Preview

Good Country People By Flannery O Connor

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
346 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Good Country People By Flannery O Connor
Flannery O’Connor’s “Good Country People” is a short story about the connection between one’s soul and life. The story centers around Hulga (Joy) Hopewell and the life-changing experience she has with a traveling Bible salesman (Meyer 265). As a whole, “Good Country People” shows how a person’s point of view can affect the experiences they have. At the beginning of the story, Mrs. Hopewell (Hulga’s mother) has a positive experience with the Bible salesman. As a southern woman who believes in “Chrustian service,” Mrs. Hopewell is receptive to Manley Pointer’s sales pitch (O’Connor). While she doesn’t purchase a Bible, she does invite the Manley to supper. As a kind, trusting woman, Mrs. Hopewell puts kindness and trust into the situation. In

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    In my opinion, Flannery O'Connor has decided to use “Good Country People” as the title of this short story because she wants it to be sarcasm. The title of the story is completely reverse to all the characters appearing in the story. All of them are not actually good country people at all. They are just some people who seem to be good. We can see how “Good Country People” is sarcasm by looking at each characters but in here I would like to give some examples of the characters that express the idea that “Good Country People” is real sarcasm.…

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    O'Connor's " Good Country People " is a story about the relationship between main character Joy who changes her name later and her mother Mrs. Hopewell, also people surrounding them. The other important characters are Mrs. Freeman who is hired by Mrs. Hopewell and Manley Pointer who deceits Joy by pretending "good country people".…

    • 545 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In James Joyce’s “Araby” and Flannery O’Conner’s “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” both authors direct the reader’s attention to a key moment of insight or discovery by building the readers expectations throughout the story and then surprising the reader with an ending where the main character contradicts the readers built expectations, thus highlighting the epiphany. Joyce directs the reader through the uses of setting and narration while O’Conner heavily uses dialogue.…

    • 1763 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the brilliant writing of the story “Good Country People” by Flannery O’Conner, it shows how people tend to use clichés in ways that make it easy for them to avoid thinking or seeing clearly. O’Conner develops naïve and close-minded as the main theme that connects with the characters Hulga, Mrs. Hopewell, and Mrs. Freeman because all three characters seem intelligent , but yet again can’t use their common sense in different levels.…

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In "Good Country People," Flannery O'Connor introduces the reader to Hulga Hopewell, a sullen thirty-two year old atheist, who embodies a complex mixture of unsympathetic and sympathetic traits. Hulga’s arrogant confidence that she is intellectually and morally superior to those around her characterizes her as unlikable and unsympathetic. She boldly wears her godless beliefs with little regard for offending those around her. As an illustration, she changes her beautiful name, Joy, to Hulga to spite her mother and considers the ugly name change "one of her major triumphs." She slyly manipulates Mrs. Freeman's rambling conversations to avoid answering her mother's questions about her interest in Manley Pointer, the phony Bible salesman.…

    • 182 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Many people hold destructive opinions without considering their full implications. Flannery O'Connor's "Good Country People" uses characterization, symbolism, and irony to warn people with a nihilistic philosophy of life that their beliefs will inevitably lead to ruin. In this story a young atheist woman is destroyed when she is brought face-to-face with the evil personification of her worldview.…

    • 1752 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Humor of Flannery Oconnor

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Flannery O’Connor has always liked to use various types of humor and irony in her stories centered around the dark, tragic, and uncomfortable ways of life. She uses these literary techniques to mask what she is truly trying to say. "Good Country People" by Flannery O 'Connor is a prime example of humor and irony which makes fun of the simple, intellectual, as well as the incongruous people in the world.…

    • 822 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Jennie Pascua Professor Michelle Johnson English 1B Summer Online July 31, 2014 Essay # 2 “The Lame Shall Enter First” The Power of Faith Human nature perceives good and evil as two different realms.…

    • 1807 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Flanner O’Conner’s “Good Country People” is a story that captivates the reader through her use of theme, imagery, and symbolism. Her main question is “what does it mean to be a good person?” In this story the meaning takes centers around how a “good person” leads a pious, Christian life. In contrasting the mindless gossip about “good country people”, O’Conner questions the significance of religious faith. O’Conner’s narrative style creates tension between the real world characters and the symbolic nature of their names, actions and words.…

    • 86 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Good Country People paper

    • 868 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Flannery O’Connor was an author born in the south in 1925. She was an author who “wrote from her experiences as a Roman Catholic raised in the Protestant South” (Flannery O’Connor). She is the author of the story “Good Country People”, published in 1955. O’Connor tells the story of a young girl named Hulga “Joy” Hopewell who is a well-educated girl, with a degree in philosophy, but is a very shy person and keeps to herself. Hulga is also a very misunderstood girl, mainly by her mother who in no way relates to Hulga. Hulga’s mother, Mrs. Hopewell, is a very self-centered person who seems to surround herself with and pity the people that she believes she is better than. Mrs. Hopewell is a judgmental person towards everyone she comes into contact with, even towards her own daughter. The relationship that is visible to the reader between this mother and daughter is not one that the reader may be accustomed to seeing. Love is not an easy thing to define, but some may say that a mother shows her love through her concern, her compassion, and her understanding towards her children. Mrs. Hopewell makes it clear to the reader that she does not understand her daughter and at the same time makes a solid case for the reader to infer that she does not love her daughter either.…

    • 868 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Creedence Clearwater Revival 's (CCR) song titled "Fortunate Son" is a powerful protest song that represents the out cry of a working class people seeing the conflict in Vietnam as a “rich man’s war and a poor man’s fight” (Goldberg 46). The Vietnam War spawned more than its fair share of protest records and at times it seems that the 1960’s antiwar movement became almost synonymous with 1960’s rock n ' roll; however, "Fortunate Son" may well have been the definitive antiwar anthem. John Fogerty uses imagery, repetition, idioms, and simile to demonstrate to the audience; class resentment, clashing worldviews, and assumptions about the nature of America 's place in the world.…

    • 1160 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    people who she thinks are inferior to her because of their simple ways, their religious…

    • 748 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Good Country People

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the short story” Good Country People” by Flannery O’Conner ,country people were thought of as hardworking ,honest, often referred to as “salt of the earth “but in reality even the best of good people have their flaws just like anyone else. In the story there are six different characters, and with each character’s name there is a lot revealed of their personalities.…

    • 561 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Salt of the Earth

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Flannery O 'Connor 's novels and stories are inhabited with unique and flawed characters who are the result of O’Connor 's satiric worldly perspective. While they are sometimes humorous, these misfits are usually unpleasant. Critics have termed them "grotesque," but O 'Connor has rejected this term because it suggests that the characters are too weird to belong in the real world. Instead, O 'Connor insists that the South is inhabited by many such people. For every good or evil thing, there is an antagonist or opposing force. One of Flannery O’Connor’s most successful stories, “Good Country People”addresses themes of this “good versus evil,” the possibility of redemption achieved through an encounter with violence, and the foolishness of intellectual pretensions.…

    • 1338 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Greed has consumed the lives of not only one, but two of the characters in "Good Country People". Joy Hulga Hopewell is an extremely selfish, egotistical and of course greedy character. She is crude to her mother in an extremely personal…

    • 1796 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays