The First Kiss In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

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What makes a first kiss, a first kiss? A first kiss is universally known to be awkward and disgusting. Right before someone kisses another for the first time in their life their head spins with questions. The movies make it seem so romantic and so epic. While realistically it is more likely to spark thoughts of sweaty hands, swapping spit(disgusting), and the endlessness of the lip lock. Compared to a person that another loves deeply: intensity of feelings, less mentality behind it--more automatic, and how emotionally-driven they both are. Joy, or rather Hulga, is a victim of theft. Her first kiss was revolting, it was what a first one is life. Flannery O’Connor created an image that is not a typical first kiss in literature. The power of a classic first kiss was not given to Hulga. Her kiss was not pretentious as she certainly is. Hulga, in Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People,” faces trials starting at age ten that affect her as a person and a woman in the twentieth century. …show more content…

At least, that was her intention. On page three of “Good Country People” Hulga is revealed. Joy reinvented herself. Joy made herself a new name when she had other issues that she simply ignored. In the Psychology world there is a man named Abraham Maslow that created a defining pyramid of human needs. On the bottom there are necessities such as food and water, then it becomes more complex as the pyramid reaches its peak. Joy is stuck between the two parts of the pyramid that are known as safety and love and belonging. Joy’s mother does not love her for who she is. On page two that is made clear when she says, “If you want me, here I am- LIKE I AM.” Her mother does not accept her leg, when Hulga defines herself by her artificial leg. Hulga cheats Maslow’s pyramid and goes straight to the top-- self-actualization. By changing her name that changes her status as a person, and now Hulga must start back on the

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