Religion In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

1807 Words4 Pages

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 …show more content…

Her weak heart, while being a real physical malady, was also an emotional issue and kept her from getting close to anyone. She worships nothing, trading religion for philosophy, and her false leg represents her false belief. She treats the leg as if it were her soul. Her lack of her childhood faith and acceptance of events shows how she has a lack of faith in God, as a self-proclaimed atheist, but then when Manly Pointer says that he “doesn’t believe in that crap!” she gets very upset that she was deceived so easily, and, in her terror as she realized that her entire belief system was falling down around her, she suddenly wants the Christian ideals that she mocked for so long (Colas). By taking away her glasses, he symbolically stripped her of her intelligence, her “salvation,” her “blindfold,” and when he took her artificial leg he took away any beliefs of nothing that she held (Oliver). Allen Tate has called “Good Country People” “the most powerful story of maimed souls by a contemporary writer” (15). O’Connor saw all of the characters in her story having some sort of grotesqueness; physically, mentally, or, most important, …show more content…

In “The Ugliest Pilgrim,” Violet wants God to get one of his faith healers in Oklahoma to get rid of the scar that has divided her face since an accident when she was younger:
I’ve seen the Preacher wrap his hot, blessed hands on a club foot and cry out “HEAL!” in his funny way that sounds like the word “Hell” broken into two pieces. Will he not cry out, when he sees this poor, clubbed face? I will be to him as Goliath was to David, a need so giant it will drive God to action (Betts 15).
This malady, her scar, makes her physically grotesque, much like Joy/Hulga in O’Connor’s “Good Country People.” She has never been beautiful, and that is one of the deepest desires of her heart. While on the bus ride, she picks apart other people’s features as though she’s shopping; she wants that person’s hair or those eyes and that nose, all features to make her more beautiful after her scar gets healed. This desire to be a beauty is also a kind of grotesque quality, as is her loneliness and need to be loved; she wants it so badly it nearly overwhelms her personality and is all that she can thing about. Like Joy/Hulga, she is lonely in the lifestyle she lives, and is looking for someone to love her. Just like Hulga befriended Manly Pointer, so Violet befriends Monty, but with more favorable events than Joy/Hulga’s newfound friendship. Monty truly seems to love Violet; in the end of the story when she comes back from Tulsa

Show More
Related

  • Why Is Amos Fortune Free Men

    259 Words  | 1 Pages

    The second reason Amos should not have bought Violet is that She might not be happy but instead Sad and lonely She might not like Amos or what he does. And

    Read More

  • Flannery O8217Conner and Grotesque Characters

    661 Words  | 2 Pages

    “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.

    Read More

  • Naïveté in Flannery O'Connor’s Good Country People

    1623 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...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.

    Read More

  • Figurative Language In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

    2497 Words  | 5 Pages

    When an individual has to do a compare and contrast for a short story in the realm of literature, I believe that you have to take into account the deeper meaning in a short story. You have to read between the lines, one has to know what the symbols and what metaphors are. “A symbol is something that has a literal identity, but also stands for something else—something abstract—like an idea, a belief, or an emotion. A metaphor is a figure of speech in which an implied comparison is made between one object and another that is different from it.” (Clugston, 2014) The reader needs to know that the author is using figurative language in the short story. Once the individual can understand this, the literature work will be significantly easier to do a compare and contrast essay.

    Read More

  • Nihilism In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

    1286 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Flannery O'Connor's Use of Religious Allegory

    2386 Words  | 5 Pages

    An ardent Catholic as she was, Flannery O’Connor astonishes and puzzles the readers of her most frequently compiled work, A Good Man Is Hard to Find. It is the violence, carnage, injustice and dark nooks of Christian beliefs of the characters that they consider so interesting yet shocking at the same time. The story abounds in Christian motifs, both easy and complicated to decipher. We do not find it conclusive that the world is governed by inevitable predestination or evil incorporated, though. A deeper meaning needs to be discovered in the text. The most astonishing passages in the story are those when the Grandmother is left face to face with the Misfit and they both discuss serious religious matters. But at the same time it is the most significant passage, for, despite its complexity, is a fine and concise message that O’Connor wishes to put forward. However odd it may seem, the story about the fatal trip (which possibly only the cat survives) offers interesting comments on the nature of the world, the shallowness of Christian beliefs and an endeavour to answer the question of how to deserve salvation.

    Read More

  • 9 To 5 The Musical Analysis

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    She is fairly new to the work world and has lied on her resume’ to get hired, and realizes that the job is harder than she first thought. All hope is not lost because Violet assures her that she can be trained. She ends up succeeding at the company and telling her husband she will not take him back after he comes back begging for her love again.

    Read More

  • Theme Of Dark Humor In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    865 Words  | 2 Pages

    In “Good Country People,” O’Connor effectively symbolizes Christian hypocrisy in her narrative. The same man who is selling bibles is the one who carries “a pocket flask of whisky and a pack of cards” (“Good Country People,” 289), in his hollowed-out bible. A bible salesman using a hollowed-out bible as storage for whisky represents those who use religion to cover up for their sins and achieve society’s approval. Additionally, in Revelation, a person’s name symbolizes the sole theme of the narrative. While Mrs. Turnip is busy denouncing other people’s appearances in the waiting room, a girl named Mary Grace exposes Mrs. Turnip for who she really is, and tells her to “go back to hell, where [she comes] from, [and calls Mrs. Turnip an] old wart hog” (“Revelation”, 21). Although Mrs. Turnip believes she is a noble person, Mary Grace symbolizes the need for grace in Mrs. Turnip’s life for her to become aware of the ugliness that lies beneath her beautiful face, and clean skin. Furthermore, symbolism is a significant element in “A Good Man Is Hard to Find.” The Misfit arrives in “a big black bettered hearse-like automobile” (“AMIHTF,” 6). The car designed to carry coffins, indicates and symbolizes the family’s death, and all the others that the Misfit

