Irony In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

Good Country People by Flannery O’Connor is an ironic tale that demonstrates the fact that there is no such thing as “good” or “bad”. Often these are the words used to characterize people, yet no one fits either extreme. No one is inherently evil. Instead, most people exhibit a combination of these characterizations. O’Connor presents this truth through the use of irony. The title Good Country People suggests that O’Connor is about to present a tale, in which the characters are exceptional people whose behavior the reader can potentially learn from to better his/her own life. However, Good Country People is infused with characters who display, so-called “good” traits, on the surface. Yet, an in-depth analysis of each character clearly

Hopewell’s daughter, displays deep anger and bitterness toward everyone she associates with. There are two reasons for her anger. The first is related to the health problems she is facing with her artificial leg and her heart condition. The second reason is because she believes that she is too intelligent for the people who surround her and she would rather be lecturing at a University with people who understand her; instead of remaining in the countryside with people that she deems are beneath her. In fact, her inability to teach at a University is probably the main cause of her anger because she never complains about her heart problems or her artificial leg, in fact she does not hesitate to prove to people that she can function as well as anyone else; as demonstrated when she climbed up the latter ahead of the Bible salesman. However she constantly speaks philosophical statements to her mother, which suggests that she has a bruised ego, because she is unable to teach despite the fact that she earned a Ph.D. in Philosophy. These are the reasons she expresses her annoyance by making unnecessarily loud noise with her wooden leg whenever she moves around and she directs random outbursts toward her mother for no specific