Joy/Hulga In O Connor's Good Country People

Joy/Hulga from O’Connor’s short story “Good Country People” is a sarcastic and cynical protagonist, who claiming that she doesn’t believe in anything, as her mother, Mrs. Hopewell said to Manley, “My daughter is an atheist and won’t let me keep the Bible in the parlor.” (O’Connor 224) Also, Joy/Hulga tried to express herself to Manley as her being a strong, smart, and independent woman that only believe herself, “I don’t have illusions. I’m one of those people who see through to nothing”(O’Connor 231) However, at the end of the story, the readers can discovered that Joy/Hulga was just a weak innocent woman who failed to see the real world that is a mixture of good and evil and destroyed her belief through her lack of self-awareness that being used by Manley. Joy is thirty-two years old woman with an artificial leg who is highly educated with a doctorate degree in philosophy, and thinks that she is smarter and better than anybody else. The readers can find the evidence of Joy being arrogant from what O’Connor said about her, “If it had not been for this condition, she would be far from these red hills and good country people. She would be in a university lecturing to people who knew what she was talking about.”(O’Connor 223) The sentences

She would not use it. She continued to call her Joy to which the girl responded but in a purely mechanical way.” (O’Connor 222) The chasm between Hulga and her mother made Hulga to withdraw from establishing a good meaningful family relationship with her mother, and end up attached to a guy, Manley Pointer, really quickly later. Manley Pointer, the guy with important role as his name implies that he is going to “point” out something to change Hulga’s