In other words, Mrs. Hopewell does not recognize the fact that Mrs. Freeman desires to know everything about Mrs. Hopewell’s life, instead Mrs. Hopewell perceives the lower class Mrs. Freeman as just desiring to work hard; hence, Mrs. Hopewell ’s sense of superiority causes her to become ignorant of Mrs. Freeman’s true intentions, alike to
This description of Mrs. Freeman shows that she is very inquisitive and will figure things out. Mrs. Freeman is very nosy and knows a lot of things other people don’t know. While this physiognomy provides a good description of Mrs. Freeman, she is not a very important character. One final example of physiognomy in “Good Country People” is Joy being described as “bloated, rude and squint-eyed” (O’Connor, “Good Country People”). This description shows that Joy feels that she is better than other people because she is more educated.
In modern day, some teenagers may be put into a conflict in which they cannot let their voice be heard. In the novel Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, her protagonist Melinda Sordino faces the same problem. In her character’s voice, she speaks as a shy, intimidated teen, which eventually branches out to woman of confidence and strength. With the use of diction and tone, Anderson is able to construct a developing voice for Melinda.
In “Good Country People”, O’Connor uses humor. The humor is found among the characters. She uses humor to create plot twists. The way the humor is set up ends in a tragic event.
Hopewell’s more manipulative side also highlights Hulga’s blindness, just like the cliche expressions. It becomes clear that Mrs.Hopewell portrays herself in a particular manner when it comes to her dialogue, especially through her frequent cliches. Internally, she is more calculating and opinionated. For instance, she is described as being “able to use other people’s [bad qualities] in such a constructive way” (O’Connor 281).
Mrs. Hopewell’s thoughts on her daughter’s actions are revealed through narrative monologue. On page 175, the narrator recounts Mrs. Hopewell’s negative feelings towards Hulga’s appearance stating: “she went about all day in a six-year-old skirt and a yellow sweat shirt with a faded cowboy on a horse embossed on it.” On page 175, the narrator details Mrs. Hopewell’s opinions on Hulga’s manners stating “It seems to Mrs. Hopewell that every year she grew less like other people and more like herself - bloated, rude and squint-eyes. And she said such strange things!” (176).
Mrs. Freeman is a servant at her house, who is known as the nosiest woman on earth as people say. Still Mrs. Hopewell thinks she will put her on charge of everything and use her weakness in a constructive way that she would never feel the lack. It is her blindness that leads her to an unpleasant manipulation by the Bible salesman Manley Pointer. She believes she has no bad qualities, making her
In Susan Glaspell’s short story, A Jury of her Peers, Mrs. Peters is torn between siding with her husband, the sheriff, or Mrs. Hale, a fellow woman in town. Although Mr. Peters is pressuring her to keep a look out for something that will help convict Minnie Foster for the murder of her husband, Mrs. Hale is also putting pressure on her to stick up for her own kind, accentuating the commonalities the women share. Mrs. Hale is not the most polite of women, rifling through Minnie’s things as the men search the house for clues, yet the men are far ruder in their comb of the place, constantly generalizing women and putting them down as a whole. Ultimately, Mrs. Peters instinctively unites with Mrs. Hale upon discovering the throttled canary in order to avoid condemning a woman whose shoes she has walked in.
In Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People”, O’Connor utilizes the relationship of Mrs. Hopewell and her daughter, Joy, or Hulga, as a representation and critique of the lack of self-awareness in society. To do so, O’Connor presents the sense of superiority each character possesses over the other, resulting them to not question their own self. In doing so, O’Connor challenges the common perceptions of society in never questioning one’s self, leading hypocrisy to become rapid amongst individuals. Through examining the relationship between the characters of Mrs. Hopewell and Hulga in regards to: both characters viewing themselves to be dissimilar, their sense of superiority over the other, the ironic similarity they share, and their hypocrisy,
Looks Are Not Always As They Seem In Flannery O’ Connors story “ Good Country People,” the author leaves the story for the reader to interpret the different true and underlying meanings. The reader can understand, after reading this story, that the looks of the main characters can be very deceiving. Joy, better known as Hulga, and Manly Pointers appearance at the beginning of the story varies greatly to the people that we realize that these same people are by the end. Joy is the daughter of Mrs. Hopewell.
The story keeps on demonstrating that Alan is persuaded independent from anyone else love by his ability to seek after affection through guile. The setting of the story fits giving the inclination that something misleading is going to happen. He goes into an old working to work with an un-named old man. Collier gives the inclination that Austen is in a spot where he ought not be. The anonymous old man offers a mixture that Alan can provide for Diana without her taking note.
Flannery O’Connor expresses the theme of pride in her short stories, “Good Country People”, “The Life You Save May Be Your Own”, and “The Displaced Person”. Hulga Hopewell thinks she is above Manley Pointer and can out smart him. Mr. Shiftlet claims everyone else is slime and should b washed away when in reality it is him who is slime. Mrs. McIntyre watches a worker get killed to save herself the trouble of firing him.
In Flannery O’Conner’s story, “A Good Man Is Hard to Find”, there is no one character who is a good person. In fact, there is one character who is very rude, is insistent on needing attention, and has no regard for her own safety. June Starr in “A Good Man is Hard to Find” is a bad person who has qualities that, when approached properly, give her the capacity to become good. June Star is not what most people would call a good little girl, she complains, is rude,
The characters have dysfunctional families that portray vast age gaps and generational divides. This family dynamic sets the stage for a clash of Old V.s New south as the elderly glorify the past and their children pose a threat to their traditional institutions with their modern beliefs. First, I will create a foundation to define and compare Old South vs. New South within the context of O’Connor’s stories. Then, I will discuss the flawed families in two of O’Connor’s short stories Good Country People and Everything That Rises Must Converge. Lastly, I will evaluate the effect of both generations when facing adversity and apply some of O’Connor’s themes to modern day contexts.
The play An Ideal Husband was written by Oscar Wilde in 1895 in England’s Victorian era. This era was characterised by sexual anarchy amongst men and women where the stringent boundaries that delineated the roles of both men and women were continually being challenged by threatening figures such as the New Woman represented by Mrs Cheveley and dandies such as Lord Goring(Showalter, 3). An Ideal Husband ultimately affirms Lord Goring’s notions about the inequality of the sexes because of the evident limitations placed on the mutability of identity for female characters versus their male counterparts (Madden, 5). These limitations will be further elaborated upon in the context of the patriarchal aspects of Victorian society which contributed to the failed attempts of blackmail by Mrs Cheveley, the manner in which women are trapped by their past and their delineated role of an “angel of truth and goodness” (Powell, 89).
