One’s attitude toward the world and life in general often proves self-destructive. Flannery O’Connor, in her short story, “Good Country People,” uses a variety of rhetoric devices such as symbolism, characterization, and irony to portray how a nihilistic philosophy of life can ultimately lead to ruin. She depicts how people tend to stereotype in ways that prevent them from thinking or seeing clearly, and how it can ultimately lead to devastating consequences.
The short story focuses on the expectations of Hulga Hopewell and the irony of her encounter with a traveling Bible salesman. Hulga, with a PhD in philosophy and a wooden leg, sees herself as an uncompromising cynic in a world of fools, and she believes she has spotted a world-class fool in a Bible salesman, Manley Pointer. As her name implies, this is just wishful thinking: her certainty in her own brilliance and the stupidity of others leads her into a trap that reveals far more truth about herself and the world around her than she would have ever previously thought possible.
Despite her PhD, Hulga, at 32 years old, lives with her mother and has no job or desire to get one, or likelihood of ever having one. Hating both herself and the world for her missing leg, she is in need of the healing powers of love and sex. This is what she sees in Manly, the simpleton bible salesman: perhaps the last feasible opportunity she’ll ever have to experience love and sex. In her high opinion of herself and low opinion of him, she plans to seduce him during their picnic date.
Throughout the story, O’Connor shows how people tend to use clichés in ways that make it easy for them to avoid thinking or seeing clearly. Hulga, who looks at “nice young men as if she [can] smell their s...
... middle of paper ...
...t turns out that Hulga, who previously thought she was so intellectual in her nihilistic mentality, is overcome by someone so seemingly inferior, but actually of the same mindset.
Hulga, the crippled yet conceited focus of the story, is confronted with the human form of the nihilistic worldview she holds so stubbornly. The reader sees her pride in her own intellect and in her mastery of existentialism come crashing down when she is so gullible as to be easily manipulated by the young “bible salesman,” her naïveté representing the intellectual equivalent of her physical flaw. He pulls her legs out from underneath her both physically and psychologically. O’Connor doesn’t stop there, as all characters serve to convey the message that both this vain attitude and narrow-minded thinking can result in great consequences and, perhaps in the end, true enlightenment.
Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People" is a story told through the examination of the relationships between the four main characters. All of the characters have distinct feelings about the others, from misunderstanding to contempt. Both Joy-Hulga, the protagonist, and Manley Pointer, the antagonist, are multi-faceted characters. While all of the characters have different levels of complexity, Joy-Hulga and Manley Pointer are the deepest and the ones with the most obvious facades.
“Good Country People” is a story about Joy Hopewell, a very well educated young woman living in the rural south. Joy lost a leg in a hunting accident when she was ten and since then had been forced to wear a wooden replacement. She also had a weak heart and it was this affliction that forced her to remain amongst these “good country people” whom she considered to be intellectual inferiors. Though she had great confidence in her intelligence she had very little self-esteem. Joys’ handicap made her feel ugly, so ugly that much to her mothers’ dismay, she had her name legally changed to the ugliest one she could think of, Hulga. One day a traveling bible salesman named Manley Pointer made a sales call and ended up having dinner with the family.
He has qualities of “good country people” by selling bibles and “not attending college but devotes his life to Christian service” (178). His appearance and name is a great symbol that signifies of something that is not real which connects to Hulga’s name. Manley’s name has an impact towards Hulga because his name signifies a manly figure which is a missing part in Hulga’s life. On the other hand his last name Pointer symbolizes great divulge of something amazing that will stand out in Hulga’s way. However his name is seen as a false and in reality symbolizes the emptiness of a male presence and the revelation that her life consists of only falsities. O’Conner also used a great mirror description between a bible and his name. Manly pulled out two bibles though one “was hollow and contained a pocket flask of whisky, a pack of cards and a small blue box with printing on it” (192). O’Conner used this hallow bible filled with several profane and contrary items as a symbolism to expose the meaning of Manley’s true self character. Manley is seen as a true nihilist, and through his name, hollow bible and false Christian morals he has revealed himself towards Hulga, as a true meaning of simply believing in nihilistic
Joy/Hulga has two items that are used alternately to describe her, the eyeglasses that counter her weak eyes and are a sign of her intellectuality, and the wooden leg that she wields through sound and appearance as a weapon against her mother’s solicitude. When Manley Pointer removes her glasses and steals her wooden leg, she is left totally weak and vulnerable. The Bible salesman himself uses the illusion of Bibles as a symbol. He has claimed to have a suitcase full of Bibles to sell, but his moral laxness is revealed when he opens the case to reveal two Bibles, one of which has a hidden
He takes advantage of others by using religious beliefs to his advantage, exactly the opposite of what Christians do. This allows speculation that his supposed “Bible” that is, in fact, a hollowed out Bible filled with whiskey and condoms. Hulga tells the Bible Salesman: “You’re just like them all — say one thing and do another. You’re a perfect Christian.” (467). The comment made by Hulga suggests that she now sees the hypocrisy that is connected to religion, but throughout the whole story, Hulga’s view of hypocrisy is limited. This is a powerful revelation that for the audience because it suggests that she is a hypocrite too. Hulga believes that she is above conventional morality sheds religion to pursue philosophy, so she can live an ethical life than religious people around her. But with all her knowledge, it only makes her blind to where she cannot see her own
The story is center around a small cast. In it Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter Joy, who had her name changed to Hulga, live on a farm with their tenants Mrs. Freeman’s and her two daughters- Glynese and Carramae. Interestingly, Mrs. Hopewell calls the Freeman Girls, Glycerin and Caramel while refusing to call her own daughter anything but Joy. “Good County People”, is told through the interactions of this dysfunctional gaggle of ladies, and their chance encounter with the Bible selling con-artist Manley Pointer. It is a story of a few not so, “Good Country People.”
