Flannery O'Connor's short story "Good Country People" centers on a character named Hulga, a thirty-two-year-old woman with a PhD in philosophy who has undergone a leg amputation and now lives with her mother on a farm in the rural South. Despite her intelligence and education, Hulga is deeply cynical and unhappy, believing that the world is full of "good country people" who are "all fools."
The story begins with the arrival of a traveling Bible salesman named Manley Pointer, who introduces himself to Hulga and her mother as a "good country boy." Hulga is immediately skeptical of Manley's intentions and his seeming lack of intelligence, but her mother is taken in by his charm and invites him to stay for dinner.
As the story progresses, it becomes clear that Manley is not the simple-minded "good country boy" he pretends to be. He is actually a con artist who has come to the farm with the intention of stealing Hulga's wooden leg. To this end, he flatters Hulga and plays on her ego, pretending to be interested in her intellect and her philosophy.
Despite her initial skepticism, Hulga is eventually taken in by Manley's charms and agrees to go for a walk with him. During their walk, Manley tricks Hulga into revealing the location of her wooden leg and then steals it, leaving her stranded in the woods.
The story ends with Hulga returning to the farm, now humbled and forced to confront the reality of her own cynicism and the flaws in her worldview. She realizes that she has been a "good country person" herself, filled with pride and self-righteousness, and that it is only through humility and compassion that she can hope to find happiness.
Overall, "Good Country People" is a thought-provoking and deeply satirical story that challenges readers to question their own assumptions about intelligence, morality, and the true nature of "good" people. Through the character of Hulga, O'Connor highlights the dangers of pride and self-righteousness, and the importance of humility and compassion in living a meaningful and fulfilling life.
Good Country People by Flannery O’Connor Plot Summary
The girl gave him a contemptuous look and putting both hands on the ladder, she climbed it while he stood below, apparently awestruck. Hulga, being arrogant and full of self-pride, believes she can show Manley the absolute truth, or at least the one she believes. Very gently he began to roll the slack leg up. The narrator describes her through the eyes of her mother, Mrs. THIS PRODUCT TO BE USED ONLY FOR THE PREVENTION OF DISEASE, she read, and dropped it. When she reached the gate no one was there. Hopewell invited him inside, and he explained that he was there to sell bibles that he kept in a valise.
“Good Country People”: Role of Religion and Critical Thinking: [Essay Example], 876 words GradesFixer
He stopped and pointed, with a smile, to the deck of cards. She walked on and in a second he was bouncing at her side, fanning with his hat. I want to devote my life to Chrustian service. She seldom used the other expression because it was not often necessary for her to retract a statement, but when she did, her face came to a complete stop, there was an almost imperceptible movement of her black eyes, during which they seemed to be receding, and then the observer would see that Mrs. He mumbled about loving her and about knowing when he first seen her that he loved her, but the mumbling was like the sleepy fretting of a child being put to sleep by his mother. Hulga had heard Mrs. She said he owned a '55 Mercury but that Glynese said she would rather marry a man with only a '36 Plymouth who would be married by a preacher.
The Necessity of Disability in “Good Country People” and “The Lame Shall Enter First” on JSTOR
At first she had thought she could not stand Mrs. It was a large two-story barn, cool and dark inside. It seemed to Mrs. Freeman went on, "and she told him she wasn't going to be married in no office. It was not an ordinary deck but one with an obscene picture on the back of each card. Glynese, a redhead, was eighteen and had many admirers; Carramae, a blonde, was only fifteen but already married and pregnant. During the date, he persuades her to go up into the barn loft where he persuades her to remove her prosthetic leg and takes her glasses.
