Even though, a person likes to think they are in control, life will show them they are in less control than thought they were. In Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People,” the character Hulga is a person that wants to maintain control in every aspect of her life good or bad. To Hulga it seems she is in constant control of her surroundings and her life. However, she does not have control that she thinks has.
Hulga’s birth name was Joy. When Joy/Hulga was 21, she wanted to show her mother she was in control by changing her name. Elizabeth Hubbard states that Hulga, “triumphs in her self-naming not only because it enables her to gain a sense of power over her mother, but also because she feels she as in some sense created herself” (58). Furthermore, Hulga knew there was nothing her mother could do about it. However, Hulga is not in control by changing her name, this was an act of rebellion against her mother. Changing her name did not stop Hulga’s mother from calling her Joy. One scholar states,“Despite everything she has done to break free and create herself as a figure of powerful will, she also continues to be the child her mother lost” (Arbery 45). Therefore, Hulga has lost control once again.
Hulga is a thirty-two year old, and still lives at home with her mother show’s Hulga is not in control of her life. She heavily relies on her mother and uses her disability as a crutch to try to keep control of over her mother, so she thinks. Hulga was born with a weak heart and at the age of ten, she lost her leg in an accident. Hulga was unable to control the accident that caused her to lose her leg only to replace it with an artificial leg. “For Hulga, the artificial leg is in effect the only real part of her, since it is a made thing...
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Behiling, Laura L. "The Necessity of Disability in 'Good Country People' and 'The Lame Shall Enter First'." Flannery O'Connor Review 4 (2006): 88-89. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
Edmondson, Henry T. "'Wingless Chickens': 'Good Country People' and the Seduction of Nihilism." Flannery O'Connor Review 2 (2003): 63-73. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
Gayman, Cynthia. "In Hope of Recognition: The Morality of Perception." Journal Of Speculative Philosophy 25.2 (2011): 148-60. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
Hubbard, Elizabeth. "Blindness and the Beginning of Vision in 'Good Country People.'" Flannery O'Connor Review 9 (2011): 53-68. MLA International Bibliography. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.
O'Connor, Flannery. "Good Country People." The Complete Stories of Flannery O’Connor. New York: Farrar, 1972. 271-91. Print.
...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.
In her story, “Greenleaf”, the author Flannery O’Conner shows us that people can sometimes blind their factual vision of the world through a mask of dreams, so that they would not be able to make a distinction between reality and their dreams of reality. O’Conner unveils this through the use of point of view , character, irony, and
Boyer, Paul S. The Enduring Vision: A History of the American People. D.C. Heath and Company, Mass. © 1990
Baynton, Douglas. "Disability and Justification of Inequality in American History." The New Disability History. New York: New York University Press, 2001. 285-294. Print.
...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.
Independence is something most humans strive for, although some are not lucky enough for it to be an option for them. When a person loses their independence they lose the faith in themselves that they are even capable of being independent. Once the right is taken away, a person will become dependent on others, and unable to function as they used to. Most people would sit back and let their right be taken, but not Hagar Shipley. Hagar loses her independence as most do, because of her age. Doris confronts Hagar about an accident she had when she wet the sheets, and Hagar begins to feel the vice slowly closing down on her already tiny slice of independence. Feeling threatened, Hagar snaps, “That’s a lie. I never did any such thing. You’re making it up. I know your ways. Just so you’ll have some reason for putting me away.” (Lawrence 74) As if Hagar wasn’t having a difficult enough time wat...
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
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.
Thernstrom, Stephan. A History of the American People. Vol. 1. San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1989. Print. ***
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.
http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/dcp171778_270487.pdf [Accessed 28/01/14]. Scotch, R (1989) From Good Will to Civil Rights: Transforming federal disability policy. Temple University Press: Philadelphia, PA. Shakespeare, T (2006) Disability: Rights and Wrongs.
At least, that was her intention. On page three of “Good Country People” Hulga is revealed. Joy reinvented herself. Joy created a new name when she had other issues that she simply ignored. In the Psychology world, there is a man named Abraham Maslow, that created a defining pyramid of human needs. On the bottom, there are necessities, such as food and water, then it becomes more complex as the pyramid reaches its peak. Joy is stuck between the two parts of the pyramid that are known as safety and love and belonging. Joy’s mother does not love her for who she is. On page two that is made clear when she says, “If you want me, here I am- LIKE I AM.” Her mother does not accept her leg, when Hulga defines herself by her artificial leg. Hulga cheats Maslow’s pyramid and goes straight to the top-- self-actualization. By changing her name that changes her status as a person, and now Hulga must go to the bottom and
In the essay “Disability,” Nancy Mairs discusses the lack of media attention for the disabled, writing: “To depict disabled people in the ordinary activities of life is to admit that there is something ordinary about disability itself, that it may enter anyone’s life.” An ordinary person has very little exposure to the disabled, and therefore can only draw conclusions from what is seen in the media. As soon as people can picture the disabled as regular people with a debilitating condition, they can begin to respect them and see to their needs without it seeming like an afterthought or a burden. As Mairs wrote: “The fact is that ours is the only minority you can join involuntarily, without warning, at any time.” Looking at the issue from this angle, it is easy to see that many disabled people were ordinary people prior to some sort of accident. Mairs develops this po...