"Good Country People", by Flannery O’Connor, presents us with a look into the monotonous lives of three women living together on a rural farm. All three women are set in their old-fashioned ways, having experienced very little of life, out on the farm. A bible salesman named Manley Pointer, appearing like nothing more than simple, "good country people"(1), pays them a visit one day. It turns out that this simple countryboy is actually a brilliant con artist who scams the pretentious daughter, Hulga (also known as Joy) into removing her wooden leg, which he proceeds to steal. A great change in Hulga is triggered by her experience with Manley Pointer. Although it was a cruel scam, the bible salesman helps her to see the truth about her education and human nature. Hulga realizes that in addition to book smarts, people skills are also crucial in navigating the real world.
The first encounter with Helga Crane, Nella Larsen’s protagonist in the novel Quicksand, introduces the heroine unwinding after a day of work in a dimly lit room. She is alone. And while no one else is present in the room, Helga is accompanied by her own thoughts, feelings, and her worrisome perceptions of the world around her. Throughout the novel, it becomes clear that most of Helga’s concerns revolve around two issues- race and sex. Even though there are many human character antagonists that play a significant role in the novel and in the story of Helga Crane, such as her friends, coworkers, relatives, and ultimately even her own children, her race and her sexuality become Helga’s biggest challenges. These two taxing antagonists appear throughout the novel in many subtle forms. It becomes obvious that racial confusion and sexual repression are a substantial source of Helga’s apprehensions and eventually lead to her tragic demise.
Nella Larsen wrote Helga to be ahead of her time. She’s a fiercely materialistic and intelligent woman of bi-racial ethnicity in a time that did not allow for bending of social norms and roles. Because of these strict societal barriers and her own self-doubt and internal struggle, Helga continually lets herself drown in the quicksand that is her isolationist feelings and life.
Hopewell, Joy, and Mrs. Freeman, none of these women’s behavior displays quite as many nuances as the Bible salesman’s. Though he and Joy actually share small similarities. They are both emotionally distressed because of the health issues with which they are coping, therefore they project their own internal misery onto everyone else. The difference between them is, the Bible salesman uses deception to lure people into his schemes. Like a green mamba snake slithers around patiently planning an attack on his prey, so does the Bible salesman calmly sweet-talk his way into the hearts of those he wishes to deceive. He is aware of the common positive stereotypes used to describe country people, therefore he is determined to inform Mrs. Hopewell that he is from the country. His efforts to feign innocence and honesty include his use of phrases such as “I know I’m real simple”, “I’m just a country boy”, and “People like you don’t like to fool with country people like me!” He is well aware that the appearance of innocence will enable him to wiggle his way into his victims’
...cares for her and thus encourages her into letting down her guard and trusting him. This becomes Hulga?s downfall and the most important theme of O?Connor?s story: people aren?t always what they appear or ?you can?t judge a book by its cover.? Her narcissism allows Manley to talk her into removing her leg. He grabs it and runs off with it, but not before letting her know that he has played her for the fool. O?Connor?s comprehensive character development leads her readers into complacently judging Hulga as superior to the other characters in her story. She takes this a step further in her development of Manley Pointer as an innocent. Through this development, O?Connor lulls her readers into stereotyping the characters into the personas she wants them to see. Hulga?s epiphany is thematic. The ultimate irony is that not only is Hulga duped by Manley, her readers are too.
In "Good Country People," Flannery O'Connor skillfully presents a story from a third-person point of view, in which the protagonist, Joy-Hulga, believes that she is not one of those good country people. Joy is an intelligent and educated but emotionally troubled young woman, struggling to live in a farm environment deep in the countryside of the southeast United States, where she feels that she does not belong. Considering herself intellectually superior to the story's other characters, she experiences an epiphany that may lead her to reconsider her assumptions. Her experience marks a personal transition for her and constitutes the story's theme--the passage from naïveté to knowledge.
The story “Good Country People”, by Flannery O’Conner is a work that uses characterization in a new and interesting way to help shape and present the characters of this story. One of the main characters is Hulga Hopewell, also known as Joy Hopewell. This characters name plays a very ironic role in the story. Through the use of such a peculiar name O’Conner helps to develop and build the characteristics of Hulga. In the story “Good Country People” the use of the name Hulga (Joy) Hopewell helps to further build upon the characterization of Hulga and give the reader a deeper understanding of the character.
...ated and had a Ph.D. in Philosophy. She could not call her daughter a schoolteacher, a nurse, or a chemical engineer and that bothered her. These people and episodes in Joy's life made her a very miserable person. They made her hate all that surrounded her, which included flowers, animals, and young men. This is why Joy changes her name to Hulga when she was twenty-one years old. She believed the name represented her as an individual. The name was fierce, strong, and determined just like her. The name reminded her of the broad, blank hull of a battleship. Joy felt the name reflected her inside and out. It separated her from the people who surrounded her that she hated the most.
In Flannery O 'Connor 's short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, the theme of good vs. evil unravels throughout the series of tragic events. The Grandmother’s epiphany introduces the idea of morality and the validity is left to the interpretation of the reader. By questioning the characteristics of right and wrong, morality and religion become subjective to personal reality and the idea of what makes individuals character good or bad becomes less defined.