Good Country People By Flannery O ' Connor

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.

“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Good Country People” are two short stories written by Flannery O’Connor during her short lived writing career. Despite the literary achievements of O’Connor’s works, she is often criticized for the grotesqueness of her characters and endings of her short stories and novels. Her writings have been described as “understated, orderly, unexperimental fiction, with a Southern backdrop and a Roman Catholic vision, in defiance, it would seem, of those restless innovators who preceded her and who came into prominence after her death”(Friedman 4). “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Good Country People” are both set in the South, and O’Connor explores the tension between the old and new South. The stories are tow

After loosing her leg at the age of ten, and remaining aware for the entire episode, she is stripped of the capacity for Joy, and Hope both. The Freeman name is a direct play on the status of the family as tenant farmers, as while Mrs. Freeman may come in and rest her elbow on the refrigerator as she likes, the family is certainly not free, nor will they ever enjoy the social or financial freedom of the Hopewells. This last name is likewise given a dual meaning. Mrs. Hopewell in simply incapable of doing less than assuming all is well that ends well. The bible salesman even alludes to a direct play on the family name as he jokes "I hope you are well!" The introduction of the bible salesman, Manley Pointer, is in and of itself another play on the use of names as symbolic meaning. This is evidenced by the very phallic nature of the name and his sole representation of the male gender as an active character. Manley's presence is the first and only physical arrival of the outside community in the Hopewell home. The rest of the social interactions with others are kept at great distance. The phone conversation with the previous employer of the Freeman's, Hulga's university, even the "...Negros back in there," which Mrs. Hopewell assumes he's been selling bibles to when he departs with Hulga's wooden leg, are kept outside of the action.

The short story “Good Country People” wrote by Flannery O’Connor is a story that shows many underlining themes about the people around us. One of the many underlying themes is that it shows that people are not always who they say they are, we see this when Hulga/Joy meets the Bible salesman, Manley Pointer. Also, people should not judge others by their looks, we see this when Hulga and Mrs. Hopewell think they are superior over everyone else. Throughout the story, Flannery O’Connor uses his description of characters, dialogue, and the use of the reality he created to show the underlying theme of the story.

“Good Country People,” is a classic example of the use of irony as a technique for imbuing a story with meaning. Irony works on many different levels through the piece. Examples of this range from O’ Connors use of clearly ironic dialogue to the dramatic irony that unfolds between Manley and Joy-Hulga. However the most obvious examples can be found in O’Connor’s characterization of these, “Good Country People.” The technique of irony is applied prominently to the character’s names and behaviors to present the contradictions between their expectations and their reality. O’Connor uses her characters to explore common notions regarding, “good” and “bad” people. Using their expectations for one another, O’Connor ultimately expose their

Good Country People by Flannery O’Connor is a story with a lot of ironic elements in it. These are mostly found in the way that the characters depict themselves in contrast of how they truly are. For example, Mrs. Hopewell says that she has no bad qualities of her own, but she is a constant liar is an how she happened to hire the Freemans in the first place and how they were a godsend to her and how she had them for four years. The reason for keeping them for so long was because they were not trash” (O’Connor 247). Mrs. Hopewell is not the only hypocrite in this story; Manley Pointer is also incredibly hypocritical, fake, and manipulative. He depicts himself as a “Bible salesmen”, but in reality he is a con artist. When Hulga opens up his Bible, she sees a flask of whiskey, cards, and condoms in it. This would be seen as incredibly offensive and sinful to a Christian. According to Thomas F. Gusset, “Joy/Hulga begins to discover that the Bible

Joy-Hulga was a woman of grace and elegance turned boisterous and clunky. Once known as Joy, a leading lady, until she felt the urgency to change her name. As she had down in order to better fit oneself. The reader finds Joy-Hulga in stances of vulnerability, victimism, and the act of living within two worlds.

