More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay examples for character development
Role of parents in shaping a child
Parental influence on personality development
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Good Country People: Tension in Relationships
In the short story “Good Country People”, O’Conner uses dialogue between Joy/Hulga and her mother, and narrative point of view, to illustrate the tension between the two protagonists and how their actions affect their relationship.
In an attempt to ignore the pain and suffering of the accident, Mrs. Hopewell still treats
Joy/Hulga as a child. When Joy/Hulga was only ten years old her leg, from just above the knee down, was blown completely off in a hunting incident, and ever since has been a completely changed person as she was conscious for the entire incident. She uses a wooden prosthetic that fits snugly over her stump to help her walk around. Joy/Hulga is a college educated girl that had the
…show more content…
Hopewell wants her to be. Everything Joy/Hulga does ties back to her trying to show her strength. Even Mrs Hopewell can see this as she,
“thought of the name, Hulga, she thought of the broad side of a battle-ship.”, even her name is representative of this fictitious persona that she has created for herself. Mrs. Hopewell, as stated before, still tries to look at Joy/Hulga as an innocent child; however, she is anything but a child. She is a thirty-two year old woman who has a college degree in in philosophy and is more than capable of taking care of herself. And for the innocence she lost that when she was ten and witnessed her own leg being shot off. When her mother forced her to go walk the fields with her she made the smart comment, “If you’re not going to come pleasantly, don’t come at all”, and it was described that Joy/Hulga’s body language was, “Standing square and rigid shouldered with her neck thrust slightly forward”, this is similar to a stance that a boxer would have in a fight. Joy/Hulga is going out of her way looking for a fight with her mother to prove that she isn’t
The children also argue with their mother often. The children think that their mother, with no doubt, will be perfect. They idealize their mothers as angel who will save them from all their problems, which the mothers actually never do. The children get angry at their false hopes and realize that their mothers aren’t going to...
The boy’s mother will take the easy way out for herself so that she won’t have to fight through the pain. By taking her own life, she will leave the boy in the father’s hands. The boy misses his mother everyday
Hopewell and Joy-Hulga, but also contains a humorous, yet judgmental tone in the story that defines the characters, mostly in Hulga. Hulga is considered the most ironic character in the story because of the little understanding she has of herself regardless of how well educated she is. She may consider herself the smartest woman in the story and may have pride in herself but what she doesn’t know is that Manley, a man who ironically sells Bibles and yet, is not a Christian, proves Hulga wrong in the end and makes her the one with stupidity. Using third person limited allows the reader to gather a deeper understanding of characters by using other characters that know them better than themselves. Overall, it is highly important to dig deeper into the story regarding narration by asking, who is narrating and why is his/her perception important and how does tone and irony contribute to the characters. In this case, the tone and irony gives the reader a better understanding of each individual character, both antagonist and
At the age of twenty one, Joy moved out of the house, went to college, and legally changed her name to Hulga. Hulga most likely changes her name to spite her mother, because Joy is such a beautiful name and Hulga is such an ugly one. ? She [Hulga] had arrived at it first purely on the basis of its ugly sound and then the full genius of its fitness had struck her... She saw it as the name of her highest creative act.?
basis of the plot and themes of this novel. The fond memories she possessed of her mother and the harsh ones of her father are reflected in the thoughts and
Even though she was facing extremely high danger by doing so small she took those risks and continued to do good.
...of a minor character in the story but she is referred to as having two emotions, “forward and reverse”. This is important because when a person is forced to go in reverse they must face something or learn something they don’t want to know about themselves. This seems to be what happens during the course of the story for Joy-Hulga. Although all the characters in the story are stuck in reverse, the only character that is forced to realize her weakness, which destroys the façade that she created is Joy-Hulga. It seems that in this story as in life the most high and mighty suffers the greatest fall. Joy-Hulga was the one who perceived herself to be the high and mighty of the characters. This attitude is displayed with many of her comment to Mrs. Hopewell. Perhaps when Joy-Hulga remarks to Mrs. Hopewell, “Woman, do you ever look inside?” she should’ve taken her own advice.
Joy did whatever it took and sometimes it meant not letting Wes leave military school to come home. She stood her ground and wanted to make him a better person, so she made him stick it out. She also valued her kids education so much that she did all she could which meant working multiple jobs just to keep them out of the public schooling system. If Wes didn’t have the support of his mother, he would of turn out like the Other Wes that was in the story and he mostly likely would have gone to jail
The mother is a selfish and stubborn woman. Raised a certain way and never falters from it. She neglects help, oppresses education and persuades people to be what she wants or she will cut them out of her life completely. Her own morals out-weight every other family member’s wants and choices. Her influence and discipline brought every member of the family’s future to serious-danger to care to her wants. She is everything a good mother isn’t and is blind with her own morals. Her stubbornness towards change and education caused the families state of desperation. The realization shown through the story is the family would be better off without a mother to anchor them down.
In early parts of the play, she is in control and is practical as she
...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.
After a traumatic experience early in her life in two, cheerless foster homes, and then an orphan...
seven children of her own. Knowing that she did this without the modern conveniences we have
by claiming that the hardships that she went through in life, was what she deserved, believing
elegant, and she walked well; but Darcy, at whom it was all aimed was still