Flannery O8217Conner and Grotesque Characters
Flannery O’Conner and Grotesque Characters
One of the most interesting characteristics of Flannery O’Conners writing is her penchant for creating characters with physical or mental disabilities. Though critics sometimes unkindly labeled her a maker of grotesques, this talent for creating flawed characters served her well. In fact, though termed grotesque, O’Conners use of vivid visual imagery when describing people and their shortcomings is the technique that makes her work most realistic. O’Conner herself once remarked that “anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the Northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it will be called realistic.”
In O’Conners “The Life You Save May Be Your Own” the villain is a one armed hobo named Tom T. Shiftlet. Using his gift of gab and the promise of “fixing the place up.” He manages to take up on the remote farm of an old woman named Lucynell Crater and her mentally retarded and completely deaf daughter “Lucynell Crater”. The old woman quickly decides that despite his handicap she would like to make Tom her son in law. His goal soon became, fix up the old car he was sleeping in and hightail it out of there with the car and some of the old womans money in his pocket. On the pretense that he would need it for a honeymoon trip, he convinces the old woman to fix the car and give him some cash. The story ends with him marrying the retarded daughter, leaving with her on a honeymoon trip, then abandoning her in a rundown diner on the side of the road.
“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.
Are humans natural born sinners? Are we content with our self-indulging human nature? Flannery O’Connor shows us through her stories that the worst quality in a human is selfishness. Through grotesque characters, O’Connor demonstrates the common theme of selfish human nature to display the ability it has to ruin/drive people crazy and that people only look to religion when they are desperate.
These two essays are about two dissimilar disabilities. Nancy Mairs and David Sedaris act as examples of how an author’s writing can change the tone and meaning of a narrative. Mairs message was educational and encouraging as she explained her life with MS and how society sees her. Sedaris use of experience and memories portrays his life with obsessive-compulsive disorder; what he calls “tics”. These two writers take similar topics and pitch them in ways so the reader can see the illustration behind them.
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.
In the end, Mr. Shiftlet ends up abandoning the girl. In “The Life You Save May Be Your Own,” O’Connor uses duality to show that people and things can have two sides. In the story, O’Connor parallels Mr. Shiftlet to Christ and to an anti-Christ. O’Connor reveals, through the character of Mr. Shiftlet, that people can have two different sides to them. Mr. Shiftlet’s past occupations correspond to what Jesus Christ did while he was on earth.
"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.
Physical surroundings (such as a home in the countryside) in works of literary merit such as “Good Country People”, “Everyday Use”, and “Young Goodman Brown” shape psychological and moral traits of the characters, similarly and differently throughout the stories.
When looking into works of literature, some stories seem to be similar to others. They can have a similar setting, point of view, theme, or sense of language and style. However, all of these points could be very different as well and could cover different theme or style. Flannery O’Conner’s “Good Country People” and Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use” have some contrasting elements, such as their points of view and use of symbolism, but their similarities in the underlying theme, language, and the setting of these stories reveal how these two stories are impacted by education on both the individual and their family.
A story without style is like a man without personality: useless and boring. However, Flannery O’Connor incorporates various different styles in her narratives. Dark humor, irony, and symbolism are perhaps the utmost powerful and common styles in her writing. From “Revelation” and “Good Country People” to “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” all of O’Connor’s stories consist of different styles in writing.
Scott, Nathan A., Jr. "Flannery O'Connor's Testimony." The Added Dimension: The Art and Mind of Flannery O'Connor. Ed. Melvin J. Friedman and Lewis A. Lawson. New York: Fordham UP, 1966. 138-56.
The short story focuses on the expectations of Hulga Hopewell and the irony of her encounter with a traveling Bible salesman. Hulga, with a PhD in philosophy and a wooden leg, sees herself as an uncompromising cynic in a world of fools, and she believes she has spotted a world-class fool in a Bible salesman, Manley Pointer. As her name implies, this is just wishful thinking: her certainty in her own brilliance and the stupidity of others leads her into a trap that reveals far more truth about herself and the world around her than she would have ever previously thought possible.
O’Connor’s work constantly contradicted itself; she wrote about the religion which she found fascinating but that same writing scorned the deeply religious and the church (Alexander). It is apparent through her writing that she showed contempt for those nihilistic hypocrites who preached religion but did not practice it, or thought that they “saw” the truth and it was not in religion; thus, this is the basis for many of the characters in her stories, including the character outline of Joy/Hulga in “Good Country People.” The people who the reader expects to be good are really bad, and those who are bad turn out to be good, if not a little worse for the wear for their experiences. This is a perfect correlation to Joy/Hulga and Manly Pointer
In “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Connor, O’Connor uses many different types of symbolism. The symbolism that is used in each of the characters’ names not only gives another layer to the literal descriptions that can be found throughout the story, but it also tells the reader about the characters. O’Connor uses the characters’ names as a way of showing the personality of each character, while also giving the reader insight to help them to understand the plot of the story. Mrs. Freeman, Mrs. Hopewell, Hulga (Joy), and Manley Pointer are more then just names; they help the reader understand the message that O’Connor in trying to portray.
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.
Whitt, Margaret. Understanding Flannery O’Connor. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. 47-48, 78. Print.