Literary Analysis from Two Stories: Conflict The two stories share a common theme of conflict particularly from a personal level. In the short story by O’Connor “Good Country People” takes a keen interest in the personal convictions and perception of Hulga world. The reality of her internal conflict regarding her identity is witnessed through the turn of events and her attitudes towards life. All these project the war going on within her. On the other hand, the poem “blood” by Naomi is an expression of the personal anxieties and fears evading in her inner world regarding her identity in a foreign land. It is amazing how both authors try to reach a common ground by the end of their narrations about the main characters personal battles in understanding …show more content…
themselves better. The main aim of this paper is to emphasize on one conflict and other literary techniques that emphasize the lives of the main characters. Hulga’s arrogance and spiteful actions channeled against her mother are readily recognizable even before she encounters Pointer.
Her wildness is definitely a result of her wooden leg tramping, change of name and unappealing clothing. She comes out as ugly; it would be better understandable suppose she were a teenager, but a thirty-two year old with a PhD in philosophy, her attitude stinks. She is very childish, ridiculous, haughty and pathetic at the same time. Bodily deformed, she resolves to the mind life; she is strongly convinced that she has empowered herself to rise beyond average human illusions of the significance of physical beauty and bodily health. Evidently her psyche, even her body, has undergone severe damage. Both of these are ironically connected to the self identity crisis she goes through unaware. She will later realize the personal identity crisis in both with regards to who she really is and her faith as well (Flannery, …show more content…
2013.) With a Palestinian father and an American mother, Naomi grapples with the reality of her the surrounding culture and her heritage as a Palestinian woman. What she sees the media portray regarding her native country is troubling and she wonders how her religion and race helps her in understanding herself better. Nonetheless, the father comforts her by reminding her that “a true Arab knows how to catch a fly in his hands” (Claire, 2011.) O’Connor utilizes color as symbolic technique, especially blue to highlight the lack of faith in God of both Hulga and Pointer.
When Mrs. Hopewell reads one of Joy’s books especially the passage on nihilism, the reader notes that it is highlighted with a blue pencil. Similarly, Pointer arrives at the house dressed in blue suit and in opening her valise inside the barn the author describes the lining as blue same as the contraceptive box (Dermot, 2013.) As is common in Flannery short stories, eyes remain a crucial symbol in her narratives. In this narrative, eyes are used to disclose that people often believed to be “good country people” by Mrs. Hopewell are ironically the exact opposite. Manley eyes are described as violent as he is sidetracked by Hulga’s detached wooden leg “every now and then the boy. His eyes like two steel spikes, would glance behind him where the leg stood.” (Flanner O’Connor’s stories,
2015.) One of the most interesting literary techniques that O’Connor uses to spice up the narrative is the symbolism in the names of the characters. Take for instance, the central conflict being between Hulga and Pointer. Hulga’s worst experience in losing her leg at the age of ten as a scavenger totally changes her life from a happy young girl to a sad girl. She legally changes her name from Joy- meaning happiness, to Hulga- meaning ugly and in essence killjoy. On the other hand, Mainly Pointer, the peddling bible salesman, has an interesting name that suggests he will point out some valuable lessons for joy. The change of name from Joy to Hulga connotes the personal conflict Hulga is undergoing in trying to understand herself better unconsciously and consciously.
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.
When an individual has to do a compare and contrast for a short story in the realm of literature, I believe that you have to take into account the deeper meaning in a short story. You have to read between the lines, one has to know what the symbols and what metaphors are. “A symbol is something that has a literal identity, but also stands for something else—something abstract—like an idea, a belief, or an emotion. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between one object and another that is different from it.” (Clugston, 2014) The reader needs to know that the author is using figurative language in the short story. Once the individual can understand this, the literature work will be significantly easier to do a compare and contrast essay.
“Good Country People” is a short story written by Flannery O’Connor in the mid 50’s. The story takes place on farm in Georgia that Mrs. Hopewell owns. Flannery O’Connor uses the characters names and personalities to symbolize that they aren’t really who they think they are. The protagonist Joy-Hulga has a heart condition which and a peg leg. Her heat condition and disability reflects that she is a broken and weak person on the inside. Mrs. Hopewell is Joy-Hulga’s mother, she is very hopeful that her daughter would be something in life but Joy has other visions for herself. Mrs. Freeman works on the farm and her name symbolizes that she is more of a free spirit she tends to live in reality and she is able to see exactly who Joy-Hulga and Mrs. Hopewell really are. In the story a young man named Manly Pointer comes to the farm and says that he is a bible salesman. Mrs. Hopewell assumes he is good country people because he is respectful and a Christian. Manley Pointer tells Mrs. Hopewell that he has a heart condition; at that point Mrs. Hopewell sympathizes with him because Joy-Hulga has the same condition (Flannery O’Connor). At first Joy-Hulga wants nothing to do with Manly Pointer because she is an atheist and he is a Christian. They eventually form a connection because they both share the same condition and Manly Pointer tends to say all the right things to bring her in. Hulga soon realizes that she is not who she thought she was when she is face to face with evil. Manly Pointer is an evil young man and a direct reflection of who Hulga wanted to be.
Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People" In "Good Country People" by Flannery O'Connor, uses symbolism in the choice of names, almost to the point of being ironic and humorous. These names center around the personality and demeanor of the characters. Hulga, once known as Joy, simply changed her name because it was the ugliest she could think of.
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.
Symbolism has been seen as a very important role in Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Good country people”. Flannery O’Conner has written several short stories portraying herself as a Catholic writer who attacks religious views being opposed, though uses the fundamentals of nihilism portrayed through Hulga (Joy), the main character of her story. She uses multiple frank descriptions and the usage of different types of symbolism to get the audience to understand her main points. The use of names and an artificial leg give a vivid description of the main character and her views towards nihilism. O’Conner’s symbolistic usage of names, name change and an artificial leg all link the main character’s nihilistic philosophy of life which leads to her
“Your beliefs don’t make you a better person, your behavior does.” While it is unknown who first said this quote, it holds the undeniable truth that being religious does not necessarily make you a good person. There are many religious people who have committed horrible acts and there are many secular people who have worked to make the world a better place. The character Manley Pointer in the story Good Country People by Flannery O’Connor is a prime example of a supposed religious person who has many immoral qualities.
Most of Flannery O'Connor's stories seem to contain the same elements: satirical and regional humor, references to God and Christianity, violent similes and metaphors, lots of stereotypical characters, grotesque humor and often focuses a lot of description on character's clothes and faces. However, one of the most important elements of O'Connor's "Good Country People" is the relevance of names. Her choice of names seem to give indications about the personalities of the characters and seem to be more relevant to the story than what the reader would commonly overlook as simply being stock character names. Mrs. Hopewell losing her "joy" (both her daughter and her happiness) and the Bible salesman's own attempt to satisfy his own "manly pointer" proves to the reader that, by coincidence or not, the names of "Good Country People" are indeed very well selected.
"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.
Eyes in “The Displaced Person” tend to be illustrated with violent terms. The eyes are harsh and very rarely are they described softly; Mrs. McIntyre has eyes like “steel or granite,” characters’ gazes often “pierce,” and “icy blue eyes” and other similar descriptions are common.
By definition joy means a great feeling of pleasure and happiness. In Mary Flannery O'Connor's short story Good Country People, Joy Freeman was not at all joyful. Actually, she was the exact opposite. Joy's leg was shot off in a hunting accident when she was ten. Because of that incident, Joy was a stout girl in her thirties who had never danced a step or had any normal good times. (O'Connor 249). She had a wooden leg that only brought her teasing from others and problems in doing daily activities. Joy was very rude as well. In the story it speaks of her comments being so rude and ugly and her face so glum that her mother's boss, Mrs. Hopewell, would tell her if she could not come pleasantly than for her to not come at all. (O'Connor 249).
A common aspect of Flannery O’Connor’s literary works is her use of heavily flawed characters. O’Connor’s characters often exhibit gothic and incongruous characteristics. O’Connor’s short story, “Good Country People,” is no exception to her traditional writing style with characters such as Hulga Hopewell, Mrs. Hopewell, Mrs. Freeman, and Manley Pointer. O’Connor uses gothic characterization and symbolism to produce a great short story about a few ruthless country people.
A reader might easily conclude that the most prominent social issue presented in The Bluest Eye is that of racism, but more important issues lie beneath the surface. Pecola experiences damage from her abusive and negligent parents. The reader is told that even Pecola's mother thought she was ugly from the time of birth. Pecola's negativity may have initially been caused by her family's failure to provide her with identity, love, security, and socialization, ail which are essential for any child's development (Samuels 13). Pecola's parents are able only to give her a childhood of limited possibilities. She struggles to find herself in infertile soil, leading to the analysis of a life of sterility (13). Like the marigolds planted that year, Pecola never grew.
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.
The organization of The Bluest Eye by season rather than the conventional chapter by chapter narrative suggests a cyclic occurrence, one of repetitive angst and in many ways irony. Pecola Breedlove’s life is a reflection of these seasons, the latter often being oxymoronic in relation to the actual chain of events. Each season connoted different aspects of Pecola's life and was often times the antithesis of her mere existence.