Similarities Between Good Country People And The Chrysanthemums

Meet Joy aka Hulga Hopewell and Elisa Allen, two young women living out their days in the countryside. Flannery O’Connor and John Steinbeck give us glimpses into their ordinary lives in the short stories “Good Country People” and “The Chrysanthemums”. Both stories, written in the first half of the 20th century, highlight what a women’s daily life may have been like in a patriarchal society. These were times when women were still separate from the man’s world they lived in and often would compensate by embodying masculine traits. Although Elisa and Hulga lead quite different lives, both women share the personality trait of masculinity and ironically both find themselves uniquely disarmed by seemingly innocent male characters that show up in

In the case of Hulga this is done through an obvious and blatant physical assault against her. Manley Pointer invites Hulga on a picnic with him, as she goes to meet him at the symbolic gate to the outside world she has “the furious feeling that she had been tricked” (O’Connor 194), her intuition foreshadowing what is to come. Pointer leads her towards a nearby barn where they climb up into the barn’s loft. Although Hulga had the forethought that she would be seducing Pointer she in turn ends up being seduced. Manley persuades her to remove her wooden leg and as he made his request Hulga “uttered a sharp little cry and her face instantly drained of color” (O’Connor 196) at the thought of being separated from her phallus. Once her leg is off Manley “pushed her down” and refuses to return the prosthetic to her causing Hulga to be “entirely dependent on him” (O’Connor 197). He further reveals himself to not be a bible salesman but a man who steals from women for fun. Hulga’s loneliness and vulnerability to the attention from Pointer unfortunately leaves her stranded and without her phallus in the barn’s

Elisa started off refusing the man’s services, to which the man reacted with “exaggerated sadness” and a “whining undertone” (Steinbeck 247). He searches for some way to make connection to Elisa and he brings the conversation to her chrysanthemums stating that he knows a woman who has been on the lookout for some of these flowers. Elisa grows “alert and eager” (Steinbeck 247) at this point in the story and she excitedly prepares him a pot of her precious phallus-like flowers to take to said woman. At this point she has a change of heart and she searches for saucepans for the man to fix, once his goal of making a sale is met “his manner changed, he became professional” (Steinbeck 248). After being paid he starts to head off and Elisa brings the conversation back to the flowers and he seems to have already forgotten about them as he says “Sand, ma’am?...Sand?...Oh, sure. You mean about the chrysanthemums”(Steinbeck 249) foreshadowing that the flowers may not have as much importance to him as Elisa would hope. Later in the evening Elisa accompanies her husband on a date, as they are driving she sees the flowers thrown on the side of the road. She becomes instantly saddened, her husband taking note asking her what is the matter. However, she hides her tears and sadness from her husband keeping the distress that this sales man has caused a secret. Just as with Hulga, Elisa’s