Good Country People Character Analysis Essay

In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “Good Country People” the protangonist, Joy, had mutual characteristics with each of the characters. Her and Mrs. Hopewell were both naïve to Manely Pointer’s true personality. Joy and Mrs. Freeman were both very serious people. Last her and Manely Pointer are both illusive, but for different reasons.
Joy, or Hulga’s, point of view is third person limited, the reader can see what Joy is thinking and feeling, but only at certain points in the story. Joy is a round character and changes from the beginning of the story to the end, at first she is a smart girl who did not trust many people, and by the end she was seducing Manely and wound up getting tricked into doing something she usually never does. She is an intelligent and innocent girl who has “never been kissed before”(448). Joy did not get along with people that well, and was easily annoyed by the people

At the beginning of the story he comes in being sweet and explains why he needs to raise money to Mrs. Hopewell and by the end he shows his true self. He is a master manipulator and knows how to take advantage of naïve people like Mrs. Hopewell. He makes Mrs. Hopewell feel bad for him by telling her he “got this heart condition, I may not live long” (443). As he continued to convince Mrs. Hopewell to buy a bible, he kept making she she knew that he was a good person, and that selling bibles is “the way you could do most for people” (444). He is a mysterious charcter; He hid when first meeting Joy, and brought his bibles and avoided answering her question directly as to why he brought them. Manely knows that Joy has never kissed a boy, so he was able to take better advantage of her. He makes Joy feel like she can trust him, so that he could get her leg. After he ran away with Joy’s leg he continued to act like a good person, and acted like he was just selling bibles when he saw Mrs. Hopewell at the end of the