To begin with, Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People,” describe the live of a mother, Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter, Joy and the irony of their relationship. During this time women were not seen as equal to men as they are in today’s southern society. Women had more of a domestic role, while men were educated and worked to support the family. In O’Connor’s “Good Country People”, the characters in the story provide evidence where they are stereotyping others. For example, the text states “She could not help but feel it would have been better if the child had not taken the Ph.D.” (O’Connor 370). This statement is from Mrs. Hopewell this statement shows how she thinks that education have not had positive affect on Hugla also, she does not have much desire for her daughter education. Than eventually stating “it

Flannery O’Conner, a Gothic literature writer, has written several short stories throughout her life. Among these stories, two of them being A Good Man is Hard to Find and Good Country People, she has included some of the most fleshed out and grotesque characters I have ever read. O’Conner brings her characters to life throughout her writing in near flawless and subtle detail with ironic humor. For example, O’Conner makes skillful use of ironic names for her characters. The titles and names such as grandmother, the misfit, Joy/Hulga, and the bible salesman are used ironically. These subtle characterizations help guide the reader to the final, and often times ironic, conclusions all her characters deserve.

Flannery O’Connor, undoubtedly one of the most well-read authors of the early 20th Century, had many strong themes deeply embedded within all her writings. Two of her most prominent and poignant themes were Christianity and racism. By analyzing, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” these two themes jump out at the reader. Growing up in the mid-1920’s in Georgia was a huge influence on O’Connor. Less than a decade before her birth, Georgia was much different than it was at her birth. Slaves labored tirelessly on their master’s plantations and were indeed a facet of everyday life. However, as the Civil War ended and Reconstruction began, slaves were not easily assimilated into Southern culture. Thus, O’Connor grew up in a highly racist area that mourned the fact that slaves were now to be treated as “equals.” In her everyday life in Georgia, O’Connor encountered countless citizens who were not shy in expressing their discontent toward the black race. This indeed was a guiding influence and inspiration in her fiction writing. The other guiding influence in her life that became a major theme in her writing was religion. Flannery O 'Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, the only child of a Catholic family. The region was part of the 'Christ-haunted ' Bible belt of the Southern States. The spiritual heritage of the region profoundly shaped O 'Connor 's writing as described in her essay "The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South" (1969). Many

Flannery O’Connor was born on March 25, 1925, in Savannah, Georgia. She was an American writer. O’Connor wrote two novels and 32 short stories in her life time. She was a southern writer who wrote in Southern Gothic style. In the Article, Female Gothic Fiction Carolyn E. Megan asks Dorothy Allison what Southern Gothic is to her and she responded with, “It’s a lyrical tradition. Language. Iconoclastic, outrageous as hell, leveled with humor. Yankees do it, but Southerners do it more. It’s the grotesque.”(Bailey 1) Later she was asked who one of her role models was and she stated that Flannery O’Connor was one she could relate to. One of O’Connor’s stronger works was “Good Country People” which was published in 1955.

Firstly, the main character in this short story is thirty two year old Joy who is now known as Hulga. Her character is described as vulnerable to other people but in her eyes is seen as superior to every other character. The feeling of superiority plays a role with her numerous degrees in philosophy. The perspective of Hulgas identity to other people is indebtedness, this is because of her hunting accident when she was

Flannery O'Connor uses many of the same elements in almost all of her short stories. I will analyze her use of violence leading to the main character experiencing moral redemption. The use of redemption comes from the religious background of Flannery O'Connor. Violence in her stories is used as a means of revelation to the main character's inner self. The literature of Flannery O'Connor appears to be unbelievably harsh and violent. Her short stories characteristically conclude with horrific fatalities or an individual's emotional ruin. In all three of the stories, "Good Country People", "A Good Man Is Hard to Find", and "Revelation" the main characters experience some

“Good Country People” is a classic short story by contemporary American author Flanner O’Connor. Published in 1955, it a compilation of symbolism, imagery, characterization, irony, and allegory which created a Christian Humanism short story. The most famous yet clichéd Idiom “Pride goes before a fall;” adapted from the book of Proverbs in the Holy Bible, is exemplified both literally and figuratively in this short story. Its central message goes to show how the attitude one portrays can lead to their self-destruction.

The way Flannery O'Connor deals with the traditional social structure in the South in her fiction shows that it was of major concern to her and was the source of much of her power and humor. O’Connor’s conscious use of symbolism to depict Catholic doctrine in stories and novels set in the fiercely Protestant South of the 1940s and 1950s no doubt accounts in part for the critical attention paid her work(Olive). O'Connor's exposition of a southern society which values a good, moral person yet struggles to identify. Three of her short stories deal with the relationship between Christianity and society in the Southern: "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," "Good Country People," and "Revelation."