    Read More

  • Religion in the Works of Flannery O'Connor

    1982 Words  | 4 Pages

    Religion is a pervasive theme in most of the literary works of the late Georgia writer Flannery O'Connor. Four of her short stories in particular deal with the relationship between Christianity and society in the Southern Bible Belt: "A Good Man Is Hard to Find," "The River," "Good Country People," and "Revelation." Louis D. Rubin, Jr. believes that the mixture of "the primitive fundamentalism of her region, [and] the Roman Catholicism of her faith . . ." makes her religious fiction both well-refined and entertaining (70-71). O'Connor's stories give a grotesque and often stark vision of the clash between traditional Southern Christian values and the ever-changing social scene of the twentieth century. Three of the main religious ingredients that lend to this effect are the presence of divine meanings, revelations of God, and the struggle between the powers of Satan and God.

    Read More

  • Religion and Racism in A Good Man is Hard to Find and Everything that Rises Must Converge

    3390 Words  | 7 Pages

    Flannery O’Connor, undoubtedly one of the most well-read authors of the early 20th Century, had many strong themes deeply embedded within all her writings. Two of her most prominent and poignant themes were Christianity and racism. By analyzing, “A Good Man is Hard to Find” and “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” these two themes jump out at the reader. Growing up in the mid-1920’s in Georgia was a huge influence on O’Connor. Less than a decade before her birth, Georgia was much different than it was at her birth. Slaves labored tirelessly on their master’s plantations and were indeed a facet of everyday life. However, as the Civil War ended and Reconstruction began, slaves were not easily assimilated into Southern culture. Thus, O’Connor grew up in a highly racist area that mourned the fact that slaves were now to be treated as “equals.” In her everyday life in Georgia, O’Connor encountered countless citizens who were not shy in expressing their discontent toward the black race. This indeed was a guiding influence and inspiration in her fiction writing. The other guiding influence in her life that became a major theme in her writing was religion. Flannery O'Connor was born in Savannah, Georgia, the only child of a Catholic family. The region was part of the 'Christ-haunted' Bible belt of the Southern States. The spiritual heritage of the region profoundly shaped O'Connor's writing as described in her essay "The Catholic Novelist in the Protestant South" (1969). Many of her 32 short stories are inundated with Christ-like allusions and other references to her faith.

    Read More

  • Feed

    532 Words  | 2 Pages

    Violet has a deeper understanding of the society she lives in, and she also begins to question the corporations who run that society. When Violet was at the doctor’s she started to “think about things” (Anderson 80). In this particular scene, Violet sounds paranoid as she explains her thoughts, “Everything we do gets thrown into a big calculation. Like they’re watching us right now. They can tell you where you are looking.

    Read More

  • How Violence Brings Moment Of Grace Short Story

    1720 Words  | 4 Pages

    Violence, Humanity, Grace. These are three reoccurring themes throughout Flannery O’Connors short stories. As one looks at O’Connor’s stories one starts to see a pattern, or a similarity between each of the stories. One might describe it as “getting to know a personality” (Mays 419). As we focus on three stories, A Good Man is Hard to Find, Everything That Rises Must Converge, and “Good Country People”, by American fiction writer Flannery O’Connor we start to see distinct characteristics. O’Connor’s stories are set in the deep south where racism is often times prevalent. O’Connor’s characters often find themselves in difficult situations which can even be tragic. Most of her stories start out on a happier

    Read More

  • Good Country People

    856 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Flannery O’Connor’s stories, “Good Country People”, “Everything that Rises Must Converge”, ”A Good Man is Hard to Find”, and “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”, there are many similar characters and situations. Few, if any of the characters are likeable, and most of them are grotesque. Two of the stories have characters that view themselves as superior in one way or another to those around them, and in some cases these characters experience a downfall, illustrating the old proverb, “Pride goeth before a fall” (King James Bible ,Proverbs 16:18). Two of the stories include a character that has some type of disability, three of the stories showcase a very turbulent relationship between a parent and child, and three of the stories contain a character that could easily be described as evil.

    Read More

  • The Theme Of Good And Evil In A Good Man Is Hard To Find

    1075 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Flannery O 'Connor 's short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, the theme of good vs. evil unravels throughout the series of tragic events. The Grandmother’s epiphany introduces the idea of morality and the validity is left to the interpretation of the reader. By questioning the characteristics of right and wrong, morality and religion become subjective to personal reality and the idea of what makes individuals character good or bad becomes less defined.

    Read More

  • A Good Man Is Hard To Find By Flannery O Connor

    939 Words  | 2 Pages

    Flannery O’Connor was born in 1925 into “a prosperous Catholic family in Savannah, Georgia” (404). She wrote her first novel in New York, called “Wise Blood” in 1952. At only the age of 39, she became ill with an immune system disease called lupus and eventually died in 1964. Although she wrote a few novels, Flannery was “best known for her short stories collections”. Her short stories, like James Joyce, is seemed to be characterized in the theme “of gothic, grotesque tales,” but to some readers, she is a Christian writer. One of her short stories that she wrote that falls into the category of a Christian writing is “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”. As a reader, it is told that all humanities have sins but they are allow redemption through Jesus Christ. In other words, “God has the power to allow even bad people to go to heaven, which does by granting them grace” (Sparknotes.com). “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, thus falls into the category theme of Grace, Good and Evil.

    Read More

More about Religion In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

Open Document