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Good Country People Comparative Essay

543 Words3 Pages

Flannery O’Connor, in her short life, wrote one novel and many short stories that impact literature to this day. She wrote two superb short stories, A Good Man is Hard to Find and Good Country People, which have many similarities hidden in the theme of their complex text. While both stories include themes about religion, identity, and the way we view others, the endings are astoundingly different. Nonetheless, O’Connor’s main theme concerning the way we view other people, is the most significant in both short stories. In Good Country People, Mrs. Hopewell repeatedly states that the bible salesman is the “salt of the earth” meaning that he is just a good and simple country boy. Little does Mrs. Hopewell know, he is actually a thief who has been rambling around stealing artifacts from the country folk. The underlying theme about how Mrs. Hopewell views the bible salesman, …show more content…

Red Sammy starts to talk about two fellers who came into his smokehouse last week. The boys drove a descent car and looked alright to Sammy, causing him to allow them to fill up their gas tank on credit. Not only do they never end up paying Red Sammy, they cause him to lose trust and faith in people. Grandma tells Red Sammy that he is a good man, which furthermore depicts how easily the characters in O’Connor’s story are constantly judging and discerning people over small upfront factors. We even see this theme again in Good Country People. Hulga’s pessimistic view of the world is central to the story, allowing her to quickly judge the salesman for what he truly is when he pulls a flask out from inside the bible. This reoccurring theme, concerning our background and the way we judge people, must have been very important to O’Connor. Skillfully, O’Connor knits the theme into both short stories, miraculously basing the entire plot and characters around this central

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