C3C Todd Millard Captain Jessica Hellman Close Reading Essay # 2 14 April 2016 Good Country Trash “Good Country People” is a short story written by Flannery O’Connor. O’Connor writes with a unique style that makes the reader think on a deeper level about her reading. In this short story the title, “Good Country People,” is repeated over ten times. While it is not uncommon that a title is repeated in its text, the fact that it is repeated so often makes the reader wonder if it was on purpose. “Good Country People” is both the title of the story but also influences most of the action in the story as well. This text’s formal dimensions control the action in the story and give the reader a deeper meaning to try to understand. Throughout …show more content…
the majority of the short story people are categorized as either “trash” or “good country people.” At the beginning of the story the reader recognizes that O’Connor doesn’t seem to think very highly of Mrs. Hopewell because she thinks that it is her decision whether people are categorized as trash or good country people. The only similarity between the two groups is that both are poor, have little to no education, and white. Throughout the story, it seems like the lower class people do not get to decide which group they fall in. The poor, white, uneducated people are judged by wealthier people. Instead of judging themselves, the wealthier, higher class gets to decide whether somebody is trash or just good country people. (GCP, 273) The wealthy people, in this case, are Mrs. Hopewell and Hulga. Hulga doesn’t seem to classify anyone as trash but both Hopewell and Hulga look down on both groups. While it is better to fall in the “good country people” section over the “trash” section, both groups are not ideal. As I said already, you have to be poor, white, and uneducated to even be classified as one or the other. The classification from wealthier people doesn’t seem to be quite fair, but this has happened throughout history from even before when this story was written. The term “trash” dates back to the early 1820’s and could have been used even before that. “Trash” people were seen as anyone who was white and poor. (Xroads, 1) While this is similar to how Mrs. Hopewell sees this group, there are some differences. According to Mrs. Hopewell to be classified as “trash” you had to be poor, white, uneducated, and could not be trusted. She seems to have taken the term “white trash” and split it into two groups. There is the better “good country trash” and then just “trash.” It is interesting how both groups are so similar but one can be trusted and the other can’t. The most important part of the phrase “good country people” is that they can be trusted. “In the Freemans she realized she had good country people and that if, in this day and age, you get good country people, you had better hang on to them. She had had plenty of experience with trash.” (GCP, 273) The fact that good country people can be trusted is partly why Hulga agrees to go with Manley.
If Manley is good country people he can be trusted and would never think of taking advantage or harming her. Since good country people are uneducated, Hulga believes that she can take advantage of Manley and help him reach a “deeper understanding of life.” (GCP, 280) This does not happen, however. Manley is not this slow, undeveloped, mind. While he may seem simple to Mrs. Hopewell, he ends up taking advantage of Hulga. The fact that the title is repeated multiple times throughout the story gives it a new meaning. “Good country people” is a phrase that is easy to spot and every time I reread the text I question how “good” these people really are. Good country people are not supposed to be capable of taking advantage of the “wealthier” class and they are supposed to be these small, vulnerable, uneducated people. Several times throughout the story, however, this notion is inaccurate. Mrs. Hopewell doesn’t realize what Manley was capable of. Manley described to her how “simple” he was. In a way, he has her fooled into thinking he couldn’t do any harm and that he really is a good person. Obviously, Manley can’t be that “good” of a person if he just took advantage of her daughter. He has Mrs. Hopewell believing that he can be trusted because she believes that he is just a “simple,” harmless, boy. Both Mrs. Hopewell and Hulga are blind to the true nature of the world. There is both good and evil and everything is not as “simple” as it may seem. Mrs. Hopewell may finally start seeing the world for how it is when Mrs. Freeman says, “Some can’t be that simple,” she said. “I know I never could.” (GCP, 291) Hopewell has been using Mrs. Freeman throughout the entire story because she thinks that she is “good country people.” Mrs. Hopewell may finally realize that good country people are not as simple as she thought. Also, throughout the story, Mrs. Freeman is able to
establish her dominance over Mrs. Hopewell in the kitchen during meals. She knows that this makes Mrs. Hopewell angry but it gives her a sense of power. As the story goes on, Mrs. Hopewell slowly realizes how good country people may not be all that good after all. “Good country people” is a phrase that drives all of the action in this short story. There is a lot of history behind poor, white, uneducated people. This particular story was set in the early 1950’s in rural Georgia. It gives a great portrait of how communities and society judged other people. In conclusion, the title “good country people” controls the action in the story and gives the reader something to look for and question as the plot progresses. Works Cited: O’Connor, Flannery. “Good Country People.” The Complete Stories. New York: Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1971. 271-291. Print. Donovan, Douglas. "Introduction." White Trash: Transit of An American Icon. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2016. Documentation: I went in to EI with Captain Hellman to discuss the context behind my essay. She gave we several suggestions of where to look for context to this particular short story. We also talked about my overall argument and how to tie in the context to strength my paper.
