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Joy/Hulga In O Connor's Good Country People

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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 …show more content…

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

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Hulga appreciates Mrs. Freeman because she helps her distinguish a more realistic view life and the world, rather than following the same old good Christian

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Joy/Hulga affects a cynical façade, claiming not to believe in anything. (As she tells Manley, "I don 't have illusions. I 'm one of those people who sees through to nothing.") Yet by the end of the story, Joy/Hulga 's carefully constructed façade is shattered; through the dramatic irony in her absence of self-awareness to the situational irony pervading the final scene, O 'Connor ultimately reveals Joy/Hulga as an innocent who is shocked when she witnesses the beliefs she once espoused as embodied in Manley

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(12). This illustrates how Hulga has had no romantic interactions in her life and is now having her first kiss at the age of 32 with Manley Pointer. Because Pointer was the first person to show interest in Hulga, she allowed herself to be vulnerable to him, and he used that to exploit her. During her childhood and adulthood, she was always looked at with pity and faced judgment and rejection, whether that be her appearance, strength, or attitude by doctors, peers, or her family. In the article, Mrs. Hopewell expresses her pity for Hulga stating “She thought of her [Hulga] still as a child because it tore her heart to think instead of the poor stout girl in her thirties who had never danced a step or had any normal good times.”

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In Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People”, O’Connor utilizes the analogy of good country people as a representation and critique of the ignorance of society. To do so, O’Connor presents the sense of superiority certain characters possess, resulting in them becoming ignorant to the truth of the world that is around them. In doing so, O’Connor challenges common perceptions of society in never questioning those who appear inferior to one, yet are still capable of unimaginable things. Through the examination of the characters of Mrs. Hopewell and Joy, or Hulga, and their interactions with good country people in Mrs. Freeman and Manley Pointer, superiority will be shown to cause one to become ignorant of the true nature of others; hence, leading

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Throughout the story she places judgement, she lies and manipulates her family, and she proves to only care for herself. She does all of this while claiming to be a lady, and holding herself is higher regard than everyone else around her. She continually shows that she is not lady, and she is also doing the things that she looks down upon other for, This is an example of a true hypocrite. Another shining example of her hypocrisy is shown when she brings up religion when speaking to The Misfit. “Do you ever pray?(258).”

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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.

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She uses the term good country people and “nice young men” (page 3) as insults to keep those types of people at arm’s length due to her insecurity; Manly Pointer could be described by both of those terms. When Hulga’s mother calls Manly the salt of the earth as a reference to him being a good country person she makes a rude remark about getting “rid of the salt of the earth” (page 4) so she could eat. Then during the meal she ignored him because she doesn’t believe that he is worth her time, but still observes “sideways how he handled his knife and fork” (page 5) like he is a science experiment and she is recording her data not observing him as a person of equal stature. All of these actions show the reader that Hugla does not partake in real life but prefers her make believe land where all of her assumptions are right before interacting with anyone or anything. When she does this to Manly Pointer it allows him to figure out what he needs to be to contribute to her needs without her getting in the

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Joy’s mother, Mrs. Hopewell, states that it is hard to think of her daughter as an adult, and that Joy’s prosthetic leg has kept her from experiencing “any normal good times” that people her age have experienced (O’Connor 3). Despite the fact that Joy has no experience with people outside of her home, Joy has contempt and spite around her mother and acquaintances alike. In fact, when Joy changed her name to Hulga, she considered it “her highest creative act” and found a self-serving pleasure when the name brought dissatisfaction to her mother (O’Connor 3). When Joy expresses her disgust with her hometown, she also shares that she would much rather be “lecturing to people who knew what she was talking about” (O’Connor 4). Therefore, Joy suggests that the people and ideas that have surrounded her are inferior to her intelligence, and this

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Another character that adds to the story’s situational irony is Hulga’s mother, Mrs. Hopewell. Her name alone is also a symbol for irony. It is a name used to show a person who would provide a life of hope for her unhappy daughter. Although her name may mean hope, she is constantly putting down her child and turning away her suitors. She gives no hope to her daughter at

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It is not until the very end of the story that readers are shown the true character of Manley Pointer. It is possible that the motive for stealing Hulga’s leg is that Mrs. Freeman hired the Bible salesman to steal the artificial leg from her. “Something about her seemed to fascinate Mrs. Freeman and then one day Hulga realized that it was the artificial leg” (O’connor 436). It is interesting that

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“Without the leg she felt entirely dependent on him” (O’Connor 17). When Hulga has her wooden leg she is seen as this person who has stability and is strong, but it all goes away when her leg is taken. However, Hulga is unable to embrace her true identity and instead tries to escape it through her intellectual pursuits and philosophical beliefs. She must re-evaluate her values and beliefs as she grapples with the complexity of her own identity and the masks she wears to fit into society's expectations. Through this journey, she discovers the true nature of her own character and comes to understand her place in the

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Furthermore, in the short story Sadie and Maud, it describe how a woman who did not make the politically correct decisions for her life but was still happy. Sadie was a free spirited woman who was happy about her life. According to the story, “Sadie did not go to college,” but she still was able to provide for herself. Sadie enjoyed what life had to offer. She may have been content on what she had, but she was happy.

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“...The hunting accident...the leg had been literally blasted off” (O’Connor 484), this sentence mentioned by the author symbolizes Hulga’s personality, because when something very valuable is taken away from someone and they are aware of it, but are not able to react to it, it could change a person drastically. Hulga could have been a totally different women if she had her leg, that’s why the author decided to give her a wooden leg. In the story the author mentions how Hulga does not care about her appearance at all. When she goes on a date with Manley Pointer she wears a dirty white shirt, applies Vapex as perfume, and never smiles. “...

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