1. Joy changes her name to “Hulga” because she is acting in an act of rebellion to her mother. She knows her mother’s wants her to have a really pretty name and “Hulga” is the ugliest name Joy could think of that her mom will hate. Mrs. Hopewell is for sure that Hulga looked for that name until she finally found the ugliest name she could think of and after that Joy legalized it so it would be for sure certain. Hulga’s poor health keeps her at her home all the time. Hulga wants to leave home and really does not want to come back. She does not have a good relationship with her mother because Hulga is “too smart” for her family which breaks the bond between them. Since Hulga dislikes her mom she changed her name to make her mother even more mad at her.
2. There is something suspicious about Manley Pointer throughout the story. In the story he is nothing like a good country person because he
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In “Good Country People” the main theme would be education and appreciating the little things in life. Hulga/Joy which is the protagonist has spent many of her years in school. She’s earned a doctoral degree in philosophy, but since she does not have good health she has to live on her mother’s farm in Georgia. She thinks formal education makes people so smart they don’t have anything else to learn from someone who isn’t as smart. Because of this Hulga/ Joy looks at everyone around her, mainly her family as unintelligent beings. She thinks that she is no longer like them others around her because she is much smarter than them due to her education. Towards the end of the story Hulga meets a man named Manley. Manley shows her that’s he’s truly smarter than her and helps Hulga see the real reality. This teaches Hulga that even though you might be smarter than the people around you, you do not need to go blind of the fact that it’s the little things in life that matter. Also she learns that she is capable of learning new things every day and to not downgrade the people around