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Love In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

890 Words4 Pages

There are many things that factor into reasons for loving someone. Often times when people think of reasons for loving someone, they only think about the immediate motives. People do not consider reasons outside the obvious. However, there are many hidden motives that cause people t love one another. Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” and William Shakespeare’s “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun”, show that love can be influenced by an ulterior motive, through the use of specific word choice and storyline twists.
In Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People”, the Bible salesman’s motive for wanting to get Hulga to fall in love with him was solely to steal her wooden leg. It is originally believed that Pointer likes Hulga for who she is. He is very persistent in trying to get her to love him. Readers are led to believe that Pointer is a Christian because he is going around selling Bibles. 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 …show more content…

William Shakespeare’s “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun” shows that ulterior motives for love can also refer to personality and non physical features of a person. Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” and William Shakespeare’s “My Mistress’ Eyes Are Nothing Like the Sun”, show that love can be influenced by an ulterior motive, through the use of specific word choice and storyline

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They kiss somewhat more and Manley at last takes Hulga 's leg. She gets furious, however Manley declines to return it. He opens up his Bible to uncover it 's holding bourbon and cards; things being what they are he is a trick craftsman and Manley Pointer isn 't his genuine name. Hulga gets angrier with him, yet Manley packs up his stuff and discloses to her that, in spite of her instruction, he, a basic book of scriptures businessperson, figured out how to trick her. He at that point keeps running off with her leg, abandoning her powerless in the

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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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213 Words | 1 Pages

Not only did Hulga’s wooden leg have a symbolic meaning in the story “Good Country People,” but also the imagery of her spectacles has a symbolic meaning as well. Her glasses symbolically represent the loss of vision and gaining of insight. At the beginning of the story, Hulga is wearing these glasses, which many of us tend to associate with being smart. However she does not gain insight until Manley removes her glasses. It is stated in “Good Country People”, “When her glasses got in his way, he took them off of her and slipped them into his pocket” (O’Conner 1350).

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515 Words | 3 Pages

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1083 Words | 5 Pages

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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786 Words | 4 Pages

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793 Words | 4 Pages

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868 Words | 4 Pages

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