Good Country People Thesis Statement

Flannery O’Connor’s Good Country People is a short story mostly centralized around a thirty-two year old woman named Joy. Joy works alongside her mother Mrs. Hopewell who owns a farm out in the boondocks of Georgia. Joy has a wooden leg due to a childhood accident. Joy has a strong belief in atheism and holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy. Due to the depressing life that Joy lives she finds that her name does not suit her characteristics whatsoever, she goes so far as to change her name to “Hulga”, a rather ugly name that her mother does not find very suitable. Joy tends to think very arrogantly in nearly every scenario she faces. She thinks she has a superior mind compared to everyone else. Her “superior mind” is tested when a bible salesman by the name of Manley Pointer shows up on Mrs. Hopewell’s door. Despite having no interest in purchasing bibles from Mr. Pointer, she still invites him in believing he is on of the “good country people” she is so fond of. As the bible salesman was he invites Joy to a picnic for the next day. Now Joy has never

Bernens has some strong criticizing words to say specifically about the book “A Good Man is Hard to Find.” His mane points revolve around his thesis statement, which he states, “Page by page I journeyed on, and by the time I had finished what was set before me, I could hardly bring myself to believe that this was the work of the greatest American Catholic author of the twentieth century”(Bernens). He does not slander O’Connor’s ability to write and acknowledges her incredible talent and intellect. He does state that in his opinion that he thinks she would of made a better philosopher than an author. He is not happy with the way such she treated such delicate subjects such as psychological pain and regret, he felt she could have gone done a less sensitive route. Bernens is not a fan of how a like her writing style is to James Joyce and Truman Capote; he finds there is and imbalance which breaks the substance of her