Good Country People

In Flannery O’Connor’s short stories, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People,” the main characters’ trust is put to the ultimate test. Trapped in vulnerable situations, the protagonists become powerless and have to put their trust in the hands of the “bad guy.” As a result, the main characters fall victim to manipulation. Those who were once in total control of their situations are now stripped of their superior titles and are taken advantage of by the person they once trusted. Egos are bruised in the game of trust and manipulation in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Good Country People.” The grandmother and Joy-Hulga are taught lessons of a lifetime that changes the way they see themselves and life forever.

“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

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.

Manley’s actions indicate two different personas that are conflicting. In the beginning Manley presents as a simple character that is only interested in selling Bibles. He talks with Mrs. Hopewell and creates a friendly environment around himself that influences how the other characters view him. Through this alternate persona, he is able to trick the other characters into thinking that he is a sweet, innocent young man. Believing in this act, Hulga and the other characters are

Flannery O’Connor introduces her reader’s too unique short stories. They are “Good Country People” and “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, having too similar characters in different setting, but with the same symbolic meaning. The comparison between Hugla from “Good Country People” to the grandmother in “A Good Man Is Hard to find” is interesting, because they both suffer the same fate. In every short story O’Connor has created a intellectual individual who comes to a realization that their beliefs in there ability to control their lives and the lives of other are false. They enviably become the vulnerable, whereas they assumed it would be different. O’Connor has placed two misguide characters, that deem themselves to be manipulative and compulsive. At the end up of each short story they become vulnerable. Hugla from “Good Country People” and the grandmother from “A Good

To make things a bit more clearer, In this story we saw this man named Manley Pointer who came and visited Mrs. Hopewell 's house selling bibles. But, Mrs. Hopewell 's daughter, named Joy but is called Hulga, is an atheist. Manley, Hulga, Mrs. Hopewell, and Mrs. Freeman, who is like Mrs. Hopewell 's maid, are talking amongst each other, but the only important thing from this moment is that Hulga and Manley made a connection. Later on Manley offered to meet up with Hulga for a picnic to which she had said yes, but she did not know what was coming to her.

In addition to the characterization of Joy-Hulga O’Connor’s depiction of Mrs. Hopewell creates irony that begins with her names. Like joy, Mrs. Hopewell, is full of the same limiting perceptions of those around her. Demonstrated by the belief that country people are “good”, or the “salt of the earth.” In much the same way Joy’s impairment results in Mrs. Hopewell’s perpetual assumption that joy is like a child. She regards her with

     In Flannery O'Connor's short story "Good Country People," Hulga is a woman who lives with her mother, Mrs. Hopewell, and has an artificial leg. Mrs. Freeman is a lady who was hired by Mrs. Hopewell to work around her property. A theme that seems to recurr in "Good Country People" is lying that becomes harsher each time.

Unlike Hooper in “A Minister’s Veil,” in “Good Country People,” Hulga is a crippled character who believes in no God. She not only has a wooden leg, she also has poor eyesight and a heart condition. However, Kate Oliver stated these “physical afflictions symbolize her emotional, intellectual, and spiritual impairments.” What Oliver means is that Joy/Hulga’s physical defects represent her misshapened spirit and her broken outlook towards religion. Oliver also stated that “Joy-Hulga revels in her rejection of God. She is a self-proclaimed atheist.” Furthermore, Hulga loved philosophy and this is what she believed in rather than God. She believed in the philosophies that taught that nothing exist outside the self and this belief is another manifestation of her spiritual defects. She chose to believe in this nothing

"Good Country People" by Flanner O’Connor is an excellent example of the effective use of irony and character development. From start to finish there is a steady progression of irony that stems from the title of Good Country People. Some instances of irony are blatant, but others need a closer reading to find. It’s amazing the complexity of the characters that occurs in such a short span of pages. The success of “Good Country People” comes not only from O’Connor’s use of irony but also from the interplay among and the complexity of her main characters.

Hulga ask Manley on their outing the next why he brought his case with the Bibles to which he replies, “You can never tell when you’ll need the word of God, Hulga” (O’Connor, 454). They go in an abandoned old barn where he tricks her to climbing a ladder to a loft. He even drags his heavy case up to the loft. He keeps up his Choir boy act so that she will not expect what he is truly up to. They make it up to the loft and began kissing and somewhere along the way it seems Hulga is falling for the boy, as she admits her age and her intelligence to him. She is starting to strip away her mask with her honesty leaving her more vulnerable. He starts to take interest in her wooden leg and asking her about it in a gentle sort of way seeming that he wants to know every part of her. “She decided that for the first time in her life she was face to face with real innocence” (O’Connor, 456). She allows him to take her wooden leg off leaving her totally vulnerable in a loft off the ground. “Without the leg she felt entirely dependent on him” (O’Connor, 457). Manley opens his Bible case, “It was hollow and contained a pocket flask of whiskey, a pack of cards, and a small blue box with printing on it” (O’Connor, 457). Hulga is shocked by what she sees and Manley’s mask is revealed. He is an imposter, a swindler, a sinner, an unbeliever, and he

Feminism and Historicism play a major part in Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “Good Country People”, first published in 1955. The story focuses on the importance of identity and the parallels between truth and deception. In “Good Country People”, the Hopewell family, maintain a small farm in rural Georgia with the help of tenants the Freemans. The pious Mrs. Hopewell’s mottos ‘nothing is perfect’ and ‘it takes all kinds to make the world’ are manifested in her unmarried thirty-two year old daughter, Joy who later changes her name to Hulga, wears a prosthetic wooden leg because of a childhood accident. Hulga who has a Ph.D. in Philosophy, cannot advance her academic aspirations because of a weak heart; because of this she must live in her

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.

Flannery O’Connor is an American short story writer and her short story “Good Country People” depicts Hulga, a highly educated woman and has a PhD, is being jerked around by an immoral bible salesman. “A good man is hard to find”, also written by O’Connor, is a short story of a grandmother and her family murdered by a horrible man who called “the misfit” during the road trip to Florida. Although “Good country people” and “a good man is hard to find” are written by the same author, many elements in those two stories cause them have similar themes in religion, misplaced trust and protagonist and antagonist.