Feminism and Historicism play a major part in Flannery O’Connor’s short story, “Good Country People”, first published in 1955. The story focuses on the importance of identity and the parallels between truth and deception. In “Good Country People”, the Hopewell family, maintain a small farm in rural Georgia with the help of tenants the Freemans. The pious Mrs. Hopewell’s mottos ‘nothing is perfect’ and ‘it takes all kinds to make the world’ are manifested in her unmarried thirty-two year old daughter, Joy who later changes her name to Hulga, wears a prosthetic wooden leg because of a childhood accident. Hulga who has a Ph.D. in Philosophy, cannot advance her academic aspirations because of a weak heart; because of this she must live in her childhood home with her mother. Regardless of her education, Hulga’s mother believes her daughter is completely nonsensical; Hulga’s true fault is that she is ignorant to her own surrounds. She personally finds the faith of her mother, and Mrs. Freeman, senseless because she see it as not authentic. Mrs. Hopewell and Hulga initially trust the traveling Bible salesman, Manley Pointer, who visits the farm; both believe that he is from “good country people”, but soon learn he is not.
The feminist element is an overarching theme in all of Flannery O’Connor’s works; it is imperative to note however that O’Connor did not want to be easily identified as a feminist, she wanted her characters not to deny their femininity but to “exploit it” sometimes to the point of a parody (Smith 35); she wanted her readers to “give credit” to her characters for “employing a clever strategy in attempting to survive in a man’s world” (Smith 35). With this, O’Connor provokes her readers to not only have compassion for ...
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... that there is not much separating her " it seemed to Mrs. Hopewell that every year [Joy/Hulga] grew less and less like other people and more like herself- bloated, rude, and squint-eyed” (O’Connor 154). O’Connor seems not to be separating mother and daughter, yet unifying them to share in the same fate.
Works Cited
Desmond, John F. "Flannery O'Connor and the Symbol." Logos: A Journal of Catholic Thought and Culture 5.2 (2002): 143-56. Print.
Schaum, Melita. ""Erasing Angel": The Lucifer-Trickster Figure in Flannery O'Connor's Short Fiction." The Southern Literary Journal 33.1 (Fall 2000): 1-26. Print.
Smith, Peter A. "Flannery O'Connor's Empowered Women." The Southern Literary Journal 26.2 (Spring, 1994): 35-47. Print.
Westling, Louise. "Flannery O'Connor's Mothers and Daughters." Twentieth Century Literature 24.4 (Winter, 1978): 510-22. Print.
Asals, Frederick. Flannery O'Connor : The Imagination of Extremity. University of Georgia Press; Reissue edition. Athens, Georgia, 2007.
McCarthy, John F. “Human Intelligence Versus Divine Truth: The Intellectual in Flannery O’Connor’s Works.” English Journal 55.9 (1966): 1143-1148. JSTOR. Web. 22 Nov. 2011.
Dumas, Jacky, and Jessica Hooten Wilson. "The Unrevealed In Flannery O'connor's 'Revelation'.(Critical Essay)." The Southern Literary Journal 2 (2013): 72. Academic OneFile. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” explores the consequences of hypocrisy and gullibility. O’Connor shows how this terrible combination of hypocrisy and gullibility can affect average families. She intergrades strict Roman Catholic upbringing into all of her character flaws. Every character in the story believes that they are on a higher moral ground, but none of them leads an ethical life. When in actuality, they are all hypocrites that claim they have the honor and higher moral values than they actually do. Throughout the story, the men illustrate the only receptive hypocrisy that is displayed, and the gullibility that is illustrated is by the women.
The story is center around a small cast. In it Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter Joy, who had her name changed to Hulga, live on a farm with their tenants Mrs. Freeman’s and her two daughters- Glynese and Carramae. Interestingly, Mrs. Hopewell calls the Freeman Girls, Glycerin and Caramel while refusing to call her own daughter anything but Joy. “Good County People”, is told through the interactions of this dysfunctional gaggle of ladies, and their chance encounter with the Bible selling con-artist Manley Pointer. It is a story of a few not so, “Good Country People.”
