theme across these stories is to beware of the wolf in sheep clothing. In these stories, there was an antagonist that posed as a protagonist who even though their intentions may have looked well skin deep, the underlying intentions against the main character were not of good intent. I will describe certain situations in each of the three stories that show the theme I have noted.

Exploitation is a tough game to play unless you have the right cards. “Good Country People,” by Flannery O'Connor, exposes the prideful, arrogant, selfish Hulga. Hulga is the sort of person who places herself on a momentous pedestal, and her doctoral degree in philosophy adds glamour to her self image; giving her more of a reason to look down on people for being intellectually inferior. Originally, her birth name was Joy but because her name did not reflect who she is, she decided to change it to something more vulgar to fit her personality; it was an added bonus that it also upset her mother, someone who she truly despises. At a glance, Hulga seems to be in pursuit of love, but a closer reading suggest that her true cynical goal is to manipulate

Flannery O 'Connor 's stories “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, and “Good Country People” both present very similar themes. Within these stories is the theme of redemption, and the way relationships affect the way people interact with each other seem to be a core issue she struggles with. Both stories have a protagonist that have to deal with some type of villain who has little to no belief, while their presence of faith that there is good in people gets them into the horrible situations that they find themselves in. She uses some of the same aspects in both stories in very different ways. The characters are a big part of her stories, the conflicts that arise in the story, and the symbolism that is used. This paper will explore how faith can lead us to have false hope and why it is important to remain aware.

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

In Flannery O’Conner’s short story, “Good Country People,” the author uses various influences and instances in order to depict a handicapped woman, a woman who develops deeper problems induced by a singular static factor. O’Conner provides insight regarding the handicaps in Hulga’s life, such as her need to rebel, her guarded and insecure nature, and her condescending nature, all of which, are products of her ultimate handicap, her prosthetic leg. Hulga’s demonstrates her rebellious side throughout the story in the form of rigid and rude behavior, as well as action taken by her. Hulga demonstrates her rebellious nature in the introduction of the story, as the author provides insight to her triumph associated with changing

There are many themes within Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Good Country People”. Religion is definitely one of the more prominent themes that the story holds. Like most of O’Connor’s works, it plays a big part in the actions or characteristics of the main characters. This is all on the surface however. The more important and less accentuated theme is the various facades the characters create for themselves. These facades prevent them from facing their true “grotesque” selves. These facades also hide their weaknesses that they have no wish to face ort just can’t understand. People must be comfortable with every aspect of themselves, because certain people, who in this story

In “Good Country People,” O’Connor symbolizes the flaws of people for many purposes. With an shocking ironic ending, the author shows how not all people are who they seem to be. The title is a perfect example of how the theme is explained throughout the story. O’Connor also uses the names of her characters as hints to the actual and true personality. She also symbolizes greater handicaps of a person with the bodily handicaps of her characters. Everything in life has a purpose, and we just have to learn to live with the opportunities we are given and the mistakes that are waiting to be made. This is something that Hulga, the main character, refuses to acknowledge. After having her leg shot off, it was replaced with a wooden leg. This

What really makes a story come alive, what is the heart of the story? Within these stories the themes are a huge part that grab the reader and has them get more interested with the story that is being told. Also the stories have many signs of symbolism that the authors decided to put in that could be interoperated in several different ways. The authors of these two stories obviously put a lot of thought and work into them to make them what they have become today. The theme and symbolism that take place in “Good Country People” and “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” are the most important part of the story.