“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.
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.
O’Connor, Flannery. “Essays and Letters On ‘Good Country People’” Literature: Reading Fiction, Poetry and Drama. Ed. Robert DiYanni. 6th ed. New York: McGraw Hill, 2007. 233-234.
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.
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
Flannery O’Connor’s A Good Man Is Hard to Find is one of the most well-known short stories in American history. A Good Man Is Hard to Find is a disturbing short story that exemplifies grace in extremity as well as the threat of an intruder. The story tells of an elderly grandmother and her family who embark on a road trip to Florida. The grandmother is a stubborn old woman with a low sense of morality. While on the trip, the grandmother convinces her son to take a detour which results in a broken down car and an encounter with a convicted fugitive, The Misfit. Although the grandmother pleads for mercy, The Misfit kills off the rest of her family. Through the grace she finds in her extreme circumstance, the grandmother calls The Misfit her own and implores him to spare her life. The Misfit does not oblige her and states after her death, “She would have been a good woman if it had been someone to shoot her every day of her life.” Through Flannery O’Connor’s disturbing and shocking display of the grandmother’s demise, she gives the reader a sense of the threatening power of an intruder and the idea of extreme situations bringing about a state of grace. The reason for such a powerful work may have resulted from Flannery O’Connor’s religious upbringing as well as the state of the nation at the time.
A Good man is Hard to Find" focuses on Christianity being filled with sin and punishment, good and evil, belief and unbelief.
"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 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.”
Flannery O’Connor's perception of human nature is imprinted throughout her various works. This view is especially evident in the short stories, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Revelation.” She conveys a timeless message through the scope of two ignorant, southern, upper class women. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” O’Connor presents readers to a family who is going on a road trip with their selfish grandmother. She is a religious woman who does not follow the set standards that she preaches. Similar characteristics are exposed in “Revelation.” As the self centered Mrs. Turpin sits in the waiting room, she contemplates on her own status with God. Nevertheless, she still commits the sin of judging others. In both of O’Connor’s short stories, these controversial protagonists initially put up a facade in order to alienate themselves from their prospective societies. Although the grandmother and Mrs. Turpin both believe in God, O’Connor utilizes theme to expose that they also convince themselves that they can take on His role by placing judgement on people who, at the most fundamental level, are in the same category as them.
“A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Good Country People” are two short stories written by Flannery O’Connor during her short lived writing career. Despite the literary achievements of O’Connor’s works, she is often criticized for the grotesqueness of her characters and endings of her short stories and novels. Her writings have been described as “understated, orderly, unexperimental fiction, with a Southern backdrop and a Roman Catholic vision, in defiance, it would seem, of those restless innovators who preceded her and who came into prominence after her death”(Friedman 4). “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” and “Good Country People” are both set in the South, and O’Connor explores the tension between the old and new South. The stories are tow ironically twisted tales of different families whos lives are altered after trusting a stranger, only to be mislead. Each story explores the themes of Christian theology, new verses the old South, and fallen human nature.
O'Connor, Flannery. Good Country People. Literature an Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, And Drama. X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia. Longman. 2002. (247-261)
O’Connor, Flannery. "Good Country People.” The Story and Its Writer. Charters, Ann. Compact 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/ST. Martin's, 2011. 662-676. Print.
Beginning with Mrs. Hopewell, the title of the story comes from what she likes to call the poorer and less fortunate people that live off the land and work their whole lives just to hang on to some scrap of a life. This is how she views these people. She believes that they are good country people not a bad seed among them, that they are all eager to help out and bow in humility to the upper class. The gullible nature of Mrs. Hopewell betrays her true vision of a situation. She is one of those people who are all goody-goody to people who they view as less fortunate. She’s a person that commends or speaks for the people she knows nothing about. Altogether this is her true weakness that is taken advantage of by Manley Pointer. One of ...
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.