Mrs Hopewell In Good Country People

“Some can’t be that simple. I know I never could,” says Mrs. Freeman in the ending of the story, which means that perfection is difficult to achieve. However, in the book, Mrs. Freeman and other characters judge people around them just by their appearance. Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” criticizes the people of the American South for their moral blindness and hypocrisy as well as people’s negative habits of stereotyping, contradictory, and cliché. The book delivers the message to be critical and to see things beyond the border.
Mrs. Hopewell is a representative of American South morality by being blind and hypocrite. She believes to be able to distinguish if a person is a good country people or a trash. In her mind, a good country

people is someone who works and is honest, while trash is dishonest. Mrs. Hopewell pretends she is good enough to manipulate others and to put their weakness in her own good. She knows Mrs. Freeman is nosy but she pretends she will use her weakness in a constructive way so it will be better for her.

It is her blindness that leads her to an unpleasant manipulation by Manley Porter. It is enough for her to hear some beautiful words by someone and to understand if they are good country people or not. She believed she had no good qualities making her more comical character because she sees others bad qualities but she is unable to see hers. “…He is so simple, but I guess the world would be better off if all were that simple.”- it took only one day to meet Manley Porter to get to this conclusion to Mrs. Hopewell. She pretends to understand people but she is unable to understand her own daughter. Her daughter, Joy pretends to be different from her mother, but she is the same. She, as her mother is naïve and has a misperception of the world. They are not able to see the world as a mixture of good and evil. Joy or Hulga as she named herself pretends to see others more realistic as her mother but still she believes at good country people. Mrs. Hopewell doesn’t understand her daughter and she feels ashamed of her attitude and wearing. She is unable to understand her daughter necessity to be accepted by her as she claims: “If you want me, here I am- LIKE I AM.” Even her daughter’s changing name

from Joy to Hulga she sees it as an idiotic, immature act being blind to the fact that it was her daughter’s rebellion from everything. Hulga pretends she can understand people more than her mother. She is sometimes accusing her mother to see things from the bottom “WOMAN! Do you ever look inside?” But still she gets easily manipulated by Manley. She studied philosophy and pretended to know more about people but she believes the same thing: “Aren’t you,” she murmured “aren’t you good country people?” Hulga and her mother are as comic as tragic. They pretends to distinguish people but they aren’t seeing themselves and not understanding each other.
Mrs.

Freeman is contradictory and stereotypes. She says everyone is different but she doesn’t accept others opinions. She allowed her daughter to have an education and she got a PhD on philosophy, but still she wasn’t pleased with her daughter. People can say “My daughter is a nurse, a school teacher, a chemical engineer” but can’t say “My daughter is a philosopher” according to Mrs. Hopewell. She supports the idea to have an education, but according to her, her daughter has gone too far. She doesn’t accept her daughter as she is and she is judging what she wears. Her outfits, changing the name to Hulga and behaviours shows she was still a child according to Mrs. Hopewell. Hulga was as contradictory as her mother. Due to an accident at the age of ten she has lost her leg and she has heart problems. Her inability to have a normal life makes her a nihilist. She pretends to be above the typical Christian believers and to be an atheist. “You’re a Christian” she heisted. “You are a fine Christian! You’re just like them all-say one thing and do another. You’re a perfect Christian..” she says when she understand Manley’s intentions. Hulga pretends to understand more people but she gets easily manipulated. Both woman say something and do something else, they pretend to be smart enough to control others but they get easily manipulated.
Mrs. Hopewell was superficial and cliché at the most time and this leads to unpleasant situations with her daughter. She is always using quotes like:

“Everybody is different,” “It takes all kind to make the world”. She uses such phrases every day, while she is eating, sometimes as a supper too. This situation makes Hulga angry almost the whole time because it was everything she could hear at her house. It is this superficiality and her sense of superiority that make her irritating almost the whole time.
The society is in chaos. Who knows the rules will win the game. And Mrs. Freeman and Manley Pointer know it. In opposite to other two characters, they are smart and understand how world works. Mrs. Freeman knows exactly what Mrs. Hopewell wants to hear and she says it to her. She is mysterious because the narrator doesn’t describe her way of thinking but let us see from Hulga and Mrs. Hopewell. She pretends to be less quick than Mrs. Hopewell and to have same opinions as her just to get along with her. She has a clear view for the world and although she is a servant and she doesn’t possess her freedom, she possess her life way better than two other characters. Manley understand Mrs. Hopewell point of view and he shows himself as Mrs. Hopewell likes. He gains women’s trust and make them feel special. After that it is easy to manipulate them, because they believe everything he says. These two characters shows exactly how the appearance can fool you.
All the story is filled with judgements but the story is comic. The grotesque is part of the whole story, since the banality of superficial conversation till the moral blindness and the disappointing ending. The grotesque shows the misperception of the world by Mrs. Hopewell and her daughters. People that are busy judging others and not seeing themselves often end up disappointed. As George Eliot said: “We are all of us born in moral stupidity, taking the world as our udder to feed our supreme selves.”