...In Good Country People, the author expressed different aspects of what is considered good country people. Flannery O’Connor’s purpose is to get readers to understand deeply that she was using words to represent the characters’ personalities. I can see the play on words in the title and characters’ names. The story begins with Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Hopewell as they discussed their duties and children, mainly how they raised them to be good country people. Discussion of Mrs. Hopewell’s daughter takes over the text. She has low self-esteem, a bad personality, and a wooden leg; however, she was a very smart woman, having earned a Ph.D. She does not work yet because she is unable to lecture because of her wooden leg and poor vision without glasses. Hulga worshiped her artificial leg and beliefs demanding her limitations. Initially, she was named Joy but she took it upon herself to get her name changed to an uglier name (Hulga). Mrs. Hopewell was not satisfied with her decision and thought the name was very unappealing. Joy’s physical impairments controlled her life to the point that she wanted to live miserable and unattractive. Hulga is one of the main characters along with the bible salesman...
Words: 683 - Pages: 3
...Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” is a short story set on a small tenant farm in rural Georgia, where an accident leaves Joy, the protagonist, with one leg. This disfigurement has a profound impact on Joy’s life, leaving her emotionally scarred and causing her to distance herself from the real world. As a result, she decides to seek refuge in both education and intellectual advancement. Additionally, since Joy feels that her name represents something she does not feel, she decides to change her name to Hulga, an atrocious name that reflects her true personality. “Hulga” represents rage and grumpiness towards those around her, as she is not able to live the life she wanted to live, due to her health conditions. “Good Country People”...
Words: 1361 - Pages: 6
...Hulga, or Joy as she was originally named, is the lead female role in Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People”. It is rather ironic that she was first named Joy; Hulga represents many things, Joy not being one of them. With her natural disease and inability to live a normal life, surely no one can judge her lack of enthusiasm for life. Hulga desperately would like to live outside of her Mother’s house, but lacks the proper health stability that is necessary for living with no one else. She has obtained a doctorate in philosophy and is very active in reading and writing. The knowledge she has gained through over a decade of consistent reading cannot be overlooked, but she has also lost out on valuable time for enhancing her social skills....
Words: 326 - Pages: 2
...Good Country People: Tension in Relationships In the short story “Good Country People”, O’Conner used dialogue between Joy/Hulga and her mother, and narrative point of view, to illustrate the tension between the two protagonists and how their actions affected their relationship. In an attempt to ignore the pain and suffering of the traumatic accident, Mrs. Hopewell would treat Joy/Hulga as a child. When Joy/Hulga was only ten years old her leg, from just above the knee down, was completely blown off in a hunting incident. As a result, she would be a completely changed person, as she was conscious for the entire horrific accident, for the rest of her life. Months following the event, she used a wooden prosthetic that would fit snugly over...
Words: 1041 - Pages: 5
...At birth, one does not get to choose a name. One’s name is assigned and one’s name turns into an identity. In many instances in Flannery O'Connor's short stories, names give away a character’s moral identity. Many of the names that Flannery O'Connor uses are ironic and provide insight on how she wants the character’s to be perceived. In the short story, Good Country People, a thirty-two year old crippled girl changed her name from Joy to Hulga because she believed it was an ugly name, eventually, Joy/Hulga will have an ugly realization about her moral character. In the short story, A Good Man Is Hard To Find, it is immediately established that the bad guy on the run, “The Misfit”, received his name for a reason. Throughout these short stories,...
Words: 1160 - Pages: 5
...Manly Pointer appears at the Hopewell’s house, leaning from the weight of his briefcase, to sell the family a Bible. Hulga Hopewell is immediately taken with the man and agrees to accompany him on a date, seeing him as innocent and childlike. Through the use of irony and similes, Flannery O’Connor reveals that Manly Pointer is actually a crooked, immoral man. In “Good Country People,” Pointer pretends to love Hulga in order to gain Hulga’s trust and her artificial leg. Despite being a Bible salesman, Pointer has no regard for the moral standards set by the Bible. Mrs. Hopewell proclaims Pointer is “good country people” because of his career and attitude; however, this is only a facade. Pointer reveals to Hulga he has used this con...
Words: 385 - Pages: 2
...Cotina Moore English 1302 Essay #1 Southern Gothic Fiction 02 March 2015 “What Is In A Title” A Literary Analysis of Flannery O’ Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” “Good Country People,” and “Everything That Rises Must Converge” “I am not afraid that the book will be controversial, I’m afraid it will not be controversial-Flannery O’Connor Flannery O’Connor is considered one of the best short story authors of the 20th century. Born in Savannah Georgia in 1925, O’Connor was a devout Catholic. Her writings incorporated religious themes and her southern life (Bio). When reading O’Connor’s short stories, it is very surprising and shocking that the stories are often dark and controversial. Flannery O’Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” “Good Country People,” and “Everything That Rises Must Converge” use macabre, grotesque violence, irony, and grace through the depiction of her characters to illustrate that when an individual is faced with “grave” circumstances; those are the moments when grace is realized. Flannery O’Connor incorporates the use of macabre and violence in her short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” masterfully to elicit an unforgettable moment of grace from a character when faced with her “grave” circumstance. The use of grotesque violence is vividly displayed as a southern family is horrendously murdered by an escaped convict, The Misfit and his accomplices. An “eerie” sense of foreshadowing is realized when the protagonist, the grandmother...
Words: 1211 - Pages: 5
...Creation of Empathy in Flannery O’ Connor’s “A Good Man is Hard to Find” Through the usage of dramatic irony and person vs society conflict in the short story, “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” Flannery O’ Connor is able to elicit empathy in her story, adding a captivating new level of interpretation. “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” is about a myopic and manipulative grandmother who struggles to live in the present, because her mind is stuck in the past. To the grandmother’s great discontent, she and her family went on a road trip to Florida. In one situation, the grandchildren, John Wesley and June Star, offended the grandmother by talking negatively about Georgia and Tennessee. “If I were a little boy...I wouldn’t talk about my native state...
Words: 690 - Pages: 3
