Good Country People Symbolism

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.

The short stories, “Turned”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Good Corn”, by H.E Bates provide strong examples of how the representation of characters influence’s the reader’s perception of a text. Both stories depict similar characters: a middle-aged, childless wife, her husband and an 18-year old girl who works for them. They are both about a similar situation: man cheats on wife with girl and girl falls pregnant. However, the author’s of the text are from very different backgrounds and this is reflected in their stories. Although there are many similarities between “The Good Corn” and “Turned”, the values reflected in these stories, their resolutions and the reader’s perception of them are vastly different due to the contexts of

    “A Good Man Is Hard to Find,” one of O’Connor’s best works, describes a family on a trip to Florida and their encounter with an escaped prisoner, The Misfit. Although “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” is an early work in O’Connor’s career, it contains many of the elements which are used in the majority of her short stories. The grandmother, a selfish and deceitful woman, is a recipient of a moment of grace, despite her many flaws and sins. A moment of grace is a revelation of truth. When the grandmother calls The Misfit her child and reaches out to touch him, the grandmother has a moment of grace that enabled her to see The Misfit as a suffering human being who she is obligated to love. The grandmother realizes that nothing will stop The Misfit from killing her but she reaches out to him despite this. The Misfit rejects her love and kills her anyway. This moment of grace is very important

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

Flannery O’Connor was a short story author from Savannah, Georgia. She has produced many critically acclaimed pieces and has won several awards for them. Two distinct pieces she wrote are titled The Life You Save May Be Your Own and Good Country People. While both of her stories are unique, the underlying storyboard and character creation process that O’Connor used is the same throughout her stories. Her stories usually involve one or more self-centered woman, a younger person who become the victim of egregious crime, and a conniving male driven by his own motives. Good Country People and The Life You Save May Be Your Own do not stray from this rule. In either story, the narrative is driven around a shocking tragedy that is very unexpected. Even though in the tragedies committed in the book always have a belligerent and a victim, it is not easy to discern who amongst the two are the antagonist and the protagonist. In either of these narratives, the tragedy that occurred within the stories blurs the line between antagonist and protagonist.

Life is filled with tragedies, whether they be subtle or monumental. In society we are constantly surrounded by hardships and situations that test our own individual character, forcing us to react in order to move forward. The main characters in “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor, and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” by Joyce Carol Oates each react differently to the various tragedies they encounter, revealing their true identities that lie behind the (facade?)/version of themselves they present to the world. These tragedies that factor into all three works are both presented and interpreted differently in each story: In “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, Mrs. Mallard rejoices

The world is a massive place full of endless literature, beginning from ancient scrolls to daily news articles, filled with many secrets, perspectives and surroundings that help connect literature to an individual’s daily life. Some writers use the skills of literary elements to express and discuss an event that has happened to them or what has happened to others. This helps others to comprehend the perspectives of the author’s understanding toward an incident that one might experience. For instance in Flannery O’Connor’s short story, she uses many literary elements to express her views over most of her stories. O’Connor expresses her views in her short story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” by using the literary elements of point of view, irony, and setting.

Within the collection of short stories titled The Art of the Short Story, edited by Dana Gioia, there are a surfeit of stories that mirror one another in terms of similar themes, including but not limited to: love, happiness, journeys, etc. Two short stories in particular, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” by Flannery O’Connor and “Shiloh” by Bobbie Ann Mason, share similar aspects pertaining to the dual themes of conflict within the families as well as journeys embarked upon by the main characters of the short stories that lead to the ultimate demise of the families. “A Good Man is Hard to Find” begins with a family conflict arising with relation to the destination of a family vacation. The grandmother of the family makes a suggestion to

In "Good Country People", the sheer fictional elements such as Hulga having a wooden leg only for it to be stolen by a Bible salesman with a nasty habit of stealing from others on his travels is an interesting development that defines Hulga's revelation in such that keeps the reader satisfied. Such elements also show that no matter the person, however they are, can be capable of evil and that not everyone by appearance is as they seem. To add on to this, both Pointer coming across as a well-raised Christian and Hulga's mother always being so conscious and judgmental of her choices further strengthen that ugliness in such terms as one being grotesque stems from the nature of a person for who they are as an individual. "Lord. He bored me to death but he was so sincere and genuine I couldn't be rude to him. He was just good country people, you know- just the salt of the earth." (441) I believe that this quotation reveals how much people are willing to assume that people are good just by the way the look and act.

The story Good Country People, by Flannery O’Connor is a short story published in 1955 in O’Connor’s short story collection A Good Man is Hard To Find. The short story is set on a small farm in rural Georgia. One of the first few things that can or is noticed in this story is how the author O’Connor uses both symbolism and characterization in an interesting and different way that helps present, along with shape the characters she uses in the short story. For example, one of the main characters O’Connor makes fairly interesting is Hulga Hopewell, also known as Joy Hopewell. The other two main characters being Mrs. Hopewell and Manly Pointer, as well play a very iconic role in this story. The author uses symbolism in Good Country People in their names (Mrs. Hopewell, Hulga and Manly Pointer), in colors (blue and green), and in Hulga’s artificial leg.

Short stories are seemingly a lost art amongst the literary community. Legendary writers such as Edgar Allen Poe, Flannery O’Connor, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and many more have paved the way for writers such as Ha Jin and Phil Klay who write today. Now, although one could speak on the importance of each of these tremendous writers, the focus in paper will be on two writings being that of Flannery O’Connor’s, “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and Ha Jin’s, “Under The Red Flag”. Now, each book contains many short stories that encapture readers throughout them. Flannery O’Connor’s classic short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find”, will be compared and contrasted with Ha Jin’s ,”Decade” and “The Richest Man”. Just as Greg Orwell

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

In “Good country people”, Hulga believes in nothing, therefore she is one of the non-religious people. Mrs. Hopewell’s words is a good

Even from the beginning of the story there are signs that the Hopewells have a certain disdain for others that they believe are not as smart or as well off as they are. Hulga does this in a very blatant way with the use of the knowledge gained from her PhD in philosophy. In the passage Hulga references what seems to be a famous philosopher to respond to her mother while knowing full well that her mother would not have any idea who the philosopher would be. She does this both to put her mother down as well as to affirm her own superiority over her.