Temptation In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

St. Cyril of Jerusalem once said, “The dragon is by the side of the road, watching those who pass. Beware lest he devour you. We go to the father of souls, but it is necessary to pass by the dragon.” The dragon is a symbol of temptation, always present, always watching. People will either fall into temptation or have to avoid and deny it. This symbolism of temptation is portrayed in many of Flannery O’Connor’s short stories. Pride and vanity are visible in Hulga in “Good Country People,” General Sash in “A Late Encounter with the Enemy,” and Mrs. McIntyre in “The Displaced Person.”
Hulga is a perfect example of pride and vanity in “Good Country People.” She received a PhD in philosophy which leads her to believe she is better than everyone she is around. When Manley Pointer, a Christian man, came to

her house attempting to sell bibles, she confirmed her vain characteristics to be true, “Joy had given him one look on being introduced to him and then throughout the meal had not glanced at him again” (O’Conner 189). While Hulga believes she is smarter, wiser, and superior to the bible salesman, she proves to be naive when she allows the man to take advantage of her. Because Hulga fell into the temptation of vanity, she expected to be able to use Manley for her own pleasure. Manley was able to deceive Hulga by playing the unscholarly, innocent boy she believed he was; upon getting what he wanted, he left her helpless and alone. While Hulga was the symbol of temptation through her vanity in this story, the same quality is seen in General Sash.
General Sash in, “A Late Encounter with the Enemy,” is a conceited, narcissistic man. He believes everyone, especially woman, is in love with him. While his daughter had always hoped for him to sit on the stage at her graduation, he saw no enjoyment in this. The General only desired to be in public so that everyone may get the chance to see him. Although all the attention should be placed on the graduates during graduation, General Sash was seeking all the attention, “He was very angry that he had not got to say how glad he was to be here for this event and on the way back to his seat, he kept saying as loud as he could, ‘I’m glad to be here at this preemie with all these beautiful guls’” (O’Conner 168). However, the General ends up dying on stage during the ceremony. He believed everyone loved him, but really, no one even noticed when he died. He was sitting on the stage for all to see, and not a single person noticed. General Sash was a symbol of temptation with his characteristic of vanity; Mrs. McIntyre is also a symbol of temptation with her prevalent attribute of pride.
Mrs. McIntyre has an extremely strong sense of pride. She uses her farm hands one after the other, firing Mr. Shortly when she feels Mr. Guazic works more diligently. However, once she discovers Mr. Gauzic is attempting to move his cousin into the U.S. by having her marry an African American she becomes appalled with him. Mrs. McIntyre shows no concern for farm hands’ well being; she planned to fire Mr. Gauzic right before she allows his murder to take place. She says nothing, does nothing to stop Mr. Gauzic from being killed, but rather watches as a tractor runs over his spine. After the murder, Mr. Shortly left Mrs. McIntyre; she was alone and became extremely ill. Mrs. McIntyre went from abusing her power over people because of her pride, to being all alone, “Not many people remembered to come out to the country to see her except the old priest” (O’Connor 265). She had no one to control, no one to look down upon; she was too arrogant to care for her farm hands, and now no one cares for her. The only person she had was a priest speaking to her once a week about the Doctrines of the Church. Mrs. McIntyre’s attribute of pride made her the perfect symbol of temptation in “The Displaced Person.”
Temptation is symbolic through vanity and pride in many of O’Connor’s short stories.

Hulga in “Good Country People” so strongly believed that she was not only smarter than everyone, but better than everyone. Her sense of pride and vanity led her to be tricked by a man she assumed she could take advantage of. General Sash in “A Late Encounter with the Enemy” thought everyone around him was in love with him; that he should be the center of attention. However, when the most significant moment of his life happens, his dying, no one around him notices. The pride he had in himself was not shared among other people, and he was too vain to notice. Mrs. McIntyre in “The Displaced Person,” was extremely prideful, she thought she could do as she please and not care about the consequences it had on other people’s lives. When she could no longer manipulate people, her pride had gotten the best of her, no one was present for her in her time of need, just as she was not present for others in their time of need. Each of these characters shares the characteristics of vanity and pride; each of them is the perfect symbol of temptation, the dragon, in the short stories by Flannery

O’Connor.