"Good Country People", by Flannery O’Connor, presents us with a look into the monotonous lives of three women living together on a rural farm. All three women are set in their old-fashioned ways, having experienced very little of life, out on the farm. A bible salesman named Manley Pointer, appearing like nothing more than simple, "good country people"(1), pays them a visit one day. It turns out that this simple countryboy is actually a brilliant con artist who scams the pretentious daughter, Hulga (also known as Joy) into removing her wooden leg, which he proceeds to steal. A great change in Hulga is triggered by her experience with Manley Pointer. Although it was a cruel scam, the bible salesman helps her to see the truth about her education and human nature. Hulga realizes that in addition to book smarts, people skills are also crucial in navigating the real world.
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.
A common aspect of Flannery O’Connor’s literary works is her use of heavily flawed characters. O’Connor’s characters often exhibit gothic and incongruous characteristics. O’Connor’s short story, “Good Country People,” is no exception to her traditional writing style with characters such as Hulga Hopewell, Mrs. Hopewell, Mrs. Freeman, and Manley Pointer. O’Connor uses gothic characterization and symbolism to produce a great short story about a few ruthless country people.
Cofer, Jordan. "Flannery O'connor's Role In Popular Culture: A Review Essay." Southern Quarterly 47.2 (2010): 140-157. OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). Web. 2 Nov. 2013.
O'Connor crafts the story so that the plot does not actually begin until insight into the characters has been provided. The limited omniscience persona of the narrative voice alternates between Joy and her mother, Mrs. Hopewell. The exposition provides an understanding of how the characters have developed the personality traits they possess when the drama begins to take place, which is on a Friday evening during the Spring sometime during the mid-1950s. The exposition demonstrates how Joy develops the social and philosophical assumptions that deeply affect the way she sees herself and relates to others.
Flannery O’Connor's perception of human nature is imprinted throughout her various works. This view is especially evident in the short stories, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find” and “Revelation.” She conveys a timeless message through the scope of two ignorant, southern, upper class women. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” O’Connor presents readers to a family who is going on a road trip with their selfish grandmother. She is a religious woman who does not follow the set standards that she preaches. Similar characteristics are exposed in “Revelation.” As the self centered Mrs. Turpin sits in the waiting room, she contemplates on her own status with God. Nevertheless, she still commits the sin of judging others. In both of O’Connor’s short stories, these controversial protagonists initially put up a facade in order to alienate themselves from their prospective societies. Although the grandmother and Mrs. Turpin both believe in God, O’Connor utilizes theme to expose that they also convince themselves that they can take on His role by placing judgement on people who, at the most fundamental level, are in the same category as them.
1) O’Connor, Flannery, A Good Man Is Hard to Find (Women Writers: Text & Contexts Series). Rutgers University Press, 1993.
Whitt, Margaret. Understanding Flannery O’Connor. Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1995. 47-48, 78. Print.
Web. . Margaret, Whitt. Understanding Flannery O’Connor . Ebook.
...sque, and in Flannery O’Connor’s artistic makeup there is not the slightest trace of sentimentally” (qtd. in Bloom 19). Flannery O’Connor’s style of writing challenges the reader to examine her work and grasp the meaning of her usage of symbols and imagery. Edward Kessler wrote about Flannery O’Connor’s writing style stating that “O’Connor’s writing does not represent the physical world but serves as her means of apprehending and understanding a power activating that world” (55). In order to fully understand her work one must research O’Connor and her background to be able to recognize her allegories throughout her stories. Her usage of religious symbols can best be studied by looking into her religious Catholic upbringing. Formalist criticism exists in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” through Flannery O’Connor’s use of plot, characterization, setting, and symbolism.