Religion In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

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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

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