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Critical analysis of flannery o'connors work
Flannery o'connor literary criticism
Critical analysis of flannery o'connors work
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The Cast of Good Country People Flannery O’Conner’s “Good Country People” is a short story told through the analysis of the interactions between the four main characters: Hulga (Joy), Manley Pointer, Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman. All four characters have distinct feelings about one another and have different levels of complexity. Out of all the main characters Hulga and Manley Pointer have the deepest level of complexity and are the ones with the most obvious fronts. Originally born Joy Hopewell, she was the only daughter of Mrs. Hopewell. At the age of ten her leg was shot off in a hunting accident. She decided to change her name from Joy to Hulga. She is now a thirty-two year old woman who has a doctoral degree in philosophy, continually …show more content…
reading and writing to further advance her education. Her mother Mrs. Hopewell thinks all of this education is a waste of her daughter’s time because they do not translate into practical real world skills. Not only is Hulga missing a leg, but she also has a heart condition. You can see her weak heart and her lost leg as a sign of vulnerability throughout the story. Hulga attempts to use her “true genius” to seduce a later character named Manley Pointer. She believed him to be the vulnerable one since he claims to be a traveling Bible salesman, therefore easily manipulated. She tried to use her higher education to combat his Christianity with her nihilism. In the end her vulnerabilities and lack of real world experience was what Manley Pointer ruthlessly targeted to nick her innocence from her. The antagonist of the short story, Manley Pointer, is a wayfaring conman, moving from town to town changing his name and specifically targeting his next victims.
His created persona is a traveling Bible salesman and he does and excellent job of creating an unintelligent and innocent identity. He also has an uncanny ability to create commonality with his victims. He intentionally and deliberately controls situations in order to weasel his way into receiving what he wants. Manley uses Hulga’s tough exterior and her insecurities to woo her to ultimately succeed with his end game, stealing her wooden leg. Hulga treats her leg like it is her soul, and when Manley steals it; Hulga loses her greatest possession along with her …show more content…
pride. Most famous for her clichés, Mrs.
Hopewell is Hulga’s mother, who still calls her joy. She is a divorced, single woman running a farm in southern United States in the 1950s. Mrs. Hopewell is astoundingly nice, but she is certainly not meek. On multiple occasions she lets us know she is a strong, independent and competent woman. Hulga is Mrs. Hopewell’s joy hence the original name of her daughter and she continues to call her by this name regardless of her daughter changing the name. And even though Hulga is hideous and a pouty brat her mother still loves her for the innocent little girl she used to be and does anything and everything to please her daughter. Mrs. Hopewell’s attitude to her worker Mrs. Freeman is condescending and patronizing. Also she is hypocritical towards Manley and tells Mrs. Freeman how much of a bore he was to her. Overall Mrs. Hopewell’s attitude towards her daughter, he worker and Manley Pointer is she is an elitist and she looks down upon all the people below
her. Mrs. Freeman has operated under Mrs. Hopewell on the farm for the past four years. Which is longer than Mrs. Hopewell has had any one work there before. She's mysterious because the narrator doesn't get into her head and show us her viewpoint, leaving us instead to see her mostly from the points of view of Mrs. Hopewell and Hulga. The final lines of the story suggest that Mrs. Freeman, like Manley, sees much more than her employer and Hulga. She may be good country people, but this doesn't mean what her employer thinks it means, it involves the ability to see the world around her for what it truly is. The freedom she embodies, then, is the ability to see, to precisely evaluate and respond. In this way, while she may never have her own land, she owns her life in ways that utterly elude Mrs. Hopewell and Hulga. The characters of good country all have a deeper sense to them what is originally portrayed. Flannery O’Conner’s story of innocence and deception was exceptional due to the intensity and personalities of the characters.
“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.
...she has also lost the foundation of her identity, her leg. She is faced with the realization that she has been naïve all along. In her pattern of being quick to make assumptions to build her own self esteem, Joy-Hulga has not used her intelligence in a socially beneficial way.
Hopewell’s daughter, Joy who renames herself to Hulga. Hulga who is also like Phoenix, a victim of circumstances, is highly educated, was shot in the leg while young, and thus has a wooden leg and is also sick in that she has a weak heart. Hulga, goes through these circumstances and takes them negatively, she is seen as not only rude but also always cross and insensitive to other people’s feelings or emotions an example of this is when she shouted at her mother, Mrs. Hopewell, at the table “Woman! Do you ever look inside? Do you ever look inside and see what you are not? God!” (Clugston,
Mrs. Freeman's name is ironic because she is burdened by the land that she works, so is not really free. Mrs. Hopewell?s name is also ironic, because she trys to provide hope, but is in fact empty in her talk. Each one of these characters names, Hulga, Mrs. Freeman, and Mrs. Hopewell, show the symbolism used by Flannery O'Connor. Hulga, the daughter to Mrs. Hopewell, was actually named Joy at birth. At the age of ten, Joy lost one of her legs in a hunting accident, and from that point on became a depressed realist.
Joy-Hulga and Dee-Wangero share the same motive and reasoning for changing their names, to gain autonomy while changing themselves. Joy changes her name to Hulga because it is ugly like her disposition and completely opposite of her given name. Joy-Hulga is not only trying to anger her mother, but also attempt to change herself. When Joy-Hulga turns twenty-one, she immediately leaves home and changes her name in an “attempt to redirect her life,” without telling her mother until after she does so (Feeley 236). Joy changes her name to Hulga, which Mrs. Hopewell is certain that she only chose because it was the “ugliest” name she had come across “in any language” (O’Connor 190). Joy chooses the name Hulga at first because of “its ugly sound” but then perceives it as one of her “major triumphs” (190). Joy-Hulga successfully changes her name, displeases her mother, and reestablishes herself. Conversely, Dee changes her name to Wangero to rebel against her heritage and...
Joy Hopewell is the name given to Hulga by her mother and father when she was a baby. This name brings to mind a person who looks on the brighter side of things and doesn’t let things discourage her. In the readers mind this name may perhaps bring about the image of a teacher or someone who works with children in a well light happy place. It is also a softer more vulnerable name, which may have been O’Conner’s intent in using the name Joy. In the story Joy changes her name to Hulga Hopewell because of the fact that she feels it better suits her personality. During her childhood Hulga had an accident in which her leg was shot off of her body; therefore, she has to wear a wooden leg that is rather bulky so by having the name Hulga it helps her to deter many people from asking questions or trying to get too close to her. Due to this accident Hulga becomes a brooding person, not very fond of company and entertainment. The name Hulga brings to mind a rather large Swedish woman who could probably break a man in half. It is a brooding name and awkward on ...
Freeman, mother of Carramae and Gylnese and Mrs. Hopewell Hulga’s mother. Both characters have a major impact towards Hulga’s life. Mrs. Freeman, as described by O’Conner is seen more of a realist who speaks and thinks freely. She is a very passionate woman and “had a special fondness for the details of secret infections hidden deformities, assaults upon children”, which in this case applies to Hulgas state of appearance, her deformity the artificial leg. This quote shows the bond Hulga has with Mrs. Freeman since she is very passionate about deformity. Hulga appreciates Mrs. Freeman because she helps her distinguish a more realistic view of life and the world, rather than following the same old good Christian morals. On the other hand Mrs. Hopewell, joys mother is seen as a good woman who has good Christian values. O’Conner uses this symbolistic name of Mrs. Hopewell because she carries hope with her where ever she is. “People who looked on the bright side of things would be beautiful even if they were not” (173). She is a very optimistic good Christian and follows good country people morals. She is as well proud of her ability to see well in anyone she crosses and help any situation that is in a bad state. O’Conner’s usage of indirect characters like Mrs. Hopewell and Mrs. Freeman play a role in Hulga’s nihilistic life as an angel and a demon. Both constantly attempt to influence their beliefs without forcing their opinions towards
Joy/Hulga has two items that are used alternately to describe her, the eyeglasses that counter her weak eyes and are a sign of her intellectuality, and the wooden leg that she wields through sound and appearance as a weapon against her mother’s solicitude. When Manley Pointer removes her glasses and steals her wooden leg, she is left totally weak and vulnerable. The Bible salesman himself uses the illusion of Bibles as a symbol. He has claimed to have a suitcase full of Bibles to sell, but his moral laxness is revealed when he opens the case to reveal two Bibles, one of which has a hidden
O’connor, Flannery. "Good Country People" The Bedford Introduction To Literature, 5th ed. Ed, Michael Meyer. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s,1999. 393-406
The ironic quality of each character’s name is apparent immediately. Joy Hopewell, a woman crippled in a gruesome hunting accident, is depicted as bitter, sullen, and nihilistic. She is anything but well-whishing or Joyful. Her mother named her daughter because she expected her ch...
“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.
...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.
Hopewell’s hopefulness works against her good will. Her optimism leads her to only see the good in people and situations. Mrs. Hopewell’s simplemindedness foreshadows her daughter’s defeat to Manley’s manipulative skills. From the beginning of the story, Mrs. Hopewell coins the phrase, “good country people.” This quote proves that Mrs. Hopewell forms superficial stereotypes of certain types of people. She assumes that all country people are good people. Manley’s devout Christian, country boy act easily fools Mrs. Hopewell. She believes he is a great person because he appears to be religious and country. Though Mrs. Hopewell’s always seems to have good intentions with her daughter, Mrs. Hopewell inflicts her views of country people on her daughter, which leads to her daughter’s blindness from reality. Mrs. Freeman, the Hopewell’s family helper, plays a very small, yet important role in Flannery O’Connor’s story. Contrary to how Mrs. Hopewell’s name corresponds with her personality, Mrs. Freeman’s name differs from her actuality. Mrs. Freeman’s name implies that she is free from control, but she works for another family as if she is
The first name Manley, might suggest to the reader that he will fill a male void for Hulga. The reader is told that Mr. and Mrs. Hopewell are devoiced and there is no other mention of her father in the story. Also, the fact that Hugla sees herself as being hideous suggest that she probably doesn’t have many if any male suiters. While the last name Pointer, could suggest that he will most likely reveal, or point out something in Hugla’s life. Manley is a skilled conman and is able to trick both Mrs. Hopewell, who believes that he is good christian and Hulga, who thinks she is to smart to be fooled by anyone. At the end of the story the reader learns that not only is Manley not a bible salesman, but that his name isn’t even Pointer. “You needn’t to think you’ll catch me because Pointer ain’t really my name. I use a different name at every house I call”(O’Connor 1644). He then goes on to say to Hulga “ you ain’t that smart”(O’Connor 1644). Manley had tricked Hulga into thinking that he was a good Christian and that he was interested in her sexually, but really what he wanted was her false leg and some might also suggest to humiliate her.
The first character we encounter is Mrs. Freeman. She is the wife of Mrs. Hopewell's tenant farmer. She is a very outspoken woman, and "she [can] never be brought to admit herself wrong on any point" (O'Connor 180). Mrs. Freeman is a gossip; she is nosy and she "ha[s] a special fondness for the details of secret infections, hidden deformities, assaults upon children" (O'Connor 183).