Use Of Tone In Flannery O Connor's Good Country People

Tone is developed by the author to allow the theme or point to stand out as the reader finishes the story. Flannery O’Connor uses tone to develop the theme throughout her story “Good Country People”. This story is essentially similar in the idea of the outlook and perspective of human nature. The outlook portrayed on human nature throughout her stories is broadly the generalization that human nature is a mystery within people. Basically, people are unpredictable at first glance, the more inspection and common sense used on a person’s behavior should reveal more about the person’s behavior. The general theme is used in O’Connor’s story mentioned. The tone develops the theme through the character’s dialogue, actions, and the gender roles of

Her attitude towards both men and women show the theme. O’Connor uses her thought that there is an absence of a male in the family to which the women become vulnerable to males because of the lack of a male in the family. Hulga, the woman who is naive and vulnerable, allows herself to be manipulated and robbed by a man. Needless to say, Hulga lives with all women, and O’Connor does not mention anything about Hulga’s father. The man being the sneaky bad guy usesing the innocent, naive girl. This point of the males being cruel and the women being used and naive show O’Connor’s attitude towards men and women. THough the women are portrayed as naive, it does not show her sympathy for them. She seems to find them irrational and un observative to not notice the intentions of this man. While all the women are naive, there is one woman who seems to be the outlier of the women; this would be Mrs. Freeman. Through Mrs. Freeman the reader can see that she uses her common sense more so to observe someone’s behavior. This shows more leniency towards the female by O’ Connor. Therefore, the gender roles in the story greatly portray the theme of human nature which is created through O’Connor’s use of the

Hulga does not react as though most people would to certain situations. Her shallow and non emotional responses are meant to show the lack of common sense Hulga has. More so than the lack of common sense, but also that Hulga was blindsided and vulnerable to Manley Pointer. As O’Connor does not give thoughts as to what Hulga thinks after Manley Pointer steals her prosthetic leg. The only thing shown is her action,” When she turned her churning face toward the opening,she saw his blue figure struggling successfully over the green speckled lake,(O’Connor pg.404).It shows her as a girl more than a woman who was fooled. Also, the same parallel can be made with Mrs.Hopewell her mother who react completely